Continuing Medical Education Urged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 9

Continuing Medical Education Urged

Hospital boards were keenly aware of the need for continuing education and research in the hospital system in New’ Zealand, said the chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Dr L. C. L. Averill) opening a four-day symposium of specialists at the Christchurch Women’s Hospital with the theme, the infant at risk.

To provide for graduate education and to support research. alterations would be required in the Hospitals Act, and this was something that was now being undertaken, he said. Dr Averill, who has returned from a visit overseas, said the work of the Auckland team of doctors was well known in other countries and “across the United States 1 was able to bask in something of their reflected glory,” he said. In England, the Royal Commission on Medical Education, of which Lord Todd was chairman, had provoked a great deal of discussion about the need for continuing education. The days when a young doctor could be turned out with the MB. Chß. qualification without further education were gone. The intern and the house surgeon should receive further education under

, the guidance of a university to ensure he was well equipped for the work before I him. Dr Averill described the transition of the hospital from a Government maternity hospital into a women’s hospital for this part of New Zealand as a major event in the medical history of Christchurch. “I know from the enthusiasm of the staff that every endeavour will be made to make this an important centre for the treatment of women’s diseases in New Zealand," he said.