X1000306-1964-65_Part01 — Page 24

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OUT-PATIENT SERVICES

112. Pressure remained heavy throughout the year on all general out- patient clinics and also on most specialized ones, although there was a further reduction in attendances at tuberculosis clinics. Trends during the past ten years are shown in Figure 15.

ATTENDANCES IN MILLIONS

-

FIGURE 13

OUT-PATIENT ATTENDANCES 1955-6

1906

1953

1960

YEAR

1964

New Cases

Repent allendances

113. New facilities which became available during the year are detailed in paragraphs 163 to 165 of this report.

114. In addition to general out-patient services, regular out-patient sessions were maintained at a number of clinics by staff of specialized units. Evening and public holiday out-patient sessions continued to be held at certain clinics in the more densely-populated areas. The more remote areas of the New Territories were served by two mobile dispen- saries and two 'floating clinics', but the flying doctor' service to more isolated and inaccessible villages was interrupted by an accident to the helicopter.

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SPECIALIST SERVICES

115. There are Government Specialist Clinical Units of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthesiology, dentistry, neuro- surgery, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, pathology. paediatrics, psychiatry, radiodiagnosis, radiotherapy, social hygiene, thoracic surgery and tuberculosis. In addition, the Professors and certain Senior Lecturers of the University Faculty of Medicine act as Consultants in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ortho- paedics, pathology and paediatrics. Certain of the Government Specialists act as Honorary Consultants to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and others give part-time services as lecturers in the Faculty of Medicine.

RADIOLOGICAL SERVICES

116. The major event during the year was the opening on June 30th, 1964, of the Jockey Club Institute of Radiology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This institute not only provides modern and specialized radio- diagnostic facilities for the hospital but also includes a large radiothera- peutic unit equipped with two 6-million volt linear accelerators, one 5-to-35-million-volt betatron, physics laboratories and workshops.

Radiodiagnostic Division

117. A new X-ray department was opened in the Jockey Club Clinic, Shau Kei Wan, in October. 1964. The total number of patients examined by the division rose by approximately twenty-five per cent during the year, while the number of films taken rose by 5.5%.

Radiotherapeutic Division

118. With the opening of the Jockey Club Institute of Radiology, the headquarters of this division was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital: Not only is the Institute equipped with the machines mention- ed previously, but there are also adequate stocks of radium and of radio-isotopes for both diagnostic and therapeutic usage.

OPHTHALMOLOGY

119. This service maintains two full-time centres with surgical facilities, one on Hong Kong Island and one in Kowloon, and in addition holds regular sessions at out-patient clinics in turban and rural areas. Eighty per cent of operations were performed on an out-patient basis,

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