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DENTISTRY

324. To meet Hong Kong's need for more dentists, Government awards annually seven scholarships to candidates selected by a Com- mittee consisting of members of the Department and of the University. By the end of March 1961, there were thirty five Government dental scholars studying in Australian Universities; six scholarship students returned to Hong Kong having graduated as Bachelors of Dental Surgery in the University of Malaya,

325. Three dental nurses assumed duty in Hong Kong after training overseas, two in New Zealand and one in Penang; no student dental nurses were sent for training during the year. The role of the Dental Nurse is to carry out preventive and minor operative work under the supervision of a Dental Officer and so enable the dental surgeons to concentrate on the major aspects of conservative and curative dentistry.

NURSES

326. One of the major events of the year was the opening by His Excellency the Governor in September 1960, of the Sisters" and Nurses' Quarters and the School of Nursing at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It is anticipated that during the next five years an output of 120 trained nurses each year will be required to staff the new hospitals and clinics planned or under construction. This new School has doubled the Government facilities for the training of nurses, the other Nurses' Preliminary Training School remaining at the Queen Mary Hospital.

327. The new School of Nursing is a two-storied building connecting the nurses' quarters and the sisters' quarters for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It contains two air-conditioned lecture theatres, two model wards, a diet kitchen, libraries and study rooms and it is equipped with all modern teaching aids.

328. There is full reciprocity of registration between the Nursing Board in Hong Kong and the General Nursing Council of England and Wales. In Government hospitals the medium of instruction is English, white in the other approved nurses' training schools, which are at the Tung Wah Hospitals, the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, the teaching is carried out in Chinese. Each year a number of qualified nurses go overseas to gain further experience in different aspects of nursing.

329. At the Castle Peak Hospital a course of training for the Registered Mental Nurse Certificate of the Nursing Board is conducted

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by a qualified Tutor. However, female applicants for training in Psychiatric Nursing have been very few, largely due to prejudice and a lack of understanding of modern mental hospital techniques.

MIDWIVES

330. Registered general nurses who have trained in the Government Schools of Nursing are expected to proceed to a one-year course in midwifery, conducted in English as the teaching medium. in the matemity wards of the Queen Mary and Kowloon Hospitals. Nurses who have trained in the other approved training schools can also take a similar course, conducted in Chinese, in the maternity wards of their respective hospitals.

331. For student midwives who are not registered nurses there is a two-year training course conducted in Chinese by Government staff at the Tsan Yuk Hospital.

HEALTH VISITORS

332. As in previous years. a course of training was held at the Harcourt Health Centre for ten student Health Visitors. Each entrant to this course has previously obtained qualifications both in general nursing and in midwifery. After one year's tuition and study, the students take the examination for the Health Visitor's Certificate which is conducted by the Hong Kong Examination Board of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.

RADIOGRAPHERS

333. The training for radiographers at the Queen Mary Hospital in radiodiagnosis is recognized by the Society of Radiographers in the United Kingdom. Examinations for both Parts I and II of the Member- ship of the Society have been held annually in the Colony for a number of years.

LABORATORY TECHNICIANS

334. The Government Institute of Pathology is recognized by the Institute of Medical Laboratory Technology in the United Kingdom as a teaching laboratory from which entrance can be gained directly to the Intermediate examination of the Institute. Up to and including 1960, it has been necessary for the students to go to the United Kingdom to sit this examination and to subsequently undergo a further period of instruction there for qualification for entrance to the Associateship

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