HOSPITAL STAFF

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 124, 22 November 1923, Page 8

HOSPITAL STAFF

FUTURE MEDICAL ARRANGEMENTS. ■

The Wellington Hospital Board has had under consideration the question of making some changes in connection with the system of appointment of the'-hon-' orary and resident medical staff of the institution. The desirableness or otherwise of supplementing and reorganising the staff was again brought under the notice of the board to-day by a motion standing in the name of the Rev. H. Van Staveren. In his comprehensive report, following his visit to the United States, the Medical Superintendent Dr. D. M. Wilson, recommended that the honorary staff be reorganised early next year, and that there be appointed surgeons and physicians, with assistant surgeons and physicians; the assistants to relieve and assist the seniors in ward work, and also to control the out-pa-tient department. He expressed the opinion that future senior appointments should be made from the assistants. As continuity of service was to the advantage of the Hospital, the Medical Superintendent favoured a system of election whereby members of the honorary staff could depend upon appointment for a reasonable period. As to resident house surgeons and physicians, Dr. Wilson pointed out that the. success of American hospitals depended upon a large staff of junior residents, and he recommended that in future the board appoint as many of these officers as the requirements of the Hospital rendered necessary. It is understood that these questions affecting the medical staff win be decided before suggested additions and changes in other branches of the staff are dealt with.