DOMINION MEDICAL SCHOOL

Northern Advocate, 18 January 1936, Page 3

DOMINION MEDICAL SCHOOL

I ’VARSITY SENATE DISCUSSES FUTURE i ; ‘ Svecial to “Northern Advocate.”] AUCKLAND. This Day. The future of the medical school of the University of New Zealand and of the general policy of the training of medical men in the Dominion was raised at a meeting of the University Senate yesterday. A report on the medical course was presented by the vice-chancellor. Professor T. A. Hunter. The salient points of the discussion were the requirements of the clinical aspect of the medical course, and, in an effort to meet a- certain deficiency felt to exist in Dunedin, the establishment of a branch of the Otago school in some other centre; perhaps in Auckland. The high standard at present | obtaining at Otago was also stressed. TJhe senate adopted • the report j amended in several respects. It also j decided that the present committee, j with the inclusion of Mr, T. D. M. Stout, continue; that the committee should obtain opinions' of the medical profession and other bodies concerned j to forward them to the Otago Uni- j versity; that the committee report to j the senate at he next meeting.

Gist of the Report. The gist of the report, said Professor Hunter, was an attempt to set out the facts as they emerged, and the committee felt that the senate should raise certain matters with the Otago University. The committee, he added, felt that there was a possible danger of the need of training students giving rise to the setting up of a second school in the Dominion. The action would have a harmful effect. On the other hand, the committee was impressed with the difficulties in clinical work, and of the increased number of students. Pre-clinical stage conditions in the course, said Mr T. D, M, Stout, were satisfactory. Treatment in these subjects was of a higher standard than in England. “This stage,” he added, “might be curtailed, and more time given to the clinical stages.” Limited Capacity. In Dunedin there was not enough clinical material to train more than a certain number of students and some arrangement would have to be made to train final year students in some other place. It was done in both Ox' ford .and Cambridge Universities. Hospital and clinical training could be taken elsewhere. At present about 34 of the last-year students were trained elsewhere, but a more definite arrangement should be made to give a stable basis to last year teaching. He mentioned lectureships or tutorships. Mr Stout referred to a sentence in the report, which he said gave the kernel of the matter. The sentence read: “It is the intimate association of small bodies of''students, clinicians and patients which has brought British medicine to its present high standard, and should not be disturbed.” It was impossible to have the “intimate connection” in Dunedin. If the clinical stage was established in Auckland, it would not be under the control of the Auckland University College, but of Otago University. The Solution. The solution, said Mr Kenneth MacKenzie, lay in the using of other more popular centres than Dunedin for clinical work. It was unfortunate that Dunedin had lagged behind other cities in population—an event which, was never foreseen when the school was founded. As one came north, the size of the hospitals increased.

Mr MacKenzie said he felt that Otago University had developed the pre-clinical sidd beyond the needs of the general practitioner. “Our aim is not to train specialists, but the general practitioner,” he said. He felt that there had developed in Otago a lack of balance between the pre-clinical and clinical work.

The speaker reviewed his connection with the committee, and the conclusion he had come to as a result of visits to Otago in 1934 and.-1935. In 1934 he and Mr von Haast had considered that a limitation to 50-60 students was justified. In 1935 Otago had considered that they could deal with a larger number if certain proposals made in the repon were carried out. The position was impossible, and therefore another clinical school was necessary.

Complete Training. Representing the Otago University Council, Mr W. J. Morrell said that the reduction in numbers referred to a specific period, 1935, and not for any future' years. Opinion in Otago v/as prepared to see practically all final year students transferred, but it believed it could show that there was no need to transfer the fifth year students. The fact that no harm was being done to medical training in the Dominion in the interregnum was stressed by Mr L. D. Ritchie. Students were at present receiving a most excellent and complete training. The figure of 60, explained Professor Hunter, .referred to clinical work only and not to the pre-clinical work.