ENG-1994 — Page 221

HEALTH

private sector. By statutory requirement, the Director of Health is the Commissioner of the AMS and is responsible to the Governor for its efficient operation.

Volunteer members receive comprehensive training in areas covering first aid, squad drill, basic ambulance aid and practical ambulance manning, casualty evacuation, home nursing, clinical and hospital ward attachment, life-saving, leadership and management development. Recently, disaster management has been included in the training programme, with training seminars being organised both at local and international levels. In November, an AMS delegation attended a seminar in Beijing, China, on community first aid and emer- gency care.

During emergencies, AMS volunteer members are deployed to accident scenes to provide immediate treatment to the injured, convey casualties to hospitals and render nursing care to patients at both acute and convalescent hospitals. If paramedical assistance is required, the AMS Emergency Response Task Force is available at short notice. Members of the force are equipped with advanced life support equipment to provide nursing aid, minor surgery and other life-saving measures on the spot. An ambulance fleet is manned 24 hours a day to provide support for the regular ambulance service.

Apart from performing these emergency roles, the AMS committed a total of 139 643 man-hours in 1994 to provide general coverage at country parks, cycle tracks, school activities and major public functions. It also committed more than 542 808 man-hours to assist in the daily manning of 22 methadone clinics and providing round-the-clock clinical services at eight sick bays in five Vietnamese boat people centres.

The AMS further provides first aid, nursing and casualty evacuation training to frontline civil servants. Special training packages on human pile-ups have been designed for crowd control personnel. Regular seminars and demonstrations are organised to promote the public's awareness of home safety.

Environmental Hygiene

Working under the policy guidance of the municipal councils, the Urban Services Depart- ment and the Regional Services Department are responsible for environmental hygiene. This includes the cleansing of streets and gullies; collection of nightsoil, refuse and junk; management of refuse collection points, public toilets and bathhouses; pest control; and services for the dead. These responsibilities involve the deployment of 8 652 people and a fleet of 598 specialised vehicles such as refuse collection vehicles, street-washers, mechanical sweepers, nightsoil collectors, desludgers and gully-emptiers.

Streets are swept from six times a day for busy thoroughfares to once every two days for village lanes. Mechanical sweeping is employed on highways where manual sweeping is not practical. Where local conditions warrant, streets and lanes are also hosed down once or twice every fortnight. Refuse collection points and hawker areas are washed more frequently. Given the success of pilot schemes and the encouraging findings of public opinion surveys conducted in 1993, the contracting-out of street cleansing is being extended in both the urban area and New Territories.

The two departments collect 5 394 tonnes of refuse and junk each day, including 123 tonnes removed by a contractual barging service from the outlying islands. There are some 1 169 refuse collection points and 1 516 bin sites in the territory. A programme to improve refuse collection points is in place. In the urban area, most already have equipment to

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