ENG-1984 — Page 182

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HEALTH

basis. The centres also operate day hospital places and provide other social, occupational and recreational therapy services for the mentally ill.

Additional psychiatric day centres and day places are provided in the Yung Fung Shee Memorial Clinic and the Tuen Mun Polyclinic. The Mental Health Service introduced a 24-hour hotline service in April to offer advice on urgent psychiatric problems to psychiatric patients and their families. The service is only advisory in nature and will initially run for one year on a trial basis.

Special emphasis is placed on the follow-up and after-care of discharged mental patients during their reintegration into the community. During the year, the recently established Community Psychiatric Nursing Service was expanded on a regional basis to provide continuity in after-care treatment programmes to patients discharged from the Castle Peak Hospital and the Kwai Chung Hospital. Other complementary rehabilitative supporting services include after-care social services, placement services, half-way houses, long-stay care homes and social clubs organised by various agencies and closely monitored and co-ordinated by the Rehabilitation Development Co-ordinating Committee.

Severely mentally handicapped persons requiring intensive nursing and medical treat- ment are cared for at the 200-bed Siu Lam Hospital and the Caritas Medical Centre, which has 300 beds for this purpose. A further 700 beds in this category have been planned for the next decade to meet the continuing need.

Dental Services

The School Dental Care Service provides regular dental examination and treatment services to primary school children. Essentially preventive in nature, the service has proved to be an appropriate and cost effective means of promoting dental health among school children. The response from parents and schools authorities has been most encouraging; some 233 700 children, 65.9 per cent of Primary 1, 2, 3 and 4 pupils, participated during 1984-5, compared with 56.8 per cent in 1983-4. Three school dental clinics have been established and six more are planned for the next four years. Dental health education programmes, involving lectures and exhibitions, are held to promote dental health awareness in children and adults.

Training in dentistry is provided at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, and some 70 dentists will graduate in 1985. The Tang Shiu Kin Dental Therapists Training School is responsible for training the dental therapists required by the rapidly expanding school dental care programme.

The Government Dental Service provides dental care for all monthly-paid government servants and their dependants, as well as simple dental treatment for inmates of penal institutions and specialist treatment for patients in government hospitals. Emergency treatment is also provided for the public at a number of district dental clinics.

Port Health

The Port Health Service enforces control at Hong Kong International Airport and in the territory's waters to prevent the introduction of quarantinable diseases and to carry out other measures required under the International Health Regulations.

The service provides facilities for vaccination and the issuing of international vaccination certificates. It also inspects and supervises the eradication of rats from ships on interna- tional voyages. It provides medical assistance to ships in the harbour, transmits medical advice to ships at sea, operates a 24-hour health clearance service for all incoming vessels, and grants radio pratique to ships.