HOSPITAL STAFFING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 15 August 1932, Page 7

HOSPITAL STAFFING.

w «pt:os .r vh* rs£ss —There a report i« to-day s JL'af The I'kk-> oi an address by rcwpw 1 ,je -' ° ! Nveiii,i f toll - 0,1 from sewn-1 causes. One is ;ii , uiultiplic- ;U " ,n ei >mall hospitals £*•* tb--wrf bbouU be lew -No. J hospitals tiw citie,; in which alone house siiould L-, enipli-'veil. Ihe Surgeon, alter .juahlyuig needs With experienced men, ami tile central hospitals can lie -a* thai training. In large hospitals Swrk is divided up among several ijaJists—surgeons, phy si cuius, and SLuid the liuiLM-. surgeons, get inixting under the ablest men of the Son- Again, the house surgeons m sot stay enough m oui hos„..U most they average twelve JLth*. because they vant to get nZZTu> "ain more experience witli great men oi the Old World. This Tim laudable, but it leaves us with m neeessitv oi .scouring rouud tor Zm to take their places. Ihe result ijfcst New Zealand has become verv -Wroosly overcrowded with medical ,«of all sorts, many of them excelat men, who are finding it almost aMisible to make a living, fbr is- it that the young gradual not stav in New Zealand? It i because we have too many doctors jgl special work all over New Zea'ak in all sizes of hospitals, and it "2fwilt to get the standard snmjmflT high to induce our young m|sates to stay here and gain their amgrieaoe. The remuneration, in oonto first-class men is so that they have not the time Latins to devote their energies to teaching, which is such a ■MM feature of the large hospitals. atheOld World. Nor do they have mt lis® for research and experimeu--J trork in addition to their ordinal round. Only when special work rnwrred for those in the four City will this desirable state or jfaira be obtained. it present we have men doing surtpr jnA specialising, who, though ashe excellent medical practitioners, Ml not be allowed to do the major of our art. Once wo get the jtsgnr work into the hands of the real' tram we ca " establish clinical ana nUi«f schools in the four centres M& S*T jounj; men will stay here, "ttaj fljl'stav. not one- but tour or "the young graduates do is & apt special hospitals iu tngicw Zealand will be the Siatr. /At present the number of • W go into practice every year kStr Zealand is so large that alt flrfjr-i-ons cannot expect to get oqgh to keep them in sufficient, pracirto do first-class work. This is th© Jjtion of the problem, and not the siethilt one of making the medical MSB? loticer so as to rope in the men ij» *hou!d he graduates and so compel' in to do the work which they should » glad to do as graduates, for they i« still learners. It will do away, •m, with the .'illy nonsense of the pmle rushing to every new man irom Itnc. New Zealanders rush after the iMt' man who has just come out fill a long string of degrees. A\ e shall itaWfl to test out our own men and lanr their worth, and Mr Begg will *«hat I know he desires, a raising 4 the standard of our bigger work ad a much higher moral standard in or dealinz with medical eases, as MUwr Wellington medical man so oncedjr pleads for. ft conclusion, one cannot pick up or siirgerv by looking on or in helping a senior at work. The mg man has to be tamrht. and must «Tg a ling apprenticeship even after h mdoites, just as a cabinet-maker * itter ha* to do. before he can be «bnted with the major work of •fame md surrerv. —Yours, etc.. T. A. MneGIBBOX. M.D. JNgnat 12th, 1932.