AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 14

AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALS

VALUE OF ANATOMICAL SCHOOLS AUCKLAND DOCTOR’S VISIT “An anatomical school associated with a hospital would be enormously valuable; it is a pity we do not possess one in New Zealand,” said Dr. Frank Macky this morning on the Maunganui. He had just returned from Sydney and Melbourne, where he had visited most of the public and private hospitals. At the Melbourne institutions Dr. Macky found that the surgeons were also lecturers in anatomy. This, ho thought, was an excellent thing and gave both students and lecturers a decided advantage. In both Sydney and Melbourne there were big private hospitals in which probationers were employed. One private hospital in Sydney contained 130 private and 150 public, beds and was a beautifully appointed institution. Nurses and probationers were employed just as in public hospitals in New Zealand. They at tended both the public and private patients. Many of the Sydney surgeons did most of their consulting work at the private hospitals with which they were associated and not in rooms in the city. In many ways this allowed them to make more complete and elaborate examinations of their patients than if they saw them in consulting rooms. "Sydney surgeons, when operating, have many more assistants thau we do,” Dr. Macky remarked. RADIUM NEEDLES The importance of having radium in small needles was made clear in the Sydney and Melbourne hospitals where cancer was treated. Sometimes the radium needles were left in the patients for six or seven days, whereas in New Zealand the average time was 24 hours, because a larger needle was /used here. The uniform design of the Royal Prince Alfred appealed to Dr. Macky. This huge public hospital also possessed a magnificent operating theatre. All the public hospitals and the Australian universities received large bequests and gifts of money. This enabled them to experiment and to install the most up-to-date plant. Twelve years ago, the doctor said, the Melbourne University considered that it possessed the very last word in its anatomical school. However, such advances had been made that this school had been scrapped and a new one costing many thousands of pounds had been bqilt. Such advances could be made only by the bequests which had been made to the university by public-spirited people.