while increased availability of beds due to the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital enabled waiting lists to be reduced to almost negligible proportions.
120. During the year, 423 persons were registered as blind, a slight reduction from the number (467) recorded in 1963; of these only thirty- three were in children under fifteen years of age. Following successful operations. some forty-eight patients were removed from the register.
121. Trends of previous years in the causation of blindness were continued, with increasing frequency of the diseases of advancing age and reduction in deficiency states and results of trauma being observed; senile cataract and glaucoma have replaced keratomalacia as the predominant causes, and amongst children blindness due to the latter disease is now comparatively rare.
PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICE
122. This service continued to supply all Government medical institutions with pharmaceuticals and medical and surgical equipment and supplies. Manufacturing units are also maintained for the supply in bulk of pharmaceuticals in concentrated form and for the production of parenteral fluids and other sterile preparations.
123. The service also maintains the Central Sterile Supply Depart- ment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This department had been in operation for eighteen months at the time of writing this report and has proved a most useful innovation. An idea of the volume of work undertaken is shown by the average daily issues which are: 610 sterile sets; 2,480 linen, swab and glove packs; 1995 sterile syringes and needles; and 460 accessory instruments, etc.
124.
MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK
The Almoners of the Department, whose title has been changed to Medical Social Workers in conformity with practice elsewhere in the world, celebrated in October 1964 the twenty-lifth anniversary of the foundation of their service in Hong Kong. The wide variety of disciplines in whose activities Medical Social Workers now play a prominent role is in itself a tribute to the firm foundations which were laid immediately prior to and after the Second World War.
125. Although the main work of this sub-department is concentrated on patients from the major hospitals and from the tuberculosis service,
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certain other specialized out-patient services also require assistance, notably the leprosy and ophthalmological sub-departments; Medical Social Workers are also attached to large polyclinics and assist at re- habilitation centres. In the major acute hospitals, allocation of duties is based on the unit system which leads to improved liaison with medical
and wand staff.
126. The demand for medical social services continued to rise. Apart from increases due to the expansion of population and pressure on general hospital beds, the ageing of the immigrant population and the growth of unbanization and industrialization are bringing in their train increasing social problems resulting from geriatric, degenerative and mental diseases. Due to the long-term nature of such diseases, the problems arising are of necessity far more time-consuming and intricate than those arising from short-term hospital admissions.
PHYSIOTHERAPY
127. No new units were opened during the year, but the Kowloon Jockey Club Rehabilitation Centre was brought into full activity by the opening of the hydrotherapy pool. Demand for physiotherapy services continued to rise, despite the fall in numbers of post-poliomyelitis cases, and there is increasing concentration on education and training of the handicapped in re-adapting themselves to day-to-day activities.
128. The first two students graduated from the Physiotherapy Training School in August, 1964. However, wastage from the course has been high and during the year an appraisal was undertaken of the economic and practical feasibility of continuing such training in Hong Kong.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
129. Owing to the pressure on the acute hospitals and to the conse- quent short patient-stay, the main energies of the Occupational Therapy sub-department have been concentrated in the hospitals for long-term patients. particularly the Castle Peak Hospital for psychiatric cases. Progress has however been considerably handicapped by difficulties in recruitment of trained staff.
130. AL Castic Peak Hospital industrial 'out-work" continues to be a valuable adjunct to the programme of therapy. It has been limited mainly to the assembly of plastic flowers, although a small order for shell chimes from a local factory was filled and a regular but limited
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