Challenge

Mr. Crosby, in March, challenged the Government to obtain the opinion of an over seas expert on university training, saying the profession was convinced that. if health services were to be preperly maintained., university-trained pharmacists would be essential. He quoted the findings of a delegation which went abroad in 1963 that university education was the only acceptable form of training for the profession.

Professional anxiety with the existing system is, to say the least, impressive. Earlier in the year. Dr Fastier recalled that the School of Pharmacy was set up at Petone by the Education Department when it had become clear that the existing standard of pharmacy education was inferior to the minimum required in most parts of the Commonwealth. One of its objectives was to provide a course adequate for basic needs. A degree course was instituted at Otago for more advanced training, he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Fastier added, the Pharmacy Board had ascertained that standards elsewhere were rising so steeply that the degree course at Otago had become little better than an average course and the diploma one at Petone had become grossly substandard.

The Government has not announced any changes yet in its plan to transfer the Petone school to a new campus at Heretaunga. Upper Hutt, and is. it would seem, rejecting the contention that nothing less than a full scale university course of three years is adequate for the modern pharmacist.