TNAG-2989-FCO40-3575-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-talks-betwee-1992 — Page 112

-we will establish seven health centres for the elderly. These centres will provide screening and other primary health care services for 700 000 people aged 65 and above;

we will establish three "well-woman" clinics to provide primary health care, including gynaecological examinations and screening, to women, especially some 320 000 aged 45 and above;

A Pledge on Mental Illness

57. I have left till last a group of patients who, throughout the world, are too often neglected or abandoned. Mental illness is a marked feature of urban life in this century. In Hong Kong we must try to do better for this vulnerable group of our fellow citizens. The doctors and nurses who have made it their vocation to serve the mentally ill, together with the patients themselves and their families, must be given the facilities they need for the effective and humane treatment of psychiatric illness.

58. Between now and 1997:

we will attack the intolerable overcrowding at Castle Peak Hospital. With the generous help of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, 800 new beds will be provided;

almost 900 additional beds will be provided for psychiatric patients in other hospitals;

demand for places in half-way houses and long-stay care homes will be met in full;

-professional teams will be set up to treat the mentally ill in the community. They will enable us to halve the current waiting time for psychiatric rehabilitation. The first team will be set up next year, and will specialise in caring for elderly mental patients in the community.

RELIEF FROM THE HOUSING SQUEEZE

59. Housing continues to be a major claim on our resources. More and more families want to progress from being rent-paying tenants to owner-occupiers.

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