| Following an enquiry into the region's future medical and dental manpower needs, the Commission on Medical (and dental)Education in the South Pacific made the following recommendations to the University of the South Pacific and the Government of Fiji: that the university replace its diploma-granting medical programme with a degree-granting programme whose graduates would become heads of the country's health teams; that a 2-year course be devised to convert diploma-holders to degree-holders; that the university establish a school of health sciences for the education of doctors and other medical cadres, ensuring that the courses offered include adequate practical training; and that the university develop a 3-year course to train a cadre of auxiliary known as the health officer who would perform and supervise activities in preventive medicine, maternal and child care, obstetrics, family planning, and health services administration. Estimated costs of implementing these programmes are tabulated. The study, however, has been judged too expensive and, for the moment at least, set aside. The problems to which it applied itself remain: the highest calibre of secondary student continues to opt for degree-granting programmes in other disciplines; present graduates continue to be overtrained for work in remote areas; and the health officer cadre, intended for primary clinical and preventive care at the grass-roots level, does not yet exist. |