SIR LINDO FERGUSON’S ARROW.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3005, 2 March 1926, Page 2

SIR LINDO FERGUSON’S ARROW.

AIMED AT HOSPITAL BOARDS.

The Hon. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, Avho has returned from the South after delivering the opening address at the annual conference of the Hospital Boards’ Association, at Dunedin, is impressed with the tone of the conference, and the usefulness of the association, both to the Department and to the country (says the Dominion). He hopes that the one hospital board not represented at the conference will join the association. Remarks made by Sir Lindo Ferguson (Professor of Ophthalmology at the Otago University) concerning the appointment of medical officers had (said the Minister) appeared to create some feeling among members at the conference. Sir Lindo’s address contained some good points, but, added Mr. Young, he evidently did not fully understand the position when lie said that “there was nobody on earth more incompetent to judge the attainments of a member of the medical profession than laymen who constituted the hospital boards, and he would suggest that the appointment of the medical staff of a hospital should be left in medical hands.” If Sir Lindo had acquainted himself with the Hospitals Act, he would have found that no appointment of a medical officer, including a member of the honorary medical staff, or a matron, manager, engineer, or secretry of the board, shall be made until the Minister lias been notified of the intention to make such appointmet. The boards were required under the Act to forward tot he Minister a list of applicants, and it Avas the duty of the Minister to submit to the board for its guidance such reports and recommendations as he thought fit, and it was the duty of the board, in accordance Avith the Statute, to give due and fair consideration to such recommendations before making any appointment. Almost without exceptio, continued Mr. Young, the appointments made by the hospital board during recent years had been admirable, and the Department had received no complaints with regard to medical officers. Needless to say, the decision of the Minister with respect to the professional qualifications of members of the staff Avould be in accordance Avith the advice furnished to him by his responsible advisers. He had made it clear to the members of the hospital boards that in ail matters of administration where he required professional or expert advice he would seek it; he would, take the responsibility for his decisions, and would endeavour at all times to come to such decisions in a spirit of fairness and common sense.