7. In spite of these emergency measures, the pressure on general hospital beds is likely to continue, especially on the Kowloon peninsula, until the major projects of the Queen Elizabeth and the new Kwong Wah Hospitals, now under construction, are completed in 1963. On Hong Kong Island, an extension of 180 beds has been planned for the Queen Mary Hospital and building is expected to begin in 1962. Planning is now in progress for other major hospital projects designed to be complementary to the two main acute and specialist bospitals, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. Paragraph 347 gives details of the immediate building programme in hand.
8. Despite the problems and anxieties arising from the shortage of general hospital beds, the year 1960-61 was an encouraging one in the field of hospital construction. In March 1961 the Castle Peak Hospital of 1,000 beds for mental patients was opened by His Excellency the Governor. This modern psychiatric hospital replaces the old, unsuit- able and extremely overcrowded Victoria Mental Hospital. It gives, in relation to the over-all needs. a more realistic ratio of beds for the increasing incidence of mental disease which can be expected in a rapidly-expanding industrial centre such as Hong Kong is to-day. The opening of this bospital has coincided with the introduction of the Mental Health Ordinance, 1960, which incorporates the liberal concepts of present-day management of psychiatric cases and their treatment,
Other major hospital developments were also completed. The construction of a new permanent wing, incorporating two surgical wards, a suite of four operating theatres and a new kitchen were completed at Kowloon Hospital. These additions will facilitate the conversion of this institution to a centre for the rehabilitation of trauma and orthopaedic cases and for tuberculosis cases in Kowloon when its present function as the main acute hospital for the mainland part of the Colony is assumed in 1963 by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The School of Nursing and the Sisters and Nurses Quarters for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital were opened in September, 1960 by His Excellency the Governor. By the end of the year the foundations of the Hospital itself had been completed and work on the superstructure will begin in June 1961.
10. Amongst the Government subsidized hospitals phase two of the rebuilding of the Kwong Wah Hospital in Kowloon was opened in March 1960 by the Hon, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the construction of phase three was well under way by the end of the year.
In the New Territories an extension to the Pok Oi Hospital at Yuen Long was opened by His Excellency the Governor in February 1961. 11. At South Lantau a small Government cottage hospital designed to serve the Shek Pik Reservoir construction workers and the villagers in that area was opened in June 1960.
12. Forward planning has naturally taken account of out-patient, as well as of in-patient, needs and during the year a number of clinics were completed which fit into a programme designed to provide essential out-patient medical facilities sited in relation to population needs. Once again a grateful tribute is paid to the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose keen and practical interest in the provision of finance for welfare services in the Colany has resulted in the con- struction, amongst others, of a number of medical projects, three of which were completed during 1960.
13. A full list of projects completed and being planned is given in paragraph 347 of this report.
14. The considerable expansion in hand is only possible if the programme of staff training is geared to meet the demands of the future. In the medical field, the training of clinical specialists for major pro- jects now under construction is proceeding smoothly, but the recruit- ment of medical officers for general duties, especially in more remote areas and for certain other branches of the service, gives cause for concern. The holding of examinations in Hong Kong during the past three years by the Society of Apothecaries in London, with the approval of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, has resulted in 126 refugee doctors gaining a qualification registrable with the Medical Council of Hong Kong. The sympathetic and generous assis- tance given by the Society in dealing with this problem is gratefully acknowledged. For future needs the University of Hong Kong, now celebrating its Golden Jubilee, has plans in hand for an expansion of the Faculty of Medicine, which aim at an increasing output of doctors to a maximum of 80 each year by 1968.
15. Government facilities for the training of nurses have been doubled by the opening of the Queen Elizabeth School of Nursing and it is anticipated that the requirements for general nurses and midwives for the next five years can be met. A course of training leading to the Registered Mental Nurse Certificate of the Hong Kong Nursing Board has been established at the Castle Peak Hospital.
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