ENG-1965 — Page 143

HEALTH

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of some 1,360 patients during the year. Psychiatric cases from the whole Colony are admitted to the hospital, the great majority of them being voluntary patients. Outpatient treatment is available on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and in the New Territories, and day patients are also treated in the psychiatric centre on Hong Kong Island. A psychiatric observation unit is operated in Victoria Remand Prison and there is one ward for very low-grade mentally subnormal children in the Tung Wah Hospital.

The Shek Kwu Chau Rehabilitation Centre for drug addicts, operated by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts (SARDA), is situated on a small island near Cheung Chau and provides treatment on a voluntary basis for male drug addicts. Treatment during the period of acute withdrawal was previously undertaken at the Castle Peak Hospital, but with the opening of a withdrawal unit the centre now supervises this stage. It also assesses patients before admission, builds up their physical condition while at the centre and operates a comprehensive follow- up service after discharge.

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HOSPITALS

There are 13,176 hospital beds available in Hong Kong for all purposes (see Appendix XXXII). This figure includes maternity and nursing homes but not institutions maintained by the Armed Forces. Of these beds, 11,146 are in government hospitals and institutions and in government-assisted hospitals, while the remain- ing 2,030 are provided by private agencies. Apart from beds assigned to the mentally ill and the treatment of tuberculosis and infectious diseases, there are 9,450 beds available for all general purposes, including maternity. This gives a ratio of 2.48 beds per thousand of the population. The figures quoted are based on the normal bed capacities of the various hospitals, but in many cases the actual occupancy is much higher as camp beds are used extensively whenever the need arises.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the largest acute general hospital in the British Commonwealth, serves as the emergency hospital for Kowloon and the New Territories. Although the hospital appears as a single unit, it has been designed as two separate 13-storey 'ward-stacks' joined on the lower three floors by ad- ministrative areas. It accommodates 1,388 beds with all necessary