X1000306-1979-80_Part01 — Page 8

V.

HOSPITAL SERVICES

(Tables 41 - 53)

At the end of 1979, a total of 20,606 hospital beds were available in Hong Kong, excluding those maintained by the armed forces. These were made up as follows : 9,445 government, 8,630 government-assisted and 2,531 private, giving a ratio of 4.2 beda per 1,000 population. Development over the past years is shown in Figure 10.

Regionalisation of the Medical and Health Services aims to ensure a more even use of government and government-assisted medical facilities and to provide patients with treatment most appropriate to their clinical conditions. The demand for services at the regional hospitals (Queen Mary Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital) remains high. Improvement in the utilization of hospital beds was evident in the bed occupancy rates of district hospitals which have been brought to a very high level of over 80%,

Casualty attendances at government hospitals totalled 578,877, an increase of 5.6% compared with the previous year; the number of in-patients treated was 330,026, an increase of 10%.

VI. CLINIC SERVICES

(Tables 54 63)

General and Specialist Out-patient

Pressure remained heavy throughout the year on all general out- patient clinice and also on specialist clinice. The general out-patient attendance was 4.46 million, a slight increase compared with 4.27 million attendance in 1978 while specialist attendance was 8.19 million, an increase of 4.5%. Figure 11 shows the demand for services over the past decade. Clinic sessions in evenings and on Sundays and public holidays are provided whenever required.

Psychiatry

clinics.

3,973 new attendances were recorded at government psychiatric This represented an increase of 8% over 1978. There were a total of 162,176 out-patient attendances in 1979, representing a 13% increase over that in 1978.

In 1979, 746 patients were treated at 5 psychiatric day centres supplementing in-patient services at the hospitals.

Ophthalmology

The service has 2 main out-patient centres and some mobile ophthalmic teams which visit regional and district hospitals as well as clinics held on sessional basis. Total attendance in 1979 was 196,934. a decrease of 14% over 1978. This was the result of a change in policy of the booking system whereby a doctor's referral is needed. Consequently simpler ophthalmic cases are dealt with by general out-patient departments. 13 corneal transplantations were done during the year. The number of persons first registered as blind was 584, compared with 698 in 1978.

Ear, Nose and Throat

The ENT Service comprises of the Hong Kong and Outlying Islands Division based at Queen Mary Hospital, and the Kowloon and New Territories Division based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital. There are 11 clinics in urban and rural areas providing out-patient service on sessional basis. The total out-patient attendance in 1979 was 65,352, an increase of 7.95% over that in 1978. Minor surgeries were performed on a sessional basis in out-patient clinics,

Child Assessment

The Arran Street Child Assessment and Hearing Aid Clinic came into being in October 1977. It provides comprehensive assessment of handicapped children under the age of 12. Six more child assessment centres have been planned for construction over the next 10 years.

District Midwifery

The percentage of births at maternity homes to the total birth remained at a level of 10.8% in 1979 for government maternity homes and dropped from 3.3% to 2.8% for private maternity homes. This is attributable to a growing affinity of expectant mothers for hospital-based deliveries,

School Medical Service

On 31st March 1980 the number of pupils participating totalled 170,574 from 763 schools, compared with 132,022 from 768 schools on 31st March 1979. Medical practitioners taking part in the scheme numbered 204 compared with 211.

Registration of Clinics

There were 81 registered static clinics, one registered mobile clinic in the charge of registered medical practitioners, and 300 clinics registered with exemption making a total of 382 on 31st March 1980.

/Ophthalmology

/VII.