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given to the employees of the principal subscribers to the Asso- ciation but, as has been stated earlier in this report, all cases are admitted through the Government Tuberculosis Clinics.

233. The number of admissions during the year was 279 as compared with 352 in 1952. There is also an out-patient department which is attended by patients after discharge from hospital for follow-up treatment and the total number of attendances here was 6,451.

Pok Oi Hospital.

234. This small institution, providing accommodation for 36 patients, is situated at Un Long in the New Territories and, outside the urban areas, is the only hospital supported by volun- tary effort. The hospital is administered by a Board of Directors who, in March 1958, were incorporated by Ordinance. The institution, which has a history of some 30 years, is sup- ported by the voluntary efforts of the residents in surrounding districts. Substantial renovation was effected in the post-war period and the building now provides reasonable accommodation.

235. During the year under review, for the first time, the institution was in receipt of a subvention. Government seconds to the hospital 2 medical officers and the subvention is to meet their salaries.

V. GENERAL OUT-PATIENT SERVICES

286. General out-patient services during the year under review continued as in the previous year, but 2 additional centres were opened, both in Kowloon, to meet the needs of police personnel in the area and also the staff of the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Total attendances at the dispensaries showed a further increase and all institutions were, uncomfortably over- crowded. At all centres providing out-patient treatment patients are charged $1 per visit but, when necessary, even this charge was waived when it was considered to be beyond the means of the patients. Details of the attendances at the various institutions are shown in Appendices 12 to 15 inclusive. General comments on these institutions follow.

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URBAN AREAS.

Sai Ying Pun Out-Patient Department.

237. This was the out-patient department of the old Government Civil Hospital which with the completion of the Queen Mary Hospital in 1938, became the Sai Ying Pun In- fectious Disease Hospital. It is situated close to this hospital in the western district of Victoria, but it serves, as the out- patient department of Queen Mary Hospital which is some miles away.

Although the accommodation available is in- sufficient for the work demanded of it the institution is the largest on the Island providing out-patient services. It operates throughout the day and, in addition, clinic sessions are held in the evenings going on until midnight. It is here that medical undergraduates of the University obtain their out-patient training. The limited accommodation and the overcrowding, which was continuous, make this institution an unsatisfactory one as a teaching centre and it is also unsatiy. factory from the point of view of patients and staff, Total attendances during the year showed a decline of 247,930 as compared with 262,198 in 1952, but this led to no amelioration of the unsatisfactory working conditions. The total Govern- ment medical staff working in the out-patient department was 10, their duties being spread over the working period from 9 a.m. until midnight.

238. New and more adequate premises for this work are an urgent necessity but the area in which the present institution is sited is so congested that no alternative building site is available which would permit of new premises being built without interrupting, for a substantial period, the services provided now. This problem is under active consideration. When the new Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospital is completed and the patients are moved from the present Tean Yuk Hospital it may be possible to use the latter premises, unsatisfactory though they may be, to accommodate temporarily the services. now provided at Sai Ying Pun, until such time as it is possible tu erect a new building in this area.

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