A CHAIR IN OBSTETRICS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 92, 19 April 1945, Page 4

A CHAIR IN OBSTETRICS

AX endeavour is now being made to raise a fund of £100,000 for the endowment of a chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Auckland University. The amount is large, but is no more than sufficient to ensure the establishment and maintenance of the suggested chair, the occupant of which must be a specialist of very high attainment. The project is not a new one, it has been under consideration for the past five years, and during that time there has "been an ever-increasing appreciation of the absolute necessity for the provision of facilities for better training and fcr refresher courses for men already trained in obstetrical science and in the illnesses which arise from childbirth. Leading Auckland professional and business men met some months ago, and, after hearing the views of experts, determined that the large majority of the women of New Zealand shall not continue to lack the best skill and attention which modern training can provide. An enthusiastic and influential committee was set up, and this committee has accepted the task of raising the necessary funds. Already it has received assurances of support from many quarters, and has created an organisation which has faced its difficult task with a spirit and determination that promise well for the ultimate success of the effort, provided that there is a general and generous response from the whole community. Every section of the people is intimately concerned with making the appeal a success, a success which will be a prelude to saving the lives of women and children and to the preservation of their health and happiness in a measure which cannot be over-estimated. Facilities for training in this vital branch of medical science are far below the Dominion's needs. The only school available is that at Dunedin, which, although it trains a hundred students a year, is unable, for lack of clinical material in a relatively small centre of population, to do more, or to offer facilities for refresher or post-graduate courses. The result is that doctors who desire to undertake this special class of work must go abroad for special training. The number able to undertake this supplies only a. small percentage of the Dominion's needs, and unless about half the population is to be denied the advantages "of medical progress we must undertake the work ourselves. In addition, a very large .proportion of our younger doctors have been overseas with the armed forces. In periods of five years or more devoid of obstetrical experience they have lost touch with this important branch of their work, and it is the duty of the people to see that they are accorded a full opportunity of attending refresher courses and relearning all that has been lost to them. Auckland can offer the best facilities for this work. A women's hospital containing two hundred beds is to be established here, and while it is under construction the Auckland Hospital Board will provide for an intake of a hundred women patients, in addition to the cases formerly treated. The largest city offers the biggest field for training men to treat these_.cases, ancLthus Auckland's claim, and duty, is doubly strong. It is not the intention of the Department to establish a post-graduate school at the women's hospital, and the people must therefore help themselves by assisting to repair the omission. The committee has the strong support of the . Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, in its efforts, and every possible training facility will be given at the women's hospital when it is in operation. Women throughout the Dominion have taken the matter up as a national effort, and strong support for the campaign will come from southern centres. The people of Dunedin have given endowments to the University there totalling over £480,000, and in addition chairs are maintained by the Presbyterian Church. It is obviously well within the capacity of the much larger city of Auckland to provide £100,000 for so humanitarian a project, and the committee deserves the strongest support which every section of the community can give it—it will be needed if the objective is to be reached.