MEDICAL TRAINING.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1934, Page 4

MEDICAL TRAINING.

There is considerable force in the contention of the authorities that a weeding out process among medical students is desirable. From the materialistic viewpoint it might be said that if students desire to enter an overcrowded profession it is their responsibility, and that in process of time the position will right itself, But that is not the only angle from which the suggestion of limitation is to be viewed. The authorities maintain that the teaching power and the equipment available at the Otago Medical School are not adequate for the number of students who are offering. Tire teaching staff must be increased, they say, laboratories made larger, and equipment multiplied if the number of students continues to increase. It may be argued that ■ as students pay fees for their training the greater the progress the better. But the fact remains that in every profession overcrowding soon limits entrants, and there is no reason to think that the same will not occur in regard to medical students. This would mean that funds would have been expended in directions that will be of little use when the number of students adjusts itself to the demand for their services when qualified, and might have prohibited expenditure upon equipment or teaching that would improve the training now obtainable. So long as the weeding out is done before students have wasted too much time there should be no real hardship caused, though doubtless some disappointment will be felt by the rejected. The Dominion is proud of the status its medical school holds among similar institutions. Testimony to its high standard' of efficiency has been given by experts from oversea, and when further funds were necessary to improve the training in certain directions the public provided them voluntarily and cheerfully. It may be claimed therefore that interest in the school’s welfare extends beyond the medical profession. Whether a doctor is successful or not is largely a matter of personality. The community has the right to insist, however, that he shall be thoroughly trained before he is allowed to practise his profession. If the medical school ij is too overcrowded to permit of this it 'is the community as well as the students that must suffer.