Medical School For Canterbury?

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30898, 3 November 1965, Page 20

Medical School For Canterbury?

The chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Dr. L. C. L. Averill) spoke from no narrow parochial viewpoint when he told the hospital board of his hopes for a medical school attached to Canterbury University. A Canterbury medical school, he said, could provide teaching in clinical subjects just as well as the Dunedin and Auckland schools of medicine. He saw no need for a third anatomy school, however, and he emphasised that the Auckland medi cal school should first be established. Two medical schools will probably be sufficient for the country’s needs for some time yet; but whether a third school will be desirable in 10 years, or in 50 years, is debatable. The planning of medical schools is not just a matter of extrapolating population trends and providing for a steady increase in the number of “ places ” in the nation’s medical schools. Rapid changes in medical technology, advances in scientific knowledge, and new methods of treatment have radically altered teaching requirements since the war. Today’s medical practitioner uses, or Las access to, a wider range of specialised services than his predecessors dreamed of. The general practitioner cannot hope to master them, but he must know something of all of them: and the budding specialist cannot skip any of his general ♦raining to complete his special qualifications earlier. These trends suggest that longer rather than shorter periods of training and qualification for medical practice will become necessary. Already it is apparent that the profession and the public in any city must benefit from close association with a teaching school. It is not generally realised that a branch of the medical faculty of the University of Otago is based on the Christchurch Hospital. Responsible for the training of sixth-year and graduate students, this branch can provide a variety of clinical material; In fact, it could be argued that, because of Christchurch’s larger population, more clinical teaching should be done in Christchurch than in Dunedin. Be that as it may, the continued increase in teaching activities required in Christchurch must, before long, demand more full-time appointments. Teaching and associated research will continue to be administered by the branch faculty; but when—rather than if—a third medical school is needed, the branch should father the new school.