URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26693, 12 February 1948, Page 6

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Replacement of National Dental School PRESENT CROWDED CONDITIONS For just over 20 years the National Dental School has been providing New Zealand with its dentists at an average rate of 13 graduates a year. In 1924 the foundation stone of the present school was laid and the building was erected at a cost of £26,000. Except for minor expenditure on equipment and makeshift partitioning of existing rooms, nothing further has been spent in providing adequate facilities for the training of urgently-needed dentists. Negotiations extending for more than a year have been proceeding, between the Council of the University of Otago and Government departments for the erection of a new school, but to date comparatively little has been achieved and no decision has been announced by the Government on the subject. There has been full recognition by the Government and the people generally of the shortage of dentists in New Zealand and of the need for a substantial increase in the number of graduates turned out by the National School each year. A special investigating committee appointed by the Government itself recently recommended that 45 graduates a year would be required for the next 22 years to meet the dental needs of the Dominion. This year 79 applications have been received for admission to second-year classes at the National School and of these 50 will probably be accepted.

So congested is the school as a result of the increased quotas accepted in the past two years that it was seriously considered at one stage that little more than a-quarter of the 79 candidates for admission this year could be accepted With no promise of a new school to provide the accommodation and facilities necessary for these and last year's new admissions in the advanced stages of their course, it was considered that the quality of the graduate produced might suffer in order to provide the number of dentitsts required to meet the acute shortage in the profession. Shortage of Dentists In the past year or two the importance of dental health has been brought before the people of New Zealand in a number of ways, and the result has been that students have displayed a substantial increase of interest in the profession. It was felt by the authorities that to cut drastically the quota of second-year admissions for 1948 would be a serious blow to a large number of candidates who would be worthy reinforcements to an inadequate force of dentists practising in New Zealand to-day. Consequently, it has been decided to admit approximately 50 secondyear students on a system of selection similar to that in operation for the Otago Medical School. Such a decision has been made only with the thought in mind, that

conditions that give them a totally wrong conception of what a dental surgery and equipment should be. The teaching of basic medical sciences occupies almost the three blocks of the Otago Medical School. Yet at the Dental School the teaching of the basic sciences, apart from the medical subjects, has to be carried' out in a room measuring approximately 30ft by 15ft. So small is it that in some subjects classes are triplicated and in others duplicated, making it necessary for the staff to do two or three times the work and to prepare teaching materials as many as three times for the same subject. This teaching material is prepared in two miniature rooms nearby in which research work has also to be carried out by the various members of the staff pursuing their individual lines of study. Next door is another small room where the dean himself does his research. Through individual gifts and Government grants, several thousand pounds have been placed at the disposal of the school for research into pressing problems affecting New Zealanders’ teeth. Needless to say this essential work is hampered by lack of space and lack of equipment, but even so much important work is being carried out by enthusiastic research workers. Small though the main clinic is, great improvements have been effected in the provision of fluorescent lighting and new equipment. Here valuable service is being given to hundreds of members of the community. Space, however, is seriously lacking for anaesthetic cases. In fact, a dental chair has had to be placed in two of the recovery rooms, only a screen separating the recovering patient and the working dentist. Instances of similar overcrowding and inadequate

a new school will be provided. Figures show the vital need for a new school. The building was erected to accommodate from 90 to lOO.students spread over a four-year course, of which three years were spent at the school. To-day, the total roll of students at the school has been stabilised at juss over 200, and the course has been extended by one year. At least 100 dental chairs will be required by May, 1950, for the use of senior students, who, as well as learning the

profession, are giving a valuable dental service to the public. At present there are 57 chairs in the main building, and a further 23 are available in an inconvenient, ill-equipped annexe some distance from the school itself. Some of the chairs are of an 1872 model, with a hard board seat and of archaic design. Apart from the story told by these figures, the syllabus of the new course, the new departments established to keep pace with the rapid advancements in the profession, the increased staff, and the growing importance of research all contribute to the urgent need for a new school. With the permission of the dean of the dental faculty, Dr J. P. Walsh, the Daily Times made a thorough inspection of the existing building and investigated the conditions under which the staff and the students have to work at present. Imaginative Use of Partitions A considerable expansion has taken place in teaching at the school, and the syllabus has been brought fully into line with modern overseas trends. Men of outstanding qualifications have been appointed to the staff, and yet they are working under conditions that are probably without parallel in any institution in New Zealand to-day. Only two members of the staff have rooms to themselves. The remaining members of the teaching staff, no mattter how senior, have to be content with sharing a small office that has been formed by the imaginative use of partitions. So poor is the accommodation and so inadequate are the facilities for the new departments, that one senior member of the staff has reluctantly decided to resign his position. Only the possibility of a new school being built is keeping other members on the staff. A brief inspection of the building confirms the claims of the Otago authorities for a new building. Because of its structure, it is not possible to remodel the present school, and so make use of the building. Moreover, to do so would probably cost more than a new building. As it is to-day full use has been made of every sqare foot of space, sometimes to an ingenious degree. New equipment is coming to hand, and much good use has been made of paint and partitions. Nothing more can be done to the present building, which is iess than half the size required for a national dental school to-day. Only one lecture room is available in the building; the prosthetic laboratory is inadequate even though it has been fitted with new benches where no benches were ever intended; the block for basic dental sciences measures 30ft by 15ft; and the department dealing with the science of dental materials is represented by only the lecturer’s desk. The annexe with its 23 chairs is ill-lit, badly equipped, lacking in adequate plumbing, and without sufficient heating. Patients have to climb by steep stairs to the second floor, and the students have to begin their practical work under

facilities could be given at length to show the difficult conditions with which staff and students are contending.