MEDICAL SCIENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 38, 13 August 1935, Page 5

MEDICAL SCIENCE

POST-GRADUATE WORK

NEW LONDON SCHOOL

DR. EWEN EETUENS

Some interesting details concerning the new British Post-Graduate- Medical School, Shepherd's Bush, London, were given to a "Post" reporter by Dr. H. Bayldon Ewen, of Wellington, who, with Mrs. Ewen, returned yesterday by the Wairangi from London. Dr Ewen resigned last year from the position of medical superintendent of the Wellington Hospital, and he has been undertaking post-graduate work in England. Dr. Ewen said that the opening ceremony of .the new seat of medical learning in London was performed by the King on May 13 this year in the presence of about 400 guests, most of whom were in academic dress. Among those present were the Queen, Sir Austen Chamberlain, chairman' of the governing body, Lord Snell, chairman of the London County Council the Earl of Athlone? Chancellor .of London University, and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, Lord Dawson of Perm, and Sir Holbert Waring, Bt, president of the Hoyal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons respectively. Sir Austen Chamberlain, said Dr. Ewen, in requesting the King to declare the school open, stated that the institution had three great tasks before it—firstly, to enable medical men in general • practice to bring their knowledge up to date and to familiarise themselves with the latest developments in diagnosis and treatment; secondly, to provide instruction for graduates desiring to pursue special studies in the higher branches of the profession; and, thirdly, and tq this.was attached the greatest importance, to pro-' mote research and to advance medical knowledge. "It is our ambition," Sir Austen said, "to make of this school a great Imperial centre of British medical science, drawing students and teachers alike from all parts of your Majesty's Dominions, learning from all, teaching all, and helping by the education it affords and the research which it undertakes to lessen human suffering." The King, in declaring the school open, said: "It is my earnest hope that this school, with its happy union of ward and laboratory, university and local authority, drawing students and teachers alike from all parts of our Empire—and I trust from regions even more widely spread—may prosper under God's blessing. May it play an Imperial role in the winning and dissemination of medical knowledge and in the relief of suffering amongst my people in this country and:, overseas, and in enabling the doctors of all lands to come together in a task where all must be allies and. helpers." BIRTH OF THE SCHOOL. The school, continued Dr. Ewen. was the result of the deliberations of a committee appointed in 1921 by Dr. Addison, then Minister of Health. That committee wa's presided over by Major-General the Earl of Athlone G.C.8., G.C.V.0., D.5.0., and it recommended that the : school should be established in association with the Hammersmith .Hospital, which was under the direction .of the London County Council,; and: that the sum of *~250,00q. should;-be, allocated for it The financial'; crisis^ of 1931, however intervened, and the Government felt it necessary to curtail the proposed capital grant and eventually reduced it to £100,000. This was subsequently augmented by a like sum provided by the London County Council and plans were prepared for the new buildings So far only one block of buildings had been constructed. This consisted of a brick building in the form ■of a square enclosing a central quadrangle. On the ground floor, were situated the administration offices and a large clinical lecture theatre, the main biochemical laboratory, and the postmortem department. The clinical lecture theatre was designed to accommodate about 100 students, and was equipped with a cinema projector, and with demonstration lanterns, so that either slides or actual specimens, and illustrations or cinema films could be utilised to demonstrate the. lectures. On the first floor there was a second large lecture theatre precisely similato that on the ground floor. There was also a well-equipped reference library with small reading-room and refresh-ment-room adjoining, and on the same floor there was the museum with its attendant preparation rooms and laboratories. The third floor was devoted entirely to bacteriology and experimental pathology. WELL-EQUIPPED HOSPITAL. The hospital, which was connected with the school by corridor, had at present some 388 beds. A- new outpatient block had been built and was in the most up-to-date style with its suite of examination-rooms, buffet small operating theatre, etc. Attached to this department was a well-equipped ante-natal section. The radiological unit was thoroughly modern and equipped with the latest plant for all types of radiological diagnosis and treatment. It was said to be the largest unit of its kind in Great Britain.' A new ward block of four storeys had been added to the hospital. The ground floor was a surgical unit, the first and second floors were devoted to maternity patients, and the top floor comprised an up-to-date operating unit —two large-and well-equipped theatres with a Central sterilising room and attendant anaesthetic and staff rooms Dr.. Ewen said that at present the hospital and school was organised into four departments:—Medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and pathology, each of which was under the direction of a professor who had under him a number of teachers, lecturers, and a resident staff who were charged not only with the welfare of the patients but also with the duty 'of teaching and of research into the causes and treatment of disease. The medical department was under the control of Professor F. H. Fraser, who for many years was Professor of Medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He had as his chief assistant Dr. R. S. Aitken, one time New Zealand Rhodes Scholar! | The surgical department was headed by Professor G. Grey Turner, of Newcastle. His chief assistant was Mr. L. C. Rogers, of Bristol, an Australian by birth. Professor James Young, of Edinburgh, was director of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, and Professor E. H. Kettle, . late of St., Bartholomew's 'Hospital, was head of the department of pathology. NEW ZEALANDERS ON STAFF. Among, the, resident,staff there were two New Zealanders, both from Wellington—Dr. M. T. Greig- and Dr. T. R. C. Fraser, son of Mr. Malcolm Fraser! formerly Undersecretary for Internal Affairs. The school was fortunate in having as its dean Colonel A Hi Proctor, D.5.0., M.D., M.S., F.R.C S! who had had a distinguished career with the Indian Medical Service.

It was intended In the near future to erect another block of wards at the Hospital, bringing the total number of beds up to 534, and to provide residential facilities for post-graduate

students. The organisation provided for the transfer of patients from other hospitals so that there was always an adequate supply of material for postgraduate study.

The specialties such as eye, ear, nose, and throat, skin diseases, children's diseases, etc., were not as yet provided for, but the school was in close collaboration with the London dealing with these subjects, and those students wishing to follow up any special branch were given every facility for attending the clinics held at the appropriate hospital.

The British post-graduate school, concluded Dr. Ewen, was designed to fill—and it gave every promise of fulfilling—a long-felt want in post-gradu-ate study in London.