The Paediatric Department started as a service department at Queen Mary Hospital staffed by members of the University Department of Medicine. Indeed a senior member of the Department of Medicine had served as "chief of the paediatric service" for varying periods in the past. Several paediatricians had been appointed to supervise the paediatric unit but their service was short-lived and one after another had left for "greener pastures". It was not until 1962 when the first Professor of Paediatrics in Hong Kong was appointed that a determined effort to reorganize the paediatric service of the Hospital began.

Early accommodation for sick children comprised of two wards viz. a Children's Wing and a general ward known as Head Ward. The paediatric unit was the first in Hong Kong to implement a policy of "keeping children's admissions to a minimum" and "providing ambulatory service as far as possible". Paediatric medical officers were required to attend to all sick children deemed admission-worthy by the casualty officers at the A&E (then known as 'Casualty') Department. The children would also be screened for potential infectious diseases. In the 60s for example, most children with febrile seizures were not admitted if a lumbar puncture performed at the A&E had excluded central nervous system infection. Most of them were sent home, treated and followed up by the paediatric medical officer. The Children's Wing was the first station for new admissions. This would ensure that potentially infectious diseases like chicken pox, measles etc. which could have been missed in the initial assessment would be put on check from spreading. Only children with a relatively "clean bill" would be transferred to Head Ward if further hospital care was required.

The University Department of Paediatrics was formally established and separated from Department of Medicine on July 1, 1964. Since then, it has gradually grown in size and in activities. Much effort was spent in the early years to establish a paediatric identity. These consisted of training doctors to provide care specially for children; establishing semi-micro laboratory services within the Department to avoid excessive amount of blood taking from children for various laboratory tests; heightening the awareness of special needs of children including neonates; reaching out to the medical community to arouse interest and to promote child health issues including establishing the Hong Kong Paediatric Society; commencing the first special assessment service for handicapped children and to promote the establishment of special schools, all for the first time in Hong Kong. These activities were efficiently initiated under the able leadership of the Foundation Professor C. Elaine Field.

The Department has pioneered to develop a number of special services for children in Hong Kong. Among them was developmental screening to assess children with various handicaps in order to channel them to special schooling facilities in 1965. Professor Field was also one of the founders of the first special school ever established in Hong Kong, the John F. Kennedy Centre mainly for children with cerebral palsy and the institution of the Hong Kong Spastics Association.

Interest in nephrology began in 1964 and a number of significant research reports had been published on various childhood renal disorders especially on nephrotic syndrome which was highly prevalent in the early years. The first cytogenetic laboratory ever established in Hong Kong was also in place at the department in 1965 to study the karyotypes of various childhood disorders.

The department has started to reform the undergraduate paediatric curriculum in line with the New Medical Curriculum initiated by the Faculty in 1997. Much emphasis is put on self-learning. Teaching of medical students and paediatric trainees are conducted mainly in Queen Mary Hospital, involving also the net-working institutions viz. Tsan Yuk, Grantham and Duchess of Kent Children's Hospitals. Our undergraduate students also rotate to 9 Hospital Authority Paediatric units for broadening of their experience. Many post-graduate students studying various laboratory and community research projects have also been enrolled in the department including M.Med.Sci; M.Phils, Ph.D. and M.D. Senior staff of the Department have developed links with sister departments and institutes throughout the world with many eminent visiting professors and paediatricians participating in our teaching programmes.

A comprehensive laboratory has been established for molecular and cellular biology research, equipped with the state-of-art equipments such as flow cytometer, automatic sequencer etc. A team of technicians has been designated to support students and staff on using these various techniques in their research projects. Data management and analysis are also supported by technical staff witht eh appropriate skills as well as hard and soft ware. By end of year 2001, the paediatric research laboratory will be rehoused in the new Clinical Research Centre of the Faculty, with a floor area of 670m2.

Ever since the initiation of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society to promote child health, senior staff of the department have assumed various active roles in its subsequent development as Presidents, office bearers and council members. Senior members of the department are also involved in many consultatory and participatory activities in promoting various community child health projects, such as the Hong Kong Spastics Association, the Hong Kong Association for the Mentally Handicapped, the Society for the Relief of Disabled Children, the UNICEF (HK) etc.

A number of important community child health problems have been studied. Notable examples include studies on lead over-load in Hong Kong school children and lead poisoning in fisherman's children in 1983-87, longitudinal study on infantile diarrhoeal syndromes in 1982-86, lactose mal-absorption in Chinese children in 1985-88, air-pollution and respiratory illness in 1987-88, prevalence of asthma in Hong Kong children in 1994, prevalence of thalassaemias in 1995 and so on.

The department has also been active in promoting community involvement in child care. She has initiated a number of patients' self-help groups in Hong Kong. A most successful demonstrative example is the "Cooley's Anaemia Association" formed in 1981. Motivated parents were recruited to start the organisation, to provide resource and emotional support for the children suffering from thalassaemia and for their parents. Many other self-help groups have also been nurtured by the department to support parents and patients of various disorders, such as muscular dystrophies (1985), diabetes mellitus (1990), prematurity (1991) etc.

The University recognizes higher professional qualifications obtained from UK, Australia, Canada and USA. Our trainees used to spend 3-4 years rotating through 18 months of General Paediatrics and 6 months each of ICU, Neonatology, Cardiology and a elective specialty. During the period, they would have obtained the MRCP (UK) before proceeding onto further advanced training in a Paediatric Sub-specialty. Similar structured training program was subsequently adopted by all the local paediatric units in 1989. This has now become the basis of the "Educational Objectives" of the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians. In 1991, the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians was formed. It was a Foundation College of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, a statutory body for accrediting training programs and certifying specialists. Professor CY Yeung, the previous head of department has served as its Founding member and its President for two terms.

We made a proposal for a modern hospital facilities for the children in late 1980. The proposed building, currently known as the QMH K-Block, was completed only in 1988. The paediatric ward facilities were not commissioned until September 1990, when we first opened the paediatric intensive care unit on K10N. There are a full complement of ventilators with bed-side and central monitoring devices. In the general wards, we also have designated play areas, isolation facilities and accommodation for mothers' stay.

We have moved our "out-patients facilities" from Sai Ying Pun to Queen Mary K-Block Ground Floor as planned. This has permitted a much more efficient use of manpower and ensured better continuity of care for hospitalized children requiring follow-up. We were also the first in Hong Kong to implement "block booking system" and "phone-follow-up on defaulters" in 1990. To further streamline our service for children, the neonatal unit in Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospital and the cardiac team in Grantham Hospital had already been relocated to Queen Mary Hospital in 2001 and 2008 respectively.