Otago Medicals school's Lindo-Ferguson Building. Photo by
Peter McIntosh.
Once again, the defenders of Otago and Southland's
health services are doing battle - this time over the future of
Dunedin's neurosurgical services. But, is there more at stake?
One of the seasoned warriors from battles past thinks there
might be. Mark Price reports.
The Otago Medical School is such a part of Dunedin it seems
hardly credible, even heretical, to suggest its future in the
city might be at risk during the current debate over
neurosurgical services.
When the Otago Daily Times put the question of the
school's future to Health Minister Tony Ryall's office on
July 19, the reply was: "An easy one - it's not on the
agenda".
Reassuring, perhaps.
But, what did the National Government's Invercargill member
of Parliament Eric Roy mean the week before when he told
ODT health reporter Elspeth McLean that at some time
in the future there would need to be a debate about where the
best place was for a medical school?
That issue, he said,
was not "on the table" now but it would be a debate that
would eventually have to be faced.
The Roy comment will come as no surprise to Dame Dorothy
Fraser when she reads it in here this morning.
She has already considered the worst-case scenario if Dunedin
loses out to Christchurch in the debate over neurosurgical
services.
"I suppose we could ask the question, I guess, as to whether
or not Christchurch's determination to become the only centre
for neurosurgery is also based on a growing desire for
Christchurch to become a full medical school."
Dame Dorothy speaks with the authority of 29 years' service
on the Otago Hospital Board and 12 years as chairwoman. She
has also fought the same battle over neurosurgery - in the
1980s.
And, she is well aware of the pressure that has been applied
by Christchurch and Wellington to have their own medical
schools.
Each of those cities has had a "clinical school" of the Otago
Medical School since the early 1970s.
The clinical schools were set up primarily to provide the
Otago Medical School with access to more patients, enabling
more students to get more clinical experience.
But a clinical school controlled from Dunedin is, obviously,
somewhat less than a full medical school controlled by local
Christchurch or Wellington interests.
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