HOSPITAL POLICY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 222, 18 April 1933, Page 6

HOSPITAL POLICY

Attention by Royal College of Surgeons

Press Association. —Copyright

Wellington, April 17.—Sir Louis Barnett, of Dunedin, a vice-presi-dent of'the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, returned by the Makura after attending the annual conference at Sydney. He said the conference 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 the patients received better treatment through the consultations and team work of specially trained medical practitioners, and that in the medical profession generally particularly young' practitioners were debarred from gaining knowledge and experience which would be beneficial to the general welfare. The problem of staffing was dealt with by Professor Gordon Bell, Otago University, who delivered the Syme oration at the conference. He advocated an open method and suggested that hospitals in the Dominion should be graded by the representatives of the college acting under the authority of the Minister of Health. The proposal met with the approval of the council.

He stated that in Australia the oneman hospital had almost disappeared. The condemnation of this type of institution by New Zealand surgeons was endorsed by the conference.