Læknablaðið - 01.12.1963, Page 62

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LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
and plays a large part in the
training of doctors, for example
in Australia, in Egypt and else-
wliere.
And lastly I turn to continu-
ing education. For those who
work in hospitals and other spe-
cialist services mucli is already
available, specialist journals and
conferences of specialist socie-
ties, lihrary facilities and so on
and I do not propose lo touch
on this matter further.
It is in tlie field of general
practice that there has been in-
sufficient achieved. In the past
we have relied too much upön
occasional attendance at Meet-
ings of Medical Associations and
hoped that tlie Journals whieli
are commonly read would pro-
vide the general practitioner
with information of new devel-
opments.
In the larger centres tliere
are opportunities for the general
practitioner by iiis close associa-
tion with the many activities in
the hospital, bul it is clear that
if we are to succeed in making
continuing education a normal
activitiy of all practitioners we
must make it both attractive
and readily available. We must
take education to tlie doctor.
It is with tliis in view tliat in
the United Kingdom we are
seeking to ensure that eacli re-
gional hospital will become the
educational centre for not only
its own staff hul also llie other
doctors of the area. We envisage
too, that this liospital will not
only have suitable facilities such
as a roorn for meetings and a
library but will have a suf-
ficiencj^ of staff to ensure that
teaching can hecome one of ils
normal activities. In formulat-
ing these programmes tliat most
common answer and certainly
one which has a role to play
is to arrange courses of instruc-
tion which may he either inten-
sive whole time courses for a
week or a fortnight or which
may he carried on once a week
over a period of months. In
such courses there should be
lectures, but tliere must also he
adequate opportunity for seeing
clinical cases and having dis-
cussions on the matters raised.
In Edinburgh we are present-
ly trying to work out a pro-
gramme which envisages tliat
over a period of two or three
vears Ihere will he more or less
a complete review of the whole
field of medicine and surgery.
There are other ways in which
we can do more and in particu-
lar we stress the value to the
practitioner of being able to go
back to hospital for a period
of training. For some doctors
living near a hospital we may
he able to arrange regular at-
tendance at special clinics or
ward rounds once or twice a
week but for otliers and espe-
cially those who live further