MEDICAL STUDENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1943, Page 3

MEDICAL STUDENTS

ADMISSION TO SCHOOL EXTENSION AGREED TO. STATEMENT BY MINISTERS. { (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, February 23. Following a meeting with a subcommittee of the Otago University Council which was appointed to consider the number of students to be admitted to the Medical School, the Minister of Education, Mr Mason, and the Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, today issued a joint statement. Their visit, the Ministers explained, had been occasioned by public protests which followed the announcement of the restriction in the number of entrants to the Medical School to 100. “It is true that the Director-General of Health some years ago estimated that 70 graduates would bq. sufficient to satisfy the normal requirements of the Dominion,” the Ministers stated. “It is obvious, however, that whatever justification there might be in normal circumstances for restricting the number of admissions to the Medical School on that basis, such restrictions could not be justified at the present time.’ The view of the Government, it was stated, was that, notwithstanding the return to practice of those doctors who were now serving with the armed forces, there would be a serious shortage of medical men in the post-war period. Accordingly, at this stage, every effort should be made to increase the flow of students into the Medical School in order that the deficiency should be met as soon as possible by New Zealand graduates rather than by the entry of doctors from overseas. “The meetings with the staff of the Medical School and with the sub-com-mittee of the council have been very fruitful,” the Ministers said, “and it is likely, as a result, that the council will agree to increase the number of entrants this year to 120.” It appeared, they said, that this was the utmost limit to which the existing staff accommodation and facilities could be taxed. The effect of the extension would be the admission this year of all who had passed the Medical Intermediate Examination in 1942, with 11 exceptions. “The whole question of the future training of medical students,” the Ministers concluded, “will be thoroughly investigated at an early date, so that adequate steps can be taken to deal with a possible increase in the future.” At a special meeting of the Otago University, Council in the afternoon, the matter was fully discussed, and it was decided that, in view of the assurance given by the Minister, to accept the whole number of qualified applicants, including those who passed in the February special examination, with the exception of those who failed' to lodge their applications by the prescribed date and five students who were otherwise, for various reasons, ineligible.