ENG-1958 — Page 168

138

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

The total numbers of out-patients seen at Government clinics and dispensaries during the past five years is of interest as showing the very considerable expansion which is occurring:

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

2,340,682

2,517,815

2,869,045

3,165,109

3,397,074

4,068,919

1958

ון

In most cases these out-patient facilities are provided on a ‘dollar-a-time' basis: that is, the patient, if he is capable of doing so, is expected to pay one dollar for each visit to the dispensary, this fee including whatever treatment, drugs or injections may be considered necessary. Provision is made for free treatment if circumstances warrant it and certain clinics such as those for tuberculosis, maternal and child health, venereal diseases, leprosy, and eye diseases in children, are completely free. In addition to 'fixed' dispensaries, the department has two mobile dispensaries which pay regular visits to outlying villages in the New Territories, and visits are also made by launch to certain areas which cannot otherwise be reached. The Jockey Club 'Floating Clinic', the m.v. 'Chee Hong', illustrated elsewhere in this Report, went into full service on 6th May 1958 and has proved most successful in provid- ing medical facilities to inhabitants of the isolated districts on the eastern seaboard. The Hong Kong Jockey Club have generously donated funds for another 'floating clinic' of a similar type which will enable medical attention to be given to residents on the western seaboard.

It is significant that health and medical work form one of the three principal services which occupy the attention of the majority of the Chinese voluntary and charitable organizations in Hong Kong. The only two interests which rival those of health and medicine are education and the provision of death benefits.

The principal charitable organization is the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, to which reference has already been made. It is noteworthy that 30% of all babies born in hospitals in Hong Kong were delivered in the hospitals of this group.

Two other long-established Chinese charitable associations, the Chung Sing Benevolent Society and the Lok Sin Tong, also ran