Bulletin Vol. 8 No. 3 Oct 1971

Address by Dr. the Hon. G. H. Choa A few years ago, your Director of University Health Service, who is an old friend of mine, took me for a conducted tou r of what we should now call the old Clinic. Regrettably we did this without prior permission from you, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and I hope you will forgive us for our oversight. With this act of conspiracy on my record I can now claim that I come not as a stranger to-day, although at that time, I never thought for one moment that one day I would be asked to address you at the Opening Ceremony of the new Health Centre. You have indeed done me great honour for which I am most grateful. It was explained t o me on that last occasion that a very comprehensive student health service was being planned. Thanks to the Yale-in-China Association, it has now, with the completion of this Health Centre as its headquarters, become fully developed and operational. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you, Mr. Vice- Chancellor, and members of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, on this fine achievement. During the War years in Free China, I had heard a great deal of the Yale- in-China Association from some friends who were attending the Hsiang-Ya Medica l College in Kwei-Yang. To-day, I am delighted t o have the opportunity of meeting the Association's dedicated members who are still carrying on with their mission of rendering assistance to the Chinese people in medical education. May I be allowed to join the Vice-Chancellor in thanking you for your very generous gif t to a cause which my Department fully and warmly supports. I am also very happy to know that the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundaiton has generously contributed to the Universit y for the inauguration of the University Health Centre Programme with the special purpose of appointing the Director in time to do the preparatory work. This new Health Centre, is a credit to those responsible for its planning and designing. It has an outpatient department and an infirmary of 11 beds; besides, there are facilities for x-ray examination, laboratory investigations, minor surger y and dental treatment. In it, a team of doctors, dentists and nurses will provide a 24-hour service for not only the students but the staff and their dependents who, whenever necessary, are also visited at their homes. You have every reason, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, to be proud of the service which is indeed so well organised that it can be regarded as a model of its kind. This year is an eventful one for our two University Health Services. It was only some 2 months ago that the Fourth Asian Health Conference was held under the joint auspices of the World University Service and the Hong Kong University. This afternoon, we have just seen the opening of a new Health Centre in this magni- ficently sited campus o f The Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is extremely gratifying to those of us who have their welfare at heart that the students of the two Universities in Hong Kong are so well looked after. In most universities in thi s part of the world, a student health service was started because of a considerable incidence of pulmonary tuberculosi s among the students. The main function was thus the detection, isolation and treatment of the disease. Fortunately, pulmonary tuberculosis is no longer the serious threat that it was, and the scope of a student health service has now been very considerably widened to include a variety of other functions. Nowadays most countries in the world operate some form of national health service or health insurance scheme, and i n Hong Kong, Government provides a low-cost medical service which is used by some 80% of the population. However, most universities organise their own health services, in some for the students only, and in others, for the staff and their families as well. A very good reason for this arrangement is that it is convenient and desirable for a large number of people living i n a well-confined geographical area which is often somewhat isolated. This campus provides an excellent example, as it may be considered a little too far away for people to travel to urban Kowloon to see a doctor. An even better reason, I think, is that the medical and health problems of the various sectors of the general population are somewhat different. I often argue that if we have a maternity and child health service for mothers and babies, and a school health service for school children, then there is every justification for special health services for groups of young adults on whom so much of the future may depend. The economic and social value of health services for different groups - 7 -