Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1946. For the Mother and Child

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 December 1946, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1946. For the Mother and Child

RESIDENTS of the Greymouth distric

are this week being invited to subscribe to the fund which is being raised to endow a professorial chair in tlie postgraduate’school of obstetrics and gynaecology to be attached to the Auckland Hospital for Women. It should be recognised at once that the school will be a national institution. Its aim is to raise the standard of midwifery practice and the knowledge of gynaecology throughout the whole Dominion. In fact those who live in the more remote parts will benefit as much as, perhaps more than, those in populous areas. For .that reason, if for no other, the project is one that should readily commend itself to all residents of Westland.

The principal reason for the establishment of the post-graduate school is to enable such work to be undertaken as will diminish the risk and discomfort which must be faced by women in perpetuating and increasing the race. New Zealand, outside its large cities, is sparsely populated. There are large areas attended by only one medical man: How necessary is it, therefore, that he should be well trained and up-to-date in his knowledge of midwifery. The medical practitioner in New Zealand, especially in the country districts, is almost invariably so busy a man that he can find little time to keep up with the advances in medical practice in rhe older world.

The scheme has the enthusiastic support of the British AEedieal Association and the New Zealand Obstetrical Society, and. as a result Sir William Fletcher Shaw, Ihe eminent British obstetrician and gynaecologist, has come to New Zealand

Io give export advice in the establishment of the school. This distinguished visitor, in an address at Wellington, spoke of the great advances made in medical-practice and the difficulty of the practitioner to keep up with the progress. Six months’ attendance and clinical experience at the post-graduate school, he said, could be worth years of study in an endeavour to keep abreast while engaged in general practice.

Accommodation will be provided in the Auckland hospital for a number of doctors who are-able to leave their practices for a comparatively brief period for further instruction. From the research and actual practice at the hospital they will be enabled to return to their homes well versed in the latest advances in this branch of medicine.

The hospital is to be a national institution ; for that reason the committee responsible for the raising of the money required is anxious that the endowment fund also shall be on a national basis, supported by all parts of the Dominion. Other provinces have already given the lead. As has been emphasised by Sir William Shaw, those who support this foundation do so with the knowledge that they are doing something to decrease the risk, and to increase the comfort of the women of New Zealand.. No investment could return a better dividend.