DENTAL STUDENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1942, Page 3

DENTAL STUDENTS

SHORTAGE FEARED BURSARIES SUGGESTED (0.C.) WELLINGTON, this day. Approval of a suggestion by the Hospital Boards' Association, that dental bursaries should be introduced in order to combat the serious falling off in the number of dental students, has been given by the Wellington Hospital Board. The medical superintendent Dr. J. Cairney, in his report to the board said that the proposal was that the Government should be requested to provide bursaries for students taking lhe course for the degree of bachelor of dental s<rgery, and that each student to whom such a bursary was awarded should undertake to give service after graduation either in the State Dental Service or in the service of a hospital board as a fulltime dental officer.

The only action requested by the Hospital Boards' Association at the moment was that boards having dental departments should in general agree to the scheme, and should alio agree to cake their proportion of the bursars after graduation. Dr. Cairney said he agreed that lhe scheme, though not offering any immediate relief, must eventually be to the advantage of the board in overcoming the serious difficulties now existing in securing an adequate supply of Qualified dental surgeons. The length of service which bursars would be expected to give after graduat-'on was stated at one point in the association's circular as two to five years, while in the suggested form of agreement it was stated as three years. On this point the opinion of the board's senior dental surgeon, Mr. E. G. Bender, was that the period of service required after graduation should be not less than four years.