HONORARY STAFF

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 245, 28 July 1937, Page 3

HONORARY STAFF

APPOINTMENTS AT AUCKLAND.

NEW PROCEDURE ADOPTED.

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 27

As the outcome of a prolonged controversy, a new procedure for the appointment of members of the honorary staff was approved by the Auckland Hospital Board at a meeting in committee to-night. The proposals, which have the endorsement of the staff, will come before open board for ratification, and steps will be taken to secure an amendment to the existing by-laws. The meeting took the form of a consultation between the board and representatives of the honorary staff, led by the chairman, Dr. Frank Macky. The discussion was the result fo a report prepared by a special committee of the board, in which amendments to the existing methods of appointment were recommended.

At the close of the meeting, the chairman of the board (the Rev. W. C. Wood) said that in future the honorary staff vacancies would be filled oil the recommendations of a special body, known ‘as the medical council of appointments. Its personnel would be made up of one nominee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the Faculty of Medicine, Otago, and the honorary staff respectively, together with the medical superintendent and the director of' the laboratory. Provision would also be made to ensure that the nominees of the various colleges and faculty would nob themselves be candidates for any vacancies. Applications for the positions would be invited by advertisement and would be considered by the council. A report by the Minister for Health would be sought and referred to the council, which would then choose one suitable applicant for each vacancy and report the selections to the board. The council’s report would either be adopted by the board or dealt with in committee should individual recommendations be unacceptable. In the latter case, the whole report would be referred back to the council for further consideration, and until the final adoption proceedings would continue .in committee.

“This is a very happy solution of the problem, and was reached after a very friendly discussion with the honorary staff representative,” Mr Wood explained. “The board and staff find themselves in agreement, and the new procedure, it is confidently expected, will obviate the unfortunate misunderstandings that have marked elections in the past.”