ENG-1982 — Page 126

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Health

SOME 15 major medical projects, providing a variety of services to the public, were completed during the year as part of the vigorous medical and health development programme for the 1980s.

Yet despite this progress, a heavy strain was placed on existing services to meet the demands created by the increasing population, coupled with limited manpower and resources. The pressure of work was felt on all fronts as attendance figures at the casualty departments of major government hospitals and clinics, as well as hospital admissions, reached unprecedented levels in 1982.

Within the expansion programme, the highlight of the year was the opening of the Prince of Wales Hospital in November by HRH the Duchess of Kent. Located in Sha Tin, the 1 400-bed regional hospital for the eastern New Territories will serve as a teaching hospital for the medical school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and will provide much needed treatment facilities for the growing new town. The hospital is to become operational in phases, starting in October 1983. Other major projects completed were the Yan Oi Polyclinic in Tuen Mun, which will provide supporting services to the new Tuen Mun Hospital; the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, serving as a teaching hospital for the Dental Faculty of the University of Hong Kong; the Ngau Tau Kok Clinic, providing out-patient services in the densely-populated area; and a school children's dental clinic at the Argyle Street Camp.

Overall, the Medical and Health Department's development plan for the decade includes the construction of five major government hospitals - meaning the completion of one hospital every two years. In addition to the Prince of Wales Hospital, a 1 600-bed hospital for Tuen Mun new town and three other hospitals, in East Kowloon, Chai Wan and Tai Po, each accommodating 1 400 beds, are under construction or being planned. As well as providing new hospitals, extension blocks are to be built at the three existing government hospitals, Queen Mary Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital. And under the programme, some 20 general clinics and polyclinics are due for completion during the decade.

The customer relations unit set up in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1981 has proved to be extremely popular with the patients and staff. In its first year of operation the unit has answered 6 000 enquiries and helped to deal with 200 complaints.

The Forensic Pharmacy Section of the Medical and Health Department has been successful in the control of unregistered drugs and those found to have harmful effects on the public.

In November it was announced that a Health and Welfare Branch will be formed in early 1983, as a result of a reorganisation of the Social Services Branch, to provide the medical and health services with more attention at the highest policy level.