The ‘Common-Health’ and Beyond: New Zealand Medical Specialists and the International Medical Network, 1945–85

Abstract

This article argues that during the four decades following World War II, New Zealand medical specialists worked within a professional field that was fundamentally international in nature. In contrast to the predominantly nation-centred narratives that characterise much of New Zealand's medical historiography, this article suggests that the structures, conventions, and values that underpinned the work of New Zealand specialists were to a large extent derived from, and sustained by, a complex network of international exchanges. The article focuses in particular on the temporary--but almost universal--overseas migration of New Zealand medical graduates in pursuit of post-graduate specialist training, and discusses the implications of the resulting international network for the development of post-World War II medical specialisation in New Zealand, and in many other Commonwealth countries.