The Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences is one of three medical schools that make up the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. All Otago University medical students who gain entry after a first year "Health Sciences" program, or who gain graduate entry spend their second and third years studying at the Dunedin School of Medicine. In their fourth and fifth years, medical students can either continue to study in Dunedin, or at the Christchurch or Wellington Schools of Medicine.
History
From 1924, students could complete their last year of training at hospitals in either Auckland, Christchurch, or Wellington as well as Dunedin. In 1938, a branch faculty was established in Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington. The Christchurch branch faculty became a 'clinical' school in 1973, the forerunner to the modern Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Departments
The Christchurch School of Medicine is structured into thirteen academic departments: Anaesthesia, Biostatistics, Postgraduate Nursing Studies, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine, Paediatrics, Pathology, Psychological Medicine, Public Health and General Practice, Radiology, Surgery, and the Maori/Indigenous Health Institute (MIHI). Additional disciplines are taught in Dunedin and Wellington.
