TNAG-1856-FCO40-2631-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 178

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

28 June 1989

香港立法局—————————一九八九年六月二十八日

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protection against discontinuance of employment of pregnant and nursing

mothers. This has of course improved.

Breast feeding and maternal bonding go far in preventing paediatric ill

health from such causes as gastroenteritis and child abuse.

In education, the public should be educated to raise their standards of knowledge in child health and disease. Deficient areas are particularly in the importance of breast feeding, prevention of childhood accidents, the acceptance and needs of the handicapped child, childhood nutrition and many more.

With education, we can correct such misconceptions as the apparent convenience and safety of cows' milk feeding, blind permission to children to experience their environment being the best way to prevent accidents, shame and hopelessness in having a handicapped child, and protein-containing foods being too "rich" for their infants.

To improve child health services, the deficiencies must first be looked into and the following carried out:

1.

We must be more considerate to the sick child. As far as possible, a sick child should be nursed in an atmosphere or environment which will least disturb his emotional and physical development. What could be better than to have a paediatric general hospital for Hong Kong? This would serve as a "centre of excellence" which would set a standard for all other paediatric facilities to follow, and in which medical students would be able to see hospital paediatrics practised at their best.

2. Certain standards should be set for the care of the sick child by an

independent panel of paediatricians (Hong Kong Paediatric Society Committee on the Standards of Child Health Services).

3. Such standards must be recognized and therefore enforced by the Medical and Health Department in all three sectors of paediatric services in Hong Kong, namely, government, government subvented and private sector.

4.

And lastly, to upgrade the standards of the child health services, the same panel should constantly review their adequacy through monitoring the diseases of childhood and their causes and by receiving feed-back from medical and paramedical workers.