NO CONTINUITY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1935, Page 10

NO CONTINUITY?

N.Z. HOSPITAL POLICY. "DISTRUST OF PROFESSION." APPEAL MADE TO BOARDS. (By Telegraph.—Fross Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. An appeal to hospital boards to give more respect t<*> the opinions of their medical staffs was made by Dr. ,T. Bright Banister, specialist in gynaecology at Charing Cross Hospital, London, in an interview. Dr. Banister has just concluded a comprehensive tour of New Zealand. The visitor said that one thing he had noticed particularly was that there appeared to be in many centres a want of continuity in hospital policy, which seemed to him to be due to a distrust of the medical profession by hospital boards. Generally speaking, hospital boards and their medical staffs did not appear to work as well together as they might do. Many boards did not seem ,to give that respect to their medical staffs that they should, either in seeking advice or in accepting it. "There should be none of this, for medical staffs are well qualified to assist and advise boards," he said.

In New Zealand trie standard of medical practice was higher than in England. he continued. lie considered that an advisory medical committee in each hospital was desirable, but even more desirable was that the advice of that committee should be sought and respected. Such a committee could advise a board on such matters as the development of hospital buildings and general hospital policy, such as the arrangement of the staff. Patient Exposed to Rain. Dr. Banister -said that in one metropolitan hospital he saw a patient, evidently coming from the operating theatre, being wheeled to a ward across an open yard at night in the rain. He was sure that possibility would never have been present had the medical staff more voice in planning the hospital. Many hospital boards, added Dr. Banister, appeared to have a semi-political feeling that they must justify their existence by doing something new or something different. Remarking that it was a proved fact that one-third of the women who attended gynaecological out-patients' departments complained of disorders or disabilities directly referable child birth, Dr. Banister urged the institution of gynaecological departments in hospitals. Christchurch and Duncdin at present had those departments, but others should be established. "The community need have no fear that it will be experimented upon. There are heaps of good men perfectly capable of doing the work necessary. It is mainly a matter of hospital organisation and the expense should not be any greater than at present," he said.

Dr. Banister had nothing but praise for the obstetric side of medical practico in New Zealand, for which the record of the Dominion, he said, was extraordinarily high. The New Zealand Obstetrical Society could take a great deal of credit for that position and for the work it had (tone in influencing practitioners and co-ordinating the efforts of various agencies to improve the standard in New Zealand.