Hospital relationships.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, For about 130 years it has been the custom in this Hospital for a member of staff, in order of seniority, to be deputed by his colleagues to give the Annual Oration to the newly arrived students at the beginning of each hospital year. The term 'Orator' is very flattering to the speaker, but I must tell you that my only qualification for this particular task is a great regard for the work and traditions of the Royal Victoria Hospital, fostered as a medical student in this School before the war, and as a member of its staff since 1949. If at first I address my remarks mainly to the students I trust I will be forgiven by my colleagues, and particularly by the honorary consultants present-may I say how much pleasure it gives us all to have our honorary consultants here this morning. As medical students, ladies and gentlemen, you have spent the past two-and-ahalf years in the pre-clinical school, during which time you have come into contact only with your teachers and fellow-students, some I hope from other disciplines. You have furthered your knowledge of the basic sciences, and have been concerned with the study of the structure and function of the human body. From now on in the clinical school and in the hospital wards and out-patient departments you will learn how the body reacts to disease, injury, stress and the process of ageing. The study of pathology will complete a triad with anatomy and physiology on which an understanding of clinical medicine is based, and I would suggest that without the continued study of these three subjects your knowledge of the reaction of the human body to disease and injury will be deficient. During the next three years you will study the text-books of medicine and its many sub-divisions. These books describe disease processes and their treatments and combined with lectures and tutorials will assist you in the scientific application of medicine to the problems you will encounter. You will not, however, learn to understand patients from these text-books, and some people believe that the over-zealous application of scientific methods in medicine may lead to some neglect of the patient as an individual. While there may be a grain of truth in this, it must be said that no doctor can be of real service to his patient unless he possesses the necessary technical and scientific knowledge. Without this the greatest understanding and care for the patient as an individual will be of little avail. This is not to belittle the humanity of our profession, for I cannot believe that any of you, when you have added to your scientific education a considerable period of time spent with patients in the wards of this hospital, where patient care is the personal responsibility of your teachers, can do other than develop these human values which Bronowski lists as "tenderness, kindliness, human intimacy and love." This is best summed up, I think, in a rather old-fashioned word