Shortage Of Surgeons

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 9

Shortage Of Surgeons

New Zealand hospitals are short of 29 house surgeons, 42 registrars and 53 assorted specialists—in the full-time sphere alone. The total deficiency, excluding house surgeons, is the equivalent of 140 fulltime doctors. This has been found in a survey of staff shortages conducted in May by the executive of the New Zealand Medical Superintendents* Association. In the survey report, published in the latest “New Zealand Medical Journal,’’ the medical superintendents say that authorised building schemes will add 3446 beds and several special departments to hospitals in the next six years. This will require more than 300 additional doctors. To correct present shortages, replace those who retire, and staff these new buildings, a recruitment of 666 doctors (full-time equivalent 525) will be needed in the next six years in addition to those graduating from the University of Otago Medical School. An editorial in the “Medical Journal” calls the situation a national emergency—“a serious threat to public health in the widest sense of the term.” “There is no single solution, but action in some directions will help the situation and give a hard-pressed profession seme measure of faith in the future,” the editorial says.