I read with interest, the article, “Unsung heroes - Glasgow and the origins of geriatrics”, by Prof John Brocklehurst, published in the March issue of the BGS Newsletter.

I was told this story in Professor Brocklehurst’s home when I visited him last August. He told me a professor once remarked that one should not give a lecture beyond the age of 72, and yet Prof B. was going to lecture, at the age of 80, on this historical subject. I used to think that the mother and father of geriatrics were Marjory Warren and Ignatz Nascher respectively, but Professor Brocklehurst’s article reminded me there are many unsung heroes in geriatrics. These historical figures behind the origins of geriatrics had in common, an insight and compassion for the needs of our elders, and the developmental pathways of the specialty were by no means smooth. This cradle of geriatrics in Glasgow has influenced the development of geriatrics beyond the United Kingdom, in particular, Hong Kong.

Glaswegian mentors
Prof Brocklehurst pointed out that five past presidents of the BGS have been Glasgow graduates and that Stobhill Hospital of the Glasgow University has generated three of the first Professorial Chairs of Geriatric Medicine in the UK (Feruguson Anderson, John Brocklehurst, Bernard Isaacs). Of the five presidents of the Hong Kong Geriatrics Society (HKGS), three of them have Glasgow graduates as their mentors: Dr Sick Chan under Professor Ferguson Anderson in 1973/74, Dr Ngai-Sing Ng under Professor Bernard Isaacs in 1985, and Dr Tak-Kwan Kong under Professor John Brocklehurst in 1988/89.

To plan for the new establishment of geriatric services in Hong Kong, Dr Sik Chan was sent by the Hong Kong Government to the UK from late 1973 to early 1974 to see how British geriatrics services were organised. He stayed mainly at Stobhill with Ferguson Anderson and returned to become the first consultant geriatrician in the first geriatric unit in Hong Kong at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) in 1975. Dr Chan, together with his followers, founded the HKGS in 1981, and was elected the first President of HKGS. Dr Yau-Yung Ng, the second consultant geriatrician of PMH, visited Professor Francis Caird and Dr Brian Williams at Stobhill in 1982, to pave the way for future specialist training in geriatric medicine for medical staff of the new geriatric unit. Dr Y Y Ng became the first honorary clinical lecturer in geriatric medicine for the University of Hong Kong in 1979, and succeeded Dr Chan as the second president of HKGS in 1984.

Dr Y Y Ng was invited as the visiting expert in 1987 to Singapore to advise on the formation of a new geriatric department at Tan Tok Seng Hospital, which was established in December 1987. Over the years, a steady stream of medical staff from Hong Kong has received higher training in geriatrics from geriatric departments in the UK, and Glasgow has been a favourite centre. The number of specialists in geriatric medicine has grown from one in 1975 to 124 in 2004. Overseas geriatricians have been invited to lecture in the Annual Scientific Meetings of the HKGS, and prominent geriatricians from the UK, in particular Glasgow, predominate in the list of visiting professors. The Glasgow linkage with Hong Kong continues to grow. In 2000, the HKGS and the Hong Kong University started the Postgraduate Diploma in Community Geriatrics for general practitioners, and Dr Brian Williams was invited to be the honorary advisor and external examiner, and recently Dr Iain Lennox. Last November, Drs T K Kong and S Y Au of HKGS visited the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow) to prepare for the establishment of the first overseas centre for DGM (Glasgow) in Hong Kong in June this year. We were happy to have Professor David Stott as our keynote speaker in our Annual Scientific Meeting on 18 June 2005. The HKGS welcomes the BGS’s initiative to maintain closer ties with overseas members.

TK Kong
President, the Hong Kong Geriatrics Society