Grants Committee Blamed For Shortage Of Doctors

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30152, 8 June 1963, Page 13

Grants Committee Blamed For Shortage Of Doctors

(Neus Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, June 7. The responsibility for the present shortage of junior medical staff in New Zealand hospitals must be laid at the door of the University Grants Committee, the Southland Hospital Board told the pre-sessional conference of the Southland Progress League tonight.

The only way in which people could be assured of the services of junior medical staff in hospitals was to make provision for more students without lowering standards, the board said. By any means available, if the problem was to be solved, the student intake must be increased. “The alternative we face,” the board said, “is a perennial shortage of young men who will be increasingly hard pressed, frequently to the point of dangerous fatigue.”

The principle of the need for a second medical school had been accepted. The difficulty lav in the unwillingness of those responsible to proceed with the actual

building. The board said it was generally acknowledged that at least 10 years must elapse from the date foundations were laid to the point that the increased intake could provide more qualified men.

All hospital boards wanted was to have available an annual quota of newly-quaji-fied doctors. The number of qualified men coming forward had, at best, remained static in spite of a growing population. Replying, the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Hanan), who is M.P. for Invercargill, said the Grants Committee was awaiting a report on the distribution of doctors throughout the country. which should .be presented in about three weeks. The committee was con-

vinced of the need for a new medical school, to be sited at Auckland, but it was not convinced that the building of the school was urgent. Auckland University had been advised to start looking for a site.

A new medical school would cost £3 million to build and £300,000 a year to operate. Mr Hanan said. The report of the distribution of doctors might convince the Grants Committee that a second medical school should be started now, said Mr Hanan.