The Making of Doctors
The Goodenough Committee's Report on the future of the Medical Schools is a thorough, comprehensive and construe five piece of work, in some ways as important a document as thr White Paper on the National clealth Service. For however adinir ably a Health Service may be planned, it will be as good as and n better than the doctors who man it. The Goodenough Report points the way to the production of better doctors. The first essential better material to work on ; at present, medical education is virtu confined to those whose parents can afford at least Li,000 for ma tenance and fees over six years. Though the Committee do not as far as might be wished in opening the doors of medical educati to poorer boys-and girls, they do advise that the existing confusic in the arrangements for scholarships and grants should be cleared u In the selection of students, careful consideration should be giv to headmasters' reports, personal interviews, and aptitude tests. I stead of trying to eliminate the unfit by examination towards end of the course, the process should be complete inside the student' first year. Throughout the course, the burden of examinations should be relieved ; in particular, the " double " finals. of the Tin versities and the Royal Colleges, which most students now tak should be discouraged, if not abolished. In the curriculum, mo room should be found for psychological and social medicine, chi] health, and the study of minor ailments, by ruthlessly pruning time devoted to the details of surgery, pathology, and the ba sciences. A year of compulsory hospital residence before quer tion is advocated, and for specialists a recognised training of four five years after qualification. It is suggested that Exchequer- to the medical schools should be made conditional on the admi of women medical students ; the proportion of women might one-fifth of the total. There is much else of interest in the Some of the recommendations are arguable, but it is to be hoped the' Government will unhesitatingly approve and adopt the gen principles laid down.
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