BEST MEDICAL SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 19856, 3 May 1928, Page 14

BEST MEDICAL SERVICE

HOSPITALS MUST BE OPEN TO PROFESSION THE INTERESTS OF THE PUBLIC —— * [?br L'nitsd PftEß» Association.] HASTINGS, May 2. Interviewed to-day in respect to the Hon J. A. Young’s statement that neither he nor the Health Department would interfere with the staffing policies of hospital boards. Dr H. M. Wilson, one. of New Zealand’s representatives at the Medical Conference at Canberra, said that this question was most important as affecting medical efficiency in the dominion. . “Complete efficiency in surgery, uc said, “can only bo achieved by surgeons working in hospitals serving their probation as young men there, helping their seniors, and gradually acquiring that experience and skill that are needed when their time comes. this can only be done if the public decides to throw tho hospitals open to them. In all countries post-graduate training is now looked upon us essential. In Victoria they pay professors from itngland and America .arge turns of money to come to lecture to them, these sums are refunded from tho fees paid by the doctors attending the post-graduate courses. This post-graduate work can i only be carried out with the co-opera-tion of the hospitals. “ I feel,” said Dr Wilson, that thy prime need in New Zealand to-day is that the public should settle the staffing question. We have the buildings, the men, and the money. With wisdom, compromise, and a realisation of the ambitions of the patient and doctor, we can have the finest medical system in the world. We ought to build on our present system, not destroy it. Ji I were an independent man 1 would realise that 1 could serve my country no better than by going round and explaining this to tho public. L would like to see tho hospital boards invite Sir Louis Barnett, who will be acting as president of the College of bur£cods of Australia and New Zealand to discuss with them openly the question of hospital efficiency, and not m committee: but so that he could speak through the board and the Press to the public. Sir Louis is a New Zealander. He has been an eminent teacher in the Medical School here, and has had a long and honourable career as a doctor. Ho has retired from all active practice, and is only concerned now with giving to the public of this country an efficient medical service.” . . , , . Referring to the Minister s statement that it rested solely with boards to decide whether they have stipendiary staffs only or stipendiary staffs working in conjunction with the honorary stalls. Dr Wilson declared that if tho medical profession was properly represented on the hospital boards there would be little doubt that its decision would favour a policy of conjoining the honorary staffs, chosen from the best men in the hospital district, with the assistance of the younger paid resident medical officers, with an administration to co-ordinate the services. Referring to the Minister’s statement that the Act would allow every board to organise its own administration in respect to the provision of private wards, the doctor said that these wards were certainly needed. He said that the community hospital should comprise a hospital such as exists in most large towns of New Zealand to-day, with tho addition of a building somewhat adjacent, but quite distinct, where anyone could get a private room, either alone or with others, and have his own doctor in attendance, whether he was a medical or a surgical case. Such patients would have to pay according to the room, just as anyone had to pay, say, for a cabin on a steamer; but tho building would be accessible to the hospital, so that the laboratories, X-ray, and other modern diagnostic equipment would bo available. Ho declared that there was no ground for the talk of class distinction in tho provision of private wards, adding: “When a person is ill there is only ono consideration for the medical and nursing professions, and that is to get him well, and be he the dirtiest or' most miserable person, if ho is more ill than his neighbour, he will always receive more attention. In all countries T. have seen this, ajid I can assure the public that it is an incontrovertible fad;.”