X1000307-1955-56_Part01 — Page 9

Medical and Health Departmental Reports 醫務衛生署年報 All

General.

11.

ORGANIZATION AND ESTABLISHMENT

8. For the purposes of administration the Government Medical Department is divided into two major divisions designated respectively the Health Division and the Medical Division, both headed by an Assistant Director. The Health Division comprises the services designed to promote health and prevent ill-health while the Medical Division comprises the curative and investigative services and the Auxiliary Medical Service.

Health Division.

9.

The Health Division provides the following services: advice on hygiene and sanitation; an epidemiological service (designed to prevent the spread of preventable diseases such as vaccination and other forms of immunization and advice); a Port Health Service (controlling the risk of importation of diseases and generally supervising the hygiene conditions of the harbour and air port); an Anti-Tuberculosis Service (detecting and treating cases and endeavouring to introduce methods of control and prevention); an Anti-Malarial Service (for the pre- vention and control of malaria); a Social Hygiene Service for the control and treatment of venereal diseases and, as an off- shoot but quite separate, a service for the treatment of leprosy at special out-patient clinics: a Maternal & Child Health Service (secking to preserve and promote the health of mothers and young children); a School Health Service (to preserve and promote the health of school children and control the hygiene of school premises); health education for all types and levels of the population and recently introduced but not yet fully organized-an Industrial Health Service (to protect and pro- mote the health of workers in industry). Each of these services constitutes a sub-department under the direction of a Medical Officer specially trained for the purpose and experienced in that particular kind of work.

10. The responsibility for general environmental health conditions in the city areas is shared with the Urban Services

Department under the administration of the Urban Council. The Director of Urban Services is the Chairman of the Council and the Assistant Director of Health Services the Vice Chairman and professional adviser on health matters to the Council. The city is divided into two areas (Hong Kong Island and Kowloon) and a supervisory Health Officer is appointed to each area. The Health Officers' work is co-ordinated and supervised by the Senior Health Officer who is concurrently Secretary of the Health Staff Committee, an unofficial consultative body comprised of officers of the Health Division and of the Urban Services Department. In this way a close liaison is maintained with the Urban Council and Urban Services Department at all levels. Also now, through the Industrial Health Officer, liaison is maintained with the Labour Department.

Medical Division.

11. The Medical Division provides hospitals for acute and chronic cases, mental cases and communicable diseases; specialist services in various branches of surgery, obstetrics and gynae- cology, medicine, radiology, eye diseases and dentistry and a very large general out-patient service. Supervision of these out-patient clinics is shared between the Senior Medical Officer and the Senior Health Officer, the Senior Medical Officer being in charge of those clinics, which, broadly speaking, concentrate on the treatment of diseases while the Senior Health Officer controls the clinics where preventive and promotive health work is carried out. The various investigative services, the Patho- logical Institute, the Chemical Laboratory and the Forensic Medical Laboratory also come under this division for purposes of general administration as likewise do the ancillary medical services, pharmaceutical and dispensing service, almoning service, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and the Auxiliary Medical Service. The investigative services naturally do a great deal of work for the health division, for the Urban Services Department and also for other Government depart- ments, e.g. the production of vaccine for the use of the health division and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, the analysis of a great number of samples of food, water and chemicals etc. In addition to the purely Government

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