COUNTER-PROPOSALS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160814, 23 November 1920, Page 4

COUNTER-PROPOSALS.

'Chief opposition to the Department’s scheme comes from Dunedin. There is apparently a strong and commendable desire to zealously guard the interests of the Dental School already established there, which has done such excellent work in the past in training students and raising the standard of the dental profession. Mr Pickerill, Dean of the Dental Faculty in the University of Otago, has taken up the cudgels on behalf of those opposed to Mr Hunter’s scheme, and in a letter to the Dominion, adversely criticising the proposal, says;—“ What do I suggest? Well, in the,, first place, a sufficiency of well-paid, properlyqualified dentists, who alone should be trusted to operate on the children. They can be obtained if the State will pay them, and the service is made attractive. The Dental School after next year will be turning out 20 per annum. These will be quite enough to keep the service growing and developing in its early years, more than sufficient with the gospel of prevention to eliminate ’’practically all the sepsis from the mouths of New Zealand children. Secondly, to facilitate the work, the training and appointment of dental nurses who should on no account he allowed to operate, but to act in the role of a dentist’s attendant. Is the best good for the children? Why, then, should they be subjected to being operated upon (as is proposed) by half-trained women, and if these women are good enough for the children, why are they not good enough for their parents? But, if the Minister says they are not to be allowed to operate upon the public, why should they be allowed to do so upon the children? Thirdly, the treatment of the most urgent cases. First of all, the desirability of this is obvious to any layman. Fourthly, the establishment in the first instance of dental clinics in _ the smaller towns where no facilities exist at present for the children. Fifthly, the provision of dental motor ambulances for the children in the backblocks and scattered country districts. Sixthly, the children to be selected for dental treatment by the school medical officers who are already, from my own knowledge, well experienced in this work. The children requiring treatment most "would then attend the dental clinics in rotation. Finally, it should be laid down as a primary principle in a democratic country such as this, equal opportunities for all and help for thpse who need it most.”