GRAVE ALLEGATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1845, 3 September 1913, Page 8

GRAVE ALLEGATIONS.

w • a— p OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL

ir j DUNEDIN DOCTOR'S TESTIMONY. i-, )f 0 Dr. I. W. W. Hunter, of Dunedin, brother of Professor Hunter, of Wollinggavo some startling ovidcnce yos- ,, terday before the Education Committee appointed by Parliament to hear ■ witnesses on questions which affect the future of the whole University and es-. * pecially of Victoria Collpge, Wellington. ~ In his evidence, Dr. Hunter said that no more money should be spent on increasing tliio grant to the Otago Medi--1 j cal School until a searching inquiry had been held as to its constitution and methods. His criticises would demonstrate the wisdom of the opinions expressed by tho lat(? Professor MacGregor when giving evidence before thp Comi mission of 1878, who! emphasised three „ points—(l) Jobbery, as the medical men appointed would use their positions to 'J featllier their own nests without any proper regard for the interests or education >r of medical students. (2) That men ' would bo appointed to teaching fwsts for ,j which they had no qualifications. (3) That, as a result, the Medical School i° would become, "the most mischievous ■. sham of all possible shams." That pro- : pliecy of Dr. MacGrogor's had bceu fulfilled, said Dr. Hunter," who that Q ~ the passage to that condition of affairs f~ was no doubt facilitated by tlio fact that I the Medical School began its career undor dual control, the University Council and tho Hospital Trustees (now the 1 Charitablo Aid Board). ea" The Era of Medical Canvassing. In only a few instances had the council a freo clhoico. Tho whole of the r B University teaching staff nt tho hospital 1° must be selected by the councilfrom tho ' medical men appointed to hospital 'posts r- by tlio Charitablo Aid Boardr-a body of laymen. The obvious result was that e ~ tho University Council became microscopic, and tlio Charitable Aid Board 08 filled the landscape. Appointments r " mado by tfho latter wero for one year only, and tlhe relation between tlio counu" cil and tho Oharitablo Aid Board was quite tho reverse of amicablo. Tlio result may bo imagined. Every year there ■J wero stronuous canvassing for hospital ™ appointments, tho question of ca'p.ic'e ity retired moro and more into tho background, tlio hospital staff entered lk into tho thick of the battlo and became m supporters or opponents of tho dommk- ant faction for tho timo being on the Appointing 'Board. Good work in a 'd medical school was impossible with such 10 earthquakes yearly, and tho effect of such an annual spectacle on young medical students must bo disastrous. Plll-makor and Professor. 10 Dr. Hunter then handed round a box s ' of a certain doctor's toiiic iron pills, the , salo of which' bad been going on for years in Dunedin, and remarked that a that was the last thing which ought to , bo associated with tlio name of a medi--cal 1 professor of the university. I>- Somo Startling Statements. '' Dr. Hunter then gavo examples which r "' had come under his own knowledge of P- tlie way in which hospital duties were 'J' sacrificed to private patients, and also gave illustration's of the incompetence ■d 0 f teachers, who wore mado specialists 'I "by a stroke of tho pen." Ho then rout lated his own experiences in tho out'lf patients' department at Dunedin from 1903-5 which ho summarised as folry lows:—No clinical teaching, and eleven :1. students on tho final year could not use tho ophthalmoscope, no- physical exr - aminations, no surgical anatomy, no k children under two years of age, no 1 notes on out-patients, and notes on 10 in-patients tho property of tho doctor m mid not of tho hospital. In conclusion, Dr Hunter said that his evidenco show'e ed 'that tlio system of appointment of 50 medical teachers in Dunedm Medical School had lent itself to serious abuses 18 so that the duties of many teachers had : )r been laxly performed, and tho Otago ■ :c University Council had not recognised tho supreme importance of special trainin" for universitv posts in medicmo, but 10 in"t.hat school had made experts with. 16 a. stroke of tho pen: that there had been a criminal neglect, of clinical teachj ing the sino qua lion of all decent modit cal'examination: and that tho medical students received no training in the disoases of children.