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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
There are daily operating sessions in each clinic, and the total of major and intermediate ophthalmic operation procedures each year is about 3,000. There are ten ophthalmic beds available in the Government hospitals. Three sight-saving refraction centres func- tion through the year to treat ophthalmic defect or disease amongst school children. There is one central optical workshop, which in the main makes the spectacles prescribed under the School Health Scheme; in addition, spectacles can be issued free or at greatly reduced cost to totally destitute ophthalmic patients who need them.
There were two important items of legislation enacted during the year as precautionary measures in the prevention of blindness. The first made the notification of all cases of ophthalmia neona- torum compulsory and the second provides that no person unless he is a registered medical practitioner or is provisionally registered shall hold himself out as being qualified, competent or willing to undertake the treatment of diseases of the human eye, or the prescription of remedies for these diseases or the giving of advice in connexion with the treatment for them.
DENTAL SERVICE
The Government operates a General Dental Service and a School Dental Service. The former is responsible for the treatment of Government officers and their dependants, in-patients of Govern- ment hospitals, prisoners, and certain other categories of the poorer members of the population! The School Dental Service provides routine examination and treatment of participant children in government, subsidized, private and grant schools. The operating staff for these clinics numbered between nineteen and twenty three full-time Dental Surgeons and one Dental Nurse through the year. Visits by patients to dental clinics totalled 99,876 and were divided between the various classes as follows:
Government Officers
Government Officers' Dependants
General Public
School Children
23,256
24,162
18,119
34,339
In all, 26,837 permanent and 25,269 deciduous teeth were ex- tracted, 28,696 permanent and 3,117 deciduous teeth were filled or
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