MEDICAL REGISTRATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 7

MEDICAL REGISTRATION.

NEW ZEALAND METHODS CRITICISED. TREATED AS A SUSPECTED CRIMINAL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDONj January 25. A letter which appears in the British Medical Journal, signed by “Traveller,” and written in New Zealand, contains complaints concerning the treatment meted out to medical men from other countries who seek for registration. The writer considers 'that the difficulties of registration should be known to all practitioners before they go out to the Dominion in order that they may avoid, or be prepared for, irritation and disappointment. “ The intending applicant for registration, says the correspondent, is required to till in a form on which such questions appear as ‘ What have you come here for?’ and ‘ Why do you want to live in New Zealand? Give reasons.’ The applicant is asked to give personal references from New Zealand and the country whence he has conic. Next, he must make a statutory declaration that ho is the rightful owner of the diplomas handed over to the Registration Board for inspection, and this must be advertised in the daily press and paid for by tile applicant. His personal references arc then written to ami questioned about his character. Ho is required to pay about £(5 for these privileges. “ In about a month’s time lie gets what is termed a certificate of ‘ provisional registration,’ covering a very limited period. This entitles him to practise pro tern, but is no earnest that his registration will be made permanent; in fact, during the present year an applicant for registration, who stated that he had been for several years on the British Register, ■and to whom a temporary certificate was issued, was given another temporary certificate when the first had expired, and he, having committed himself to the purchase of a practice and residence, was subsequently prosecuted in the law courts by the police for practising without being on the register. Some months later a permanent registration certificate was issued to him, but meanwhile ho had been caused much anxiety, and his practice had suffered. A CONTRAST. “The permanent certificate is issued some months (up to five) after the original application, and until it is obtained the applicant is in a state of uncertainty as to whether, his application is to be granted or not. “ Contrast this with registration on the neighbouring Australian continent. In the eastern States, unless they have changed their method recently, about two weeks elapse from the time of application to the time of registration ; the fee is about one-third of that in New Zealand, and tile applicant is not treated as though he were a suspected criminal, and the onus of proof lay on him to clear himself. “ What is the object of this reactionary system ? Is it, as has been stated by those connected with the profession, to prevent medical men from coming to live in s*ew Zealand ? It would indeed bo a sad thing for the country if this were the case. It has but one medical school, and that in Dunedin, a town of some 70,000 inhabitants, where of necessity clinical opportunity is very limited.”