X1000306-1984-85_Part01 — Page 4

I

Introduction

The Medical and Health Department provides a wide comprehensive spectrum of health services for the community of Hong Kong. The ever- increasing population, the rising expectation of the people coupled with the constraints of limited financial and manpower resources have imposed a heavy strain on the provision of these services. Attendances at all the existing health care centres had been on the increase. However, with meticulous planning and control, the development programmes of the department had progressed satisfactorily and had kept in pace with the pressing demand for service.

For the 1984/85 financial year, the Medical and Health Department's expenditure was $2,085.5 millions. Subventions totalling about $1,004.1 millions are also being made to many non-Government medical institutions and organisations, The capital expenditure on hospitals and other buildings including furniture and equipment was $178.3 millions.

JL Health of the Community

The general level of health of the population in Hong Kong remains good. This is largely due to the anti-epidemic and disease surveillance measures, developments in preventive and personal health services and general improvement in the socio-economic conditions of the population. This progress is further reflected in the highly satisfactory health indices and the general decline in the incidence of major communicable diseases,

The estimated mid-year population of Hong Kong in 1984 was 5.36 millions, an increase of 1.0% compared with the previous year.

It was also estimated that about 23.6% of the population were under 15 and 7.5% were 65 and over.

The crude death rate was 4.8 per thousand population. Figure 2 shows the age specific death rates in Hong Kong for the year 1984. The five major leading causes of death in Hong Kong were malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, cerebral vascular diseases, pneumonia and various injuries/ poisoning. The commonest forms of malignancy in Hong Kong were cancers of the lung, liver, stomach, nasopharynx and oesophagus.

The total number of registered live births in the year was 77 635, a crude birth rate of 14.5 per thousand population compared to 15.4 in 1983. In the same year, the infant mortality rate was 9.1 per thousand live births against 10.1 in 1983. The major causes of infant deaths recorded were congenital abnormalities (33%), anoxia, hypoxia and birth asphyxia (318), pneumonia (7%) and immaturity (6%). The maternal mortality rate was 0.06 per thousand total births as compared with 0.07 in 1983.