SURGICAL KNOWLEDGE

Northern Advocate, 18 April 1933, Page 4

SURGICAL KNOWLEDGE

TEAM WORK ADVOCATED. HOSPITALS AS CENTRES, . - \ (Per Press Association.—CooyrlgWA WELLINGTON. Monday. Sir Louis Barnett,, of Dunedin, the vice-president of the ? Royal Aiistfa-, lasian College of Surgeons, returned .by - . the Makura to-day after attending the, annual conference. Ho said / the coh.ferouee gave much attention to hospital, policy, and stressed the advantages of ‘ • making hospitals centres for the attainment and advancement of surgical knowledge. . - ' • The system of staffing on the closed system, whereby one paid medical officer was given the monopoly of the whole of the surgical work in a large - hospital, was condemned, on - the* grounds that patients received better - treatment through consultations and the team work of specially-trained medical practitioners, and that the medical profession generally, and par- ■ ticularly young practitioners, were' dc-,‘ barred from gaining knowledge and; experience which would be beneficial to the general welfare. i

The problem of staffing was dealt, with by Professor Gordon Bell, of the , Otago University. He advocated the. open method and,.suggested that hospitals in the Dominion should be graded by representatives of the college, acting under authority of. the Minister of Health. met, with the approval of the council. He stated that in Australia the one-man hospital had almost disappeared. Con- ’ demnation of that type of institution by Now Zealand Surgeons had been endorsed by the conference.