Objective: To review the events surrounding the formation of the neurology department at Auckland Hospital in 1959.
Methods: Interviews; review of hospital board minutes, journals and newspapers.
Results: In 1935 Dr. John Egerton Caughey was appointed to the staff of Auckland Hospital as a general physician. Caughey had trained in neurology at Queen Square and he started a neurological clinic. His private practice predominantly comprised patients with neurological disorders. In 1946 Caughey relinquished responsibility for general medicine and became the neurological consultant. In 1951 he resigned to take up an academic appointment in Dunedin. Caughey was not replaced until Dr. Gavin Glasgow was appointed in 1956 and Dr. Keith Eyre in 1958. Their clinical work was entirely in neurology, but at first they worked within the department of medicine. An autonomous neurology department was formed in 1959. The formation of a neurology department was strongly opposed by the senior neurosurgeon, Mr. Donald McKenzie. McKenzie thought that he should oversee clinical decisions about patients with neurological disorders and in particular he believed he should determine which patients needed neuroradiological investigations. After a prolonged dispute between McKenzie and the Auckland Hospital Board, McKenzie’s contract of service was terminated at the end of 1961. In the meantime Glasgow and Eyre, who were joined by Jon Simcock (1968), Barry Cant (1969) and William Wallis (1971), established a regional neurology service for the upper North Island. The controversy surrounding the establishment of the neurology department and the personalities involved will be discussed.