TRAINING OF SURGEONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 612, 14 March 1929, Page 16

TRAINING OF SURGEONS

NEED FOR SERVICE IN HOSPITALS STAFFING POUCY NEEDED Press Association WELLINGTON, To-day. The medical staffing - of hospitals was the subject of a very emphatic address by Sir Louis Barnett (Otago) to the Hospital Boards Conference yesterday. “The policy of employing a minimum number of stipendiary officers to do all the surgical work at the larger hospitals appears to be increasingly favoured by hospital boards in different parts of the Dominion,” said Sir Louis. "This policy, in the opinion of the College of Surgeons, is a bad one, inasmuch as it must inevitably lead, firstly, to a stereotyped and unprogressive standard of surgery as practised in hospitals, and, secondly, to the lowering of the standard of surgery as practised outside hospitals. "To perpetuate the policy of the exclusion ct a visiting staff from the i larger hospitals would, in the opinion of the college, be most unwise and ! fraught with all ugly possibilities of [ incompetent surgery. j “The College of Surgeons claims I that the proper way and, with few exceptions, the only way to acquire the training and experience necessary to fit a medical practitioner for the responsibilities of a major surgical practice is by a long period of surgical service in hospital, at first in a junior, and later in a senior, capacity. “The college resolved at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Fellows of the College last month that | this deputation should wait upon the conference and explain how vitally irri- [ portant it is in the interest of public I welfare that facilities be provided at | public hospitals for the training of a I sufficient number of competent surt geons to supply the needs of the coinI inunity.''

Sir Louis requested consideration of the following recommendations which the conference promised to give: (a) That facilities be provided at public hospitals for the training of an adequate number of competent and trustworthy surgeons to supply the needs of the community; (b) with this end in view there should be appointed at every hospital of 100 or more beds, one junior or assistant surgeon, and one senior surgeon for every 25 surgical beds in that hospital; (c) that these appointments should have tenure of three years, the holders at the end of their term being eligible for reelection or promotion; (d) that hospital boards, in dealing with applications for these appointments, should seek the advice of a medical committee. Dr. D. S. Wylie (Palmerston North) said Sir Louis Barnett had admirably expressed the opinions of the Austra- ' lasian College of Surgeons regarding the question of hospital staffing and its importance in the production of sound, efficient surgery, not only for the hospital concerned, but for the j community at large, j The speaker intimated that he was | not in favour of “one-man hospitals,” j that was where the medical service consisted of one or more stipendiary ! officers who performed the entire proj fessional worl^c^jln^