is advised by a medical officer seconded from the Department of Medical and Health Services. The Education Department is interested in school hygiene and the mental and physical health of school children, while many aspects of the work of the Social Welfare Office touch on matters of health, for example, matters concerning cases of physical handicap, calling for close coopera- tion with officers of the Department of Medical and Health Services. Responsibility is thus divided and shared but very close cooperation and exchange of Information is maintained between all the Authorities involved and also with many non- Government agencies engaged in medical and health work. There are voluntary organizations working in the fields of tuber- culosis control, blindness, deafness, leprosy, refugee care, family welfare and numerous other medical activities.
Organization of the Department.
2. The Department of Medical and Health Services is headed by the Director of Medical and Health Services who is the chief adviser to Government on all medical and health matters. It is divided into two main Divisions, Medical and Health, both headed by an Assistant Director. Within these two main Divisions the Department is organized into various sub. departments and services on a functional basis according to the service rendered to the community. Both Divisions are served by the Nursing Service which constitutes a third major ad- ministrative division or arm of the Department. The Health Division comprises the services designed to promote health and prevent ill health while the Medical Division is responsible for the curative and investigative services and the ancillary medical services. Under the Assistant Director of Health Services come the sub-departments controlling malaria, tuberculosis and social disease, the Fort Health Office, the Maternal and Child Health Service, School Health Service and the activities of the various Health Officers including the Medical Officer of Health, New Territories, the adviser to the District Commissioner; each sub- department or service being headed by a medical officer specially trained and experienced in the particular work he supervises. The Assistant Director of Health Services is also concurrently ex-officio Vice-Chairman of the Urban Council and health adviser to the Director of Urban Services, who is Chairman of the Urban Council. Under the Assistant Director of Medical
2
Services come the Government hospitals, clinics and laboratories, pharmacy and dispensing and such ancillary services as physio- therapy and occupational therapy, the medico-social (or al- moner) services and the Auxiliary Medical Service. He is also responsible for maintaining liaison with non-Government instí. tutions run by private or voluntary bodies, many of which are in receipt of a Government subsidy. Each Assistant Director is assisted by a Senior Medical or Senior Health Officer at Ilead- quarters while the two main Government General Hospitals are superintended by two other Senior Medical Officers. The Nursing Service is headed by the Principal Matron who has her office at Medical Headquarters. The major clinical services of surgery, medicine, obstetrics, and gynaecology, anaesthesia, pathology, dentistry, ophthalmic service, radiotherapy and diagnosis, tuberculosis and social diseases control are all headed by Specialists or Senior Specialists. Appendix I shows the establishment at 31st March, 1957.
Professional Registers.
3. Except where the legislation provides for exemption in certain specified instances, medical and dental practitioners, pharmacists, nurses and midwives are required by law to be registered before being entitled to practise their professions in the Colony. The number of persons so registered 1st March, 1957 was as follows:
Medical Practitioners Dentists
Pharmaciata Nurses Midwives
530
337
52
391
901
4. These figures do not include Armed Services or Govern- ment personnel, who are subject to discipline within their respective services.
6. The Ordinances which require these professions to be registered empower Boards comprising professional people, under the Chairmanship of the Director of Medical and Health Services, not only to effect registrations within the bounds of the law but also to discharge disciplinary duties and punish a professional person who is deemed to have acted contrary to the interests of his or her profession. The Medical Board and the Dental Board, which follow the examples of the equivalent
3
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.