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ments were made to relate the techniques employed, and values obtained, for Cobalt-60 teletherapy units throughout Asia. At the end of the year, the findings were still being correlated in the World Health Organiza- tion in Geneva. The cost of these three research projects was supported respectively by grants from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, and jointly by the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization.

OP||THALMOLOGY (Tables 64-65)

140. This service maintains three full-time centres with surgical facilities, and in addition, holds regular sessions at 15 out-patients clinics in urban and rural areas. Ophthalmic surgery is performed in the two government hospitals with a total of 40 beds for ophthalmic cases as well as in the out-patient clinics. Emergency ophthalmic service is also pro- vided to the three casualty departments at the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Kwong Wah hospitals.

141. During the year, the number of persons first registered as blind was 228, including 11 aged under 15. Trends of previous years in the causation of blindness continued, with increasing frequency of the eye diseases of advancing age, and a reduction in those caused by deficiency states and trauma. Senile cataract and glaucoma replaced keratomalacia as the predominant causes. Among children, the main cause of blindness was congenital defect, while blindness due to keratomalacia became comparatively rare.

PHARMACEUTICAL, SERVICE (Table 66)

142. This service is concerned with the enforcement of the Ordinance dealing with Dangerous Drugs, Pharmacy and Poisons, and Antibiotics. as well as the control, manufacture and supply of drugs, and the supply of dressings, medical and surgical instruments and sundries to hospitals, clinics, health centres and other units of the Department. Two main depots, one on the Island and one in Kowloon, manufactured and dis- tributed some 250 different types of pharmaceutical products to these institutions in 1971. In the two largest hospitals, sterile preparation units supplied all the hospital departments with their requirements of all intravenous fluids, and an extensive range of injections. During the year, alteration work was begun in the manufacturing depot on the Island

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to provide larger and improved accommodation for the manufacture and control of drugs.

143. Following an increase in the number of Pharmacists in the Pharmacy Inspectorate Section, a larger number of prosecutions were taken out-132 in 1971 as compared with 63 in 1970-under the ordinances governing the conduct of pharmacies and the sale of dangerous drugs, poisons and antibiotics in the commercial sector.

MÉDICAL SOCIAL WORK

144. The expansion of the medical services and the increasing emphasis on rebabilitation in its various aspects continued to make heavy demands on the services of Medical Social Workers. The medical social service of the Hong Kong Division, with its head office at Queen Mary Hospital, continued to deal with an increasing number of patients treated there. The allocation of 78 beds at Grantham Hospital as con- valescent beds for chest and heart cases from Queen Mary Hospital resulted in an extension of the service to patients transferred to the Grantham. Medical Social Workers of the Hong Kong division also undertook medical social work in the Tsan Yuk Hospital, the Sai Ying Pun Infectious Disease Hospital, the Tang Shiu Kin Hospital, the Duchess of Kent Children's Orthopaedic Hospital, the Tung Wah Sandy Bay Convalescent Hospital, the David Trench Rehabilitation Centre, the Wan Chai Physiotherapy Centre, the Sai Ying Pun Jockey Club Poly- clinic and the Violet Peel Polyclinic.

145. The medical social service of the Kowloon division, with its head office at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, covers medical social work in government hospitals and other medical institutions in Kowloon. Close liaison was maintained during the year with other Government depart- ments, and voluntary agencies. in regard to the various aspects of re- habilitation, such as job placement, vocational training, and housing and education of the physically handicapped. The continuing co-operation and assistance given by them greatly helped the patients.

146. Medical Social Workers in the Chest and Special Skin Division continued to see patients in a referral and selection system, in addition to automatic interviews of all patients on admission arising from the social aspects of these diseases. Medical social workers of this division worked full-time at all main chest clinics and special skin clinics, and part-time at other sub-clinics, including New Territories clinics and the

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