Medicine for community

Press, 1 August 1977, Page 10

Medicine for community

Sir John Brotherston. Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, will be principal consultant to a community medicine workshop to be held at Nelson from August 29 to September 2. Sir John is well known in the field of community medicine: he was closely involved in the evolution of the faculty of community medicine in Britain, and more recently guided the reorganisation of health services in Scotland. He and Lady Brotherston will arrive in New’ Zealand on August 12, and will spend the time before the conference on an orientation tour to see and discuss different aspects of communitv medicine in New Zealand The second consultant at the Nelsen workshop will be Dr Trevor Wood, chief executive officer of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, and censor-in-chief of the Australian College of Medical Administrators "Community medicine’’ is concerned writh the population. rather than the personal aspects of health and health care. A recent ‘ ’ m e d i c a 1 manpower” workshop identified community medicine as one of

three priority areas for development in New’ Zealand. The others are general practice and psychiatry. The Nelson workshop will be attended by about 30 people — representing medical schools, departments of community medicine, the Hospita’l Superintendents’ Association, the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the Medical Council, the New Zealand Medical Association, the Hospital Boards’ Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and the Health Department. It will set out to: define the functions and identify the scope for community medicine, examine the possibilities within the "specialty” for future development: examine the characteristics of the existing personnel; advise on recruitment and education requirements; and consider the establishment of a professional body responsible for the specialty. Recommendations from the workshop will be forwarded to the Minister of Health (Mr Gill), the Health Department, the Medical Council, and the New Zealand Medical Association.