CALL FOR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31498, 12 October 1967, Page 12

CALL FOR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

Fellowships should be created so young New Zealand medical research graduates now working overseas .could be brought baek.to'work in New Zealand, a meeting of the Canterbury, Medical Research Foundation was told yesterday. It was hoped that plans to institute a fellowship so that another young man could be brought back to work with Dr D. W, Beaven kt the Princess Margaret Hospital medical unit would come to fruition soon, said the chairman,' Dr L. C. L< Averill. Of the medical graduates of good quality who went overseas there were usually several who showed brilliance in research, said Mr C. H. Perkins. But usually there were not the facilities necessary for them to continue research in New Zealand.

Dr Beaven, in an address to the foundation, said comparable countries, such as Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland were thrusting ahead in research. Not only were they now providing higher standards of hospital care than New Zealand, but they also had export industries based on the clinical applications of their previous medical research efforts.

Dr Beaven said that during a recent trip through the United States and Europe he

had spoken to a number of the best young New Zealand post-graduate students working in internal medicine. They were prepared to work in New Zealand in research towards future hospital specialist appointments with financial rewards less than half those possible in the United Kingdom or the United States. “But to attract these young men, all citizens must be aware of the need to provide adequate laboratory facilities and equipment for our future hospital bedside specialists,” Dr Beaven said.

Dr Averill was re-elected chairman and he and Mr Perkins were re-appointed council representatives on the foundation’s executive.