ENG-2011 — Page 511

History | 439

by the Vocational Training Council for secondary three school leavers also became. free in September 2008. Tertiary education remains heavily subsidised. It is the Government's policy that no student is deprived of education for lack of financial

means.

The Government and non-governmental organisations have made great strides in improving social welfare services to the public in the past decade. Government spending on social welfare has increased substantially from $29.6 billion in 2001-02 to an estimated $46 billion in 2011-12. Social services today are provided not only for emergency relief and for meeting basic needs, but also as social capital and investment for promoting inclusive growth and harmonious development of Hong Kong's society.

The post-war years also saw the development of a healthcare system to cope with Hong Kong's rapidly growing population, caused mostly by a huge influx of refugees from China. Big steps were taken to combat communicable diseases in the early post-war years and to build additional hospitals, as well as general out-patient clinics, some of which were run by voluntary agencies. The Government continued to expand the healthcare infrastructure during the 1950s and 1960s to cater to the needs of the ever growing population.

The Government's commitment to safeguarding public health and to providing medical care and facilities for everyone in Hong Kong, particularly those relying on subsidised medical services, was first articulated in policy papers published in 1964 and 1974. The goals, which included subsidising more healthcare agencies, were largely achieved. The Government's healthcare policy has since aimed to 'ensure that no one should be denied adequate medical treatment because of lack of means'.

The Government took another major step to reorganise the then Medical and Health Department and set up the Hospital Authority (HA) in 1990. The HA is responsible for managing public hospitals and providing a range of heavily subsidised medical services to uphold the Government's policy of ensuring that no one is denied medical care due to lack of means. At the same time, the Department of Health (DH) maintains and promotes good health and prevents diseases from taking hold, while maintaining its position as the authority on health and related regulatory matters.

In the wake of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the Government took a series of measures to strengthen its public healthcare infrastructure, one of which was the establishment of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) under the DH in June 2004, to strengthen the surveillance system for detecting outbreaks of infectious diseases and to respond swiftly to them. The CHP works closely with the local community, the Mainland authorities, the World Health Organisation and others around the world to combat infectious diseases.

Due to ever increasing demand and reliance on subsidised public health care, the Government conducted various reviews and issued a number of papers on healthcare reform for public consultation during the period between 1993 and