Guam Medical School
pp. 56-57 · Read in the full issue
Another Attempt At A
Students May be Withdrawn From Suva CMS
Micronesian medical students at Central Medical School, Suva, may be withdrawn at the end of this year according to the US Trust Territory’s official journal.
Though facilities and training at Suva are completely satisfactory, it is felt that it would in many ways be better, and possibly less ex pensive, to train medical students either at Truk, or at the new $5,000,000 hospital now being built at Guam.
In addition to the fees for board and training at Suva, which at pre sent amount to £215 per annum per student, the Trust Territory Gov ernment is faced with a consider able transportation bill. There is also the factor that students train ing within Micronesia could be pro fitably employed amongst their own people during the training period— just as they now provide hospital staff for Suva.
There are at present 19 students at Suva, most of whom complete their training at the end of this year. Their interests are cared for by Dr. Earl Walter Udick, dental
surgeon from the Trust Territory, attached to Central Medical School staff.
Micronesian students first went to Suva for training in February, 1951.
It was an unexpected move and at the time of their arrival —there were 53 of them —very little had been done in Suva to accommodate them.
For a couple of years previously these students had been trained at a school set up by the US at Guam.
The reason that the school was closed in 1951 (shortly after Civil Administration took over from the Navy) and the students sent to Suva was the same as the one given now for their withdrawal — expense. The Guam school had
proved more costly to run than an ticipated, it was said.
Some of the first American students to arrive in Suva had dif ficulty in getting the best out of the course because their general education was not up to standard.
Because their arrival created acute problems of accommodation it is probable that their first year in Suva was not particularly comfort able for the students.
However, the fact that the Ameri cans had sent their students to the CMS was taken as a great com pliment and regarded as a mani festation of Anglo-American co operation. Now that Suva has a new medical school —it was opened by the Queen in December—it seems a pity that the Micronesian students are to be withdrawn.