NO ALARM

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 165, 15 July 1942, Page 6

NO ALARM

HOSPITAL BOARD

STANDARD OF ANAESTHESIA

"There is an impression in some quarters that the administration of anaesthetics is a simple and easy routine matter, whereas in fact it requires a great deal of skill and ability for an anaesthetic to be efficiently and properly given," said the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, Mr. Allan J. Moody, this morning.

In the normal course of training at the University, students are given lectures and practical tuition, and, on qualification, they are entitled to administer anaesthetics, but it requires a considerable amount of practice before any degree of perfection is attained. It must not be thought that because attention has been drawn to certain matters of administration the standard of anaesthesia in the Auckland Hospital is likely to cause undue alarm, because it is the practice for a resident, on joining the staff, to be allocated to various runs during his term and he is not permitted to give anaesthetics until senior officers are satisfied as to his competence and ability. "Doing Great Work" "It is with the object of making the standard even higher that the board has appointed Dr. Hudson who, among other duties, will see that the sixth-year students attached to the hospital staff will be given extra training in anaesthesia. For some time past the administration at the hospital has watched the position, and the board is quite satisfied that the members of the resident staff are competent to administer anaesthetics. In fact, if they were not, they would not be permitted to do so.

I do not want any impression to be gained that the board is unhappy about its resident staff. It is not—in fact, it is doing great work under difficult and trying conditions due to the war, overcrowding and other circumstances. The board's deS aj e - ls *° £ive 100 per cent efficiency in all departments of its institutions."