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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(8) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
Can the Commissioner for Resettlement please state:
(a) The number of children in rooftop and other resettlement schools who are participating in the Schools Medical Scheme?
(b) What proportion is this number compared with the number of children in these schools?
MR. LI YIU-BOR, Chairman of the Resettlement Management Select Committee, replied as follows:
The Secretary of the School Medical Service Board informs me that, since 1st October, 1966, 3,994 children from schools in urban resettlement estates have joined the scheme. This represents about 3% of the total number of school children in these schools.
DR. BELL: -Mr. Chairman, may I ask if that is more or less than last year, or more or less than in the old Government scheme?
MR. LI: -Mr. Chairman, I am afraid the question asked by Dr. BELL is beyond my competence because she does not refer to the resettlement schools. I am merely referring to the resettlement schools. That I cannot answer because I have not got the percentage for last year, but I have some figures from an urban school which is not a resettlement school. In 1964, when the scheme was first started, the percentage of participation was 18.9%. In the same year it dropped to 6.5%, and in the present year, that is 1966, it rose to 7.6%. Now, I think the figure in the resettlement schools compares quite favourably with the percentage in the urban schools.
DR. BELL: -Mr. Chairman, may I perhaps ask the Vice-Chairman if it would be possible to answer these questions. Perhaps he would know the answers.
CHAIRMAN: -It depends upon the question.
DR. BELL: Well, the question I just asked. Mr. Li doesn't know the answer because he said he has not got the figures. I wouldn't expect Mr. Li to have the figures, he is only the Chairman of the Management Committee, and he did not expect me to ask the question in the first place.
CHAIRMAN: -I would like to comment in general that supplementary questions which ask for statistics out of the blue are likely to meet with the reply "we don't know".
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DR. BELL: Well, may I go on to a further question? 3% of the total number of children in these schools. Is this low percentage because of the cost of the present medical scheme, being high, or is it because it is not a fully comprehensive scheme? May I also ask a further supplementary in addition to that? What steps are being taken to improve this figure of 3%, or are the authorities or the powers that be with regard to this scheme satisfied that only 3% of the children require medical attention?
CHAIRMAN: -Perhaps Dr. COOMBES will supplement anything I have to say, but I imagine the reason for these falling figures is that the scheme is in the nature of an insurance scheme and parents apparently do not wish to participate, they prefer to take the risk.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -I would emphasize, Mr. Chairman, to Dr. BELL that the scheme has nothing whatever to do with the Medical and Health Department, and since Dr. BELL is on the School Medical Service Board herself, she knows a great deal more about it than I do. (Laughter).
DR. BELL: Yes, Mr. Chairman, but I would ask, in consequence of the Medical and Health Department having washed their hands of the health of the school children in this Colony, whether they are satisfied that the scheme as promulgated by the School Medical Board, at the present time, is satisfactory or not, and whether they are or are not concerned with the health of school children in this Colony?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -This scheme, Mr. Chairman, is a scheme for medical care as opposed to the health of school children.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Vice-Chairman through you, why is it that if the scheme has not proved successful, the Medical Department has not offered advice for the expansion of the scheme to make it attractive to school children in Hong Kong?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -All I can say Mr. Chairman is, I am not on the School Medical Service Board. There is no member of the Medical and Health Department on it.
DR. BELL: -Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, but that is incorrect. May I clarify that? The Medical and Health Department is represented on the School Medical Board.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -As an observer. (Laughter).
MR. HU: -May I ask the question, is that because there is a real lack of doctors or a real lack of the service of doctors? (Laughter).
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Page 273 of 279
518
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(8) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
Can the Commissioner for Resettlement please state:
(a) The number of children in rooftop and other resettle- ment schools who are participating in the Schools Medical Scheme?
(b) What proportion is this number compared with the
number of children in these schools?
MR. LI YIU-BOR, Chairman of the Resettlement Management Select Committee, replied as follows:
The Secretary of the School Medical Service Board informs me that, since 1st October, 1966, 3,994 children from schools in urban resettlement estates have joined the scheme. This represents about 3% of the total number of school children in these schools.
DR. BELL: -Mr. Chairman, may I ask if that is more or less than last year, or more or less than in the old Government scheme?
MR. LI:-Mr. Chairman, I am afraid the question asked by Dr. BELL is beyond my competence because she does not refer to the reset- tlement schools. I am merely referring to the resettlement schools. That I cannot answer because I have not got the percentage for last year, but I have some figures from an urban school which is not a resettlement school. In 1964, when the scheme was first started, the percentage of participation was 18.9%. In the same year it dropped to 6.5%, and in the present year, that is 1966, it rose to 7.6%. Now, I think the figure in the resettlement schools compares quite favourably with the percentage in the urban schools.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, may I perhaps ask the Vice-Chairman if it would be possible to answer these questions. Perhaps he would know the answers.
CHAIRMAN:-It depends upon the question.
DR. BELL: Well, the question I just asked. Mr. Li doesn't know the answer because he said he has not got the figures. I wouldn't expect Mr. Li to have the figures, he is only the Chairman of the Management Committee, and he did not expect me to ask the question in the first place.
CHAIRMAN:-I would like to comment in general that supple- mentary questions which ask for statistics out of the blue are likely to meet with the reply "we don't know".
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
519
DR. BELL: Well, may I go on to a further question? 3% of the total number of children in these schools. Is this low percentage because of the cost of the present medical scheme, being high, or is it because it is not a fully comprehensive scheme? May I also ask a further supplementary in addition to that? What steps are being taken to improve this figure of 3%, or are the authorities or the powers that be with regard to this scheme satisfied that only 3% of the children require medical attention?
CHAIRMAN: ---Perhaps Dr. COOMBES will supplement anything I have to say, but I imagine the reason for these falling figures is that the scheme is in the nature of an insurance scheme and parents apparently do not wish to participate, they prefer to take the risk.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-I would emphasize, Mr. Chairman, to Dr. BELL that the scheme has nothing whatever to do with the Medical and Health Department, and since Dr. BELL is on the School Medical Service Board herself, she knows a great deal more about it than I do. (Laughter).
DR. BELL: Yes, Mr. Chairman, but I would ask, in consequence of the Medical and Health Department having washed their hands of the health of the school children in this Colony, whether they are satisfied that the scheme as promulgated by the School Medical Board, at the present time, is satisfactory or not, and whether they are or are not concerned with the health of school children in this Colony?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-This scheme, Mr. Chairman, is a scheme for medical care as opposed to the health of school children.
MR. SALES: --Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Vice-Chairman through you, why is it that if the scheme has not proved successful, the Medical Department has not offered advice for the expansion of the scheme to make it attractive to school children in Hong Kong?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -All I can say Mr. Chairman is, I am not on the School Medical Service Board. There is no member of the Medical and Health Department on it.
DR. BELL-Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, but that is incorrect. May I clarify that? The Medical and Health Department is represented on the School Medical Board.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -Às an observer. (Laughter).
MR. HU:--May I ask the question, is that because there is a real lack of doctors or a real lack of the service of doctors? (Laughter).
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