NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALS

VISITING STAFFS’ ELECTION COMMENT BY MB GORDON BELL (P.A.) DUNEDIN, January 15. “The election of visiting staffs for New Zealand hospitals is, up to a point, a formality generally carried out annually or biennially,” said Mr Gordon Bell, Professor of Surgery at the Otago Medical School, when Sir William Fletcher Shaw’s criticism of the election system used in the appointment of visiting staffs to hospitals was referred to him to-night. He said that conditions were a little different in New Zealand and in Great Britain.

In New Zealand visiting staffs were paid a retaining salary. In Britain, in the so-called “voluntary hospitals,” doctors gave their services free, as was the case in New Zealand until a few years ago. Therefore, the old principle of “the people who paid the piper calling the tune” was not entirely unreasonable. Mr Bell agreed that security of tenure was a good thing provided it was the right man who had that security. He had observed, however, few instances of injustices in the termination of appointments. It was frequently found, said Mr Bell, that in big hospitals in Britain young men appointed to positions would have a probationary period of up to five years. The difficulty of responsible re-elec-tion by boards comprised principally of laymen was overcome with success in the Dunedin Hospital, and possibly in some others, by the establishment of a joint relations committee to consider applications for appointments. The committee comprised representatives of the Hospital Board, the University College Council, and the heads of various departments of the hospital, the last-named being co-opted as advisory members. Mr Bell emphasised the danger which existed if appointments were made without the advice of any such properly constituted appointments committee. “It- is essential that a lay body should have competent and impartial professional advisers,” he said. The Royal Australasian Colleges of Surgeons and of Physicians were, he said, extremely anxious to see that hospital appointments were filled by properly trained and qualified men. In some cases representatives of at least the College of Surgeons had been included on appointments committees.