248. Professional staff available for the General Dental Service consisted of the Senior Dental Surgeon, two dental surgeons and one assistant dental surgeon. For the School Dental Service there were available 5 assistant dental surgeons, four of whom were in temporary employment. This staff was hard-pressed and not able to meet fully demands for treatment. It was necessary to maintain a waiting list and the average waiting time before routine dental treatment could be provided for a Government servant or his family was as much as 6 months.
244. There was no substantial change in the organization of the School Dental Service in the year under review compared with the previous year. No routine dental examinations were carried out for Government and Government-aided schools. Emergency treatment was available daily for those pupils paying the $5.00 per year medical fee. A certain amount of con- servative work was carried out for this class of patient in the Harcourt Health Centre Dental Clinic, where a full time assistant dental surgeon was continuously employed. During 1952, 8,362 visits were made by school children for dental treatment at this clinic; 5,040 deciduous teeth and 1,240 per- manent teeth were extracted; 306 deciduous teeth and 1,704 permanent teeth were filled. Although this is a very good year's work for one dental surgeon, it is, unfortunately, but a small proportion of the work urgently required by Government school pupils in Hong Kong. In Kowloon, no conservative work was possible for Government schools, and extractions were per- formed where necessary.
245. A very good year's work was carried out for private school pupils who joined the School Health Service. All such pupils were dentally examined at six monthly intervals, all necessary extractions were carried out, and a great amount of conservative work was also performed. During 1952, of 20,819 children examined, 15,553 were found to require dental treat- ment, a percentage of 74.7. For the 15,553 children found to require treatment, the following operations were performed:- extractions of deciduous teeth-13,240, of permanent teeth- 1,804; permanent fillings of deciduous teeth-841, of permanent
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teeth-2,965. The high proportion of extractions compared with fillings is partly explained by the fact that so many children seem to leave the health service after one or two six monthly periods and they are replaced by other children who have not previously had the benefit of dental treatment. If a higher proportion of children remained continuously in the health service throughout their school life, a greater proportion of fillings compared with extractions could be performed.
246. A summary of the dental work undertaken by the Government staff during 1952 is shown in Appendix 18.
Pharmaceutical
247. This sub-department, under the charge of the Chief Pharmacist, had available to it, 4 pharmacists and 37 dispensers. This staff is responsible for the Central Medical Store and for the pharmacies in various departmental institutions. The number of institutions supplied by the Central Medical Store during the year was 136, an increase of 5 over the previous year's total. The Central Medical Store functioned on the whole, very smoothly, although from time to time, difficulties did arise owing to the absence of a similar store in Kowloon. The store manufactures all intravenous fluids for the Depart- ment's institutions with the exception of Queen Mary Hospital which manufactures its own requirements. In addition, many of the injections required in the Department's institutions were manufactured in the Store. The following figures indicate the extent of the manufacturing function of the Central Medical Store:
Bulk Intravenous Fluids--Litres Injections, varions, in 20 ml, containers Bulk Ointment, lbs.
Bulk Mixtures, etc., concentrated. Ibs.
1951
1952
19,648
20,192
22,136
28,539
4,606
6,443
283,230
304,196
248. The sub-department is responsible for the issuing of licences to, and the supervision of wholesale and retail dealers in pharmaceuticals. The number of licences issued during the
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