WOMEN STUDENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

WOMEN STUDENTS

ADMISSION TO LONDON , HOSPITALS. ISSUE AGAIN SHARPLY RAISED. War has given an added impetus to an old demand that women medical students should be admitted to London's teaching hospitals on the coeducational system which exists elsewhere in England. The issue will be sharply raised again soon, a “Manchester Guardian” correspondent wrote recently. The Medical Women’s Federation is discussing the matter in the expectation of early reports from the Inter-Departmental Committee of the Ministry of Health and Scottish Office which is considering the whole question of medical training and from a committee of the University of London. : At present students of the London School of Medicinefor Women take their hospital training at the Royal Free, and a few women students are at King’s College and'University Hospitals. A woman doctor estimated that there are probably fewer than 150 places for women students in London hospitals, a fraction of those available for men, and that the standard of selection is higher. Training in wartime is limited by a Ministry of Labour quota and by the accommodation in the teaching hospitals. The women, and many male supporters, believe that the best students should be accepted irrespective of sex. If hospital charters stand in the way, the women point cut that the West London. a hospital exclusively for women patients, became “mixed? after one day’s work in Parliament when it was listed for the emergency medical service. They can think of no objections to co-education other than prejudice.