7
Health
THE people of Hong Kong continued to enjoy, in the main good health during the year 1970. Notification of diphtheria and malaria continued to decline and the incidence of measles remained low. There was no occurrence of any epidemic disease. Precautionary measures against the reappearance of cholera were maintained throughout the year.
The mortality pattern remained one in which fewer deaths were due to communicable diseases and more resulted from the diseases of later life, predominantly cancer, heart diseases and cerebrovascular lesions.
The development programme of the Medical and Health Depart- ment continued to make steady progress. The Kowloon Hospital West Wing was completed in October and provides useful sub- sidiary accommodation for patients from Queen Elizabeth Hospital during convalescence. In addition it has an acute psychiatric unit and a paraplegic unit. Work on the planning of other government projects continued, including polyclinics for Kowloon East and the Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung area, a new Vaccine Institute, a specialist clinic on Hong Kong Island East, a large general hospital and a large mental hospital in the Lai Chi Kok area. Construction work on the Siu Lam Hospital for the mentally subnormal and a re- habilitation and health centre in the Sai Ying Pun district was well advanced.
The generally satisfactory state of health of the population is demonstrated by the Colony's vital statistics which appear in Appendix 30.
ADMINISTRATION
The Medical and Health Department provides hospital and clinic facilities throughout both urban and rural areas, maintains maternal and child health, school health and port health services and is responsible for measures to control epidemic and endemic disease.
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