YOUNG DOCTORS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1938, Page 17

YOUNG DOCTORS

EARLY SPECIALISATION,

NOTED SURGEON'S CRITICISM ;

(By I'elegrapb- t'resi Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 2.

The tendency for young doctors nowadays to specialise 'in one particular f branch of medicine before they were properly conversant with the general training required before they could be really good "family' doctors was deplored today ...by the noted . London surgeon Mr. E." C. Lindsay, in an interview , , , ;(,,.<?; "There is too much tendency to specialisation at the present tiirle," said Mr Lindsay. "Doctors should' have « thorough training to be sound general practitioners before they begin to specialise, otherwise they will not be I properly balanced The mah who has I got a good general training will in- ' i evitably *be a sounder specialist than I the man who specialises before 'tie has 'gamed that sound gene/al training." Mr Lindsay said that students, after they had graduated-and had received their first' appointment, -ften endeavoured to do .specialised work immediately, without rflrst 'gaining general knowledge of a doctor's, work This, in many cases, led to wrongful-diagnosis ox a disease A -specialist who was not first a general . practitioner often diagnosed the root of>a~ trouble to the organ wnich:,was his particular .study, when the trouble might be caused by something entirely different Specialisation was a danger il it was adopted too quickly by-a young doctor What people wanted was a good all-round- doctor Even" the wealthy classes were more satisfied with this, and this tyie.of training was absolutely essential ' New Zealanders in the medical profession were regarded highly^in Great Britain, he continued He referred to a recent vacancy in a large London hospital for a doctor, when one New Zealand doctor had been among the applicants There had '*been some^ttiscussioh about who should be appointed to the position The head surgeon had recommended ihe New Zealander as he stated "no New Zealand doctor had ever let him down "