ENG-1959 — Page 161

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

leprosy and venereal diseases; ophthalmic services are free to the blind and to all children under ten years of age, exclusive of the cost of spectacles. Preventive inoculations against diphtheria, typhoid, cholera, rabies, tetanus and plague are similarly available at Government hospitals, clinics and dispensaries and B.C.G. vaccine is given without charge by doctors and midwives through- out the Colony.

At Government clinics there is a charge of $1 for each attend- ance. In the general and maternity wards of all Government hospitals no charge is made for treatment or accommodation; when food is provided there is a nominal dietary charge. Fees are charged for first class or single ward accommodation and for second class accommodation in wards of two to eight beds. In all cases, however, fees can be waived if necessary.

Grants-in-aid from public funds are given to certain non-profit- making hospitals where treatment is either free or at low cost, subventions normally being calculated to meet the excess of expenditure over income. In some cases, notably for the in-patient treatment of tuberculosis, the cost of maintenance of a fixed number of beds in hospitals run by voluntary or missionary_bodies is met by a subvention.

Government also has a contractual obligation to provide free medical, dental and hospital care in its own clinics and hospitals to all its monthly-paid employees.

Finance. Recurrent expenditure on the services maintained by the Medical and Health Department during 1959-60 was estimated to be $47,806,000. A further $19,324,200 was disbursed as re- current or special grants-in-aid to medical work maintained by welfare and missionary agencies. The Tung Wah Group of Hospi- tals, the Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the Grantham Hospital (run by the Anti-Tuberculosis Association), the Hong Kong Auxiliary of the Mission to Lepers and the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital received grants totalling over $450,000. The largest subvention of $13,425,600 went to the Tung Wah Hospitals and included a capital grant of $4,925,600 towards the rebuilding of the Kwong Wah Hospital.

Estimated capital expenditure on Medical and Health Depart- ment projects was $18,706,200; in addition to this the Hong Kong