PROPOSED CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24911, 26 June 1946, Page 8

PROPOSED CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS

ASSURANCE GIVEN ABOUT MEDICAL SCHOOL

POSITION OF AUCKLAND HOSPITAL BOARD

AUCKLAND, June 25.

“I am not going to have it suggested in two or three months’ time that this statement appeared in the press and the Auckland board let it go unchallenged,” said the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, Mr A J. Moody, in commenting at‘ a meeting of' the board last night on a recent statement by Dr. J. B. Dawson, professor of obstetrics at the University of Otago, concerning the proposed chair of obstetrics and gynaecology in Auckland.

At a meeting held in Dunedin to organise the Otago contribution to the £lOO,OOO fund to endow the chair in Auckland, Dr. Dawson was reported to have said that solemn assurances had been received that the proposal would not be regarded as a “leg in” for a medical. school in Auckland.

Mr Moody said he was keeping an open mind at present concerning the question of a medical school in Auckland, but Dunedin people must not be asked to give money for the chair on the understanding that Auckland gave a solemn promise not to establish a medical school here. MY Sulwyn Morris suggested that Mr Moody’s statement might be interpreted to mean that Auckland was using the chair as a “leg in” for a medical school. He did not know of any organised body that was striving for a complete medical school in Auckland. “All we are aiming for is to increase the efficiency of clinical instruction of undergraduates and postgraduates in Auckland,” added Mr Morris. “We’are not aiming to establish a full medical school.” Mr Moody said that someone had given a solemn assurance that a medical school, would not be established, and he wanted to know who had done so. He wanted it made clear that the hospital board did not make the statement.