Medical Eminence Likely

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 12

Medical Eminence Likely

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, February 14. New Zealand should play “Hillarys and Halbergs, Herewinis and Snells” in its medical work and fill its role “weight for weight” on the world stage, said Sir Douglas Robb, at the official opening of the National Women’s Hospital at Green Lane this afternoon. “This surely is no more than the just return for the natural bounties we have inherited in this wonderful country,” Sir Douglas Robb said. As Chancellor of the Auck-

land University, he was addressing more than 1000 persons at the ceremony at which the Governor-General, Sir Bernard Fergusson, opened the hospital.

The transfusion of infants before birth—a technique developed by national women’s doctors—was a procedure calling for great originality of mind, wide scientific knowledge and great technical skill. Sir Douglas Robb said. “It can result in the saving of a life—a tiny one—and in breaking the chain of disappointments and frustrations on the part of the parents,” he said. “Any university or hospital would be proud to have had a hand in such an undertaking—and the great world of medicine has taken notice.” That kind of advance augured well for the vitality of the new medical school

which was urgently needed, he said. “We confidently look to the Government today for its early inauguration. “The physical structure of the hospital and nurses’ homes is magnificent,” he said. “It needs only the speedy provision of work space for the professorial unit to make it pre-eminent in the Commonwealth. In its adjacent setting with Green Lane Hospital—likewise soon to be completed the whole campus, designated as the centre of postgraduate medical activity for the city and province, will become a legitimate source of national pride and an attraction to workers from the wide-Com-monwealth and beyond." The Auckland Hospital Board chairman, Mr T. H. C. Caughey, said the hospital and nurses’ home had cost £3.3 million.