277. A total of nearly 26,000 examinations were carried out, which greatly exceeds that of any previous year, and the increase was accounted for mainly by the increase in biochemical work resulting from an increased programme in the social hygiene clinics and to the greater number of seizures of narcotics, principally opium and heroin, by the Police. Commercial work showed a slight decline but the volume of this work is scarcely less than that of the prosperous postwar years. Specimens numbered 1,747 and consisted of some 140 different commodities, of which the more important were drugs, foods and chemicals.
278. Public health work included an investigation of the flourine content of tea and of the water from a number of village wells and number of water specimens from the harbour were examined for sewage contamination,
279. Chemico-legal examinations included 262 poisoning cases, mostly suicide or attempted suicide. They included a fatal case of poisoning by the morphine substitute "amidone", and 4 cases of severe poisoning of Dock workers by cargoes of the dyestuff-intermediate paranitraniline, which is not usually regarded as a specially dangerous substance.
280. Assistance was also given by the laboratory to the Fisheries Research Unit of the University in an investigation of the water in fish breeding ponds in the New Territories.
281. In the Table below the work carried out in the year under review is briefly summarized:
1963
TABLE 8
Public Health
195%
0,256
12,282
Chemico-Legal
315
800
Commercial
1,839
1,747
Revenue Control, Narcoties, Strategic
Materials
6,667
Miscellaneous Government Work
264
Total
18,851
250
24,907
7
Almoners
282. The Almoner sub-department had an establishment consisting of the Principal Almoner, 6 Almoners and 14 Assistant Almoners, but this full complement of workers was not available during the whole of the year. In the latter part of the year the establishment consisted of the Principal Almoner, 4 Almoners (including one who had just returned from a full course of training in the Institute of Almoners, London) and 13 Assistant Almoners. The work of these officers had in the past been seriously hampered by inadequate accommodation but there was an improvement during the year at the Queen Mary Hospital and the Kowloon Hospital. The working con- ditions in some of the other institutions teaves much to be desired.
288. There was some development in the almoners' work at the Mental Hospital during the latter part of the year and the development of the ophthalmic service brought new duties. A full time almoner is really required for this work.
284. During the year certain of the more senior members of the staff, through the co-operation of the Social Welfare Officer, paid refresher visits to the Moral Welfare, Probation, Youth Work and Relief Sections of the Social Welfare Depart- ment. Students of the Social Science Department of the University spent several weeks with the almoners in hospitals and clinics as part of the practical work of their course.
285. Suitable nourishment, home care and employment are perhaps the most essential needs for recovery and rehabilitation but are hard to obtain in Hong Kong. The problems facing the almonering staff are considerable, but they have cause to be grateful to the statutory and voluntary organizations as well as to many individuals for the help they have had in meeting the particular needs of patients. The co-operation of such organizations In the placing of children during the illness of the mother is of the greatest value.
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