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HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE AND SUPPLY

140. The continuing expansion of the hospital service, the increased demand for services and the more rapid bed turnover made the routine supply and lay administration of medical institutions progressively more complex throughout the year under review. The recruitment of hospital secretaries with adequate knowledge and experience of large modern hospitals became more difficult.

141. As the department's services increased and improved, so the demands on the Central Laundry inevitably increased and it became increasingly obvious that the departmental laundry service could not cope efficiently with the increasing demand. Accordingly, planning progressed as rapidly as possible for the construction of a second departmental laundry. To improve the position considerable research was undertaken and the use of disposable items, in order to reduce pressure on the laundry services, was examined. It was found however that the use of 'disposables' on any large scales would prove more expensive than the use of equivalent conventional items. The present laundry machinery, some of which is already 6 years old, was subjected to very considerable pressure throughout the year, being in continuous use for some 16 to 20 hours per day. At this rate it must be expected that major repairs or renewals will shortly become inevitable.

142. The Medical and Health Department Staff Welfare Association continued to suffer from a deficiency in membership and efforts were made to increase its membership and to expand its activities. Staff relations as a whole were examined and an experiment made with the use of joint consultation committees.

143. The UNICEF-sponsored feeding programme continued throughout the year and a total of 63,201 lbs. of milk powder and 9,620 lbs. of corn-soya-milk was distributed to the various Goverment feeding centres throughout the Colony,

AUXILIARY MEDICAL SERVICE

144. This branch of the Essential Services Corps has a strength of over 5,000 men and women trained to augment the Colony's medical services during an emergency. Approximately half of the strength is used to make up the Ambulance Depot Teams which are based on the Fire Services Ambulance Stations throughout the Colony. These Ambulance Depot Teams are trained to reinforce the Fire Services Ambulance Service and to provide mobile first aid teams as necessary.

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145. Members of the Service carry out training on Sunday mornings and during the evenings. They also perform routine ambulance duty with the Fire Services Ambulance Service by rotation at week-ends,

146. At the scene of the stand collapse at the military tattoo at Shek Kong on 9th November, 1968, members of the Auxiliary Medical Service with equipment arrived quickly and assisted the Army Medical Services in rendering first-aid and in evacuating the casualties. Members also attended at the scenes of a number of fires in Hong Kong and Kowloon during the year.

REGISTRATION OF MEDICAL CLINICS

(See table 43)

147. In accordance with the Medical Clinics Ordinance, Chapter 343, all clinics, except the mobile vans which were formerly registered with exemption (that is operated by unregistered doctors), were required to be re-registered annually. As on 31st March, 1969, there were 72 registered static clinics and 3 registered mobile clinics in the charge of registered medical practitioners and 351 clinics registered with exemption, making a total of 426 which is slightly less than the previous year's total of 458.

148. The Low Cost Medical Care Scheme under which static clinics are set up in Resettlement and Housing Estates continued to operate throughout the year, the aim being to provide one doctor For every 6,000 residents with priority given to registered medical practitioners. At the end of the year under review there were 59 clinics in Resettlement Estates and 9 in Housing Estates being operated by registered doctors. In addition there were 17 clinics in Resettlement Estates and 2 clinics in the Hong Kong Housing Societies which were registered with exemption.

V. GOVERNMENT ASSISTED HOSPITALS

(Soc table 66)

149. Financial assistance mainly by means of an annual subvention is given by Government to certain voluntary organizations maintaining hospitals in the Colony. Such hospitals, containing a total of 7,010 beds provide mainly subacute general beds of facilities for persons suffering from certain specific diseases or handicaps. The total Govern- ment subvention to these hospitals during the year was $50,432,975 recurrent and $1,440,816 special expenditure.

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