5 4. Medical Officers and Medical Doctors Medical Officers and Medical Doctors provide the consultation for outpatient services at the hospital as wel] as the inpatient care of the medical and surgical patients. The recommended minimum for each hospital at Majuro and Ebeye is one general surgeon with one or more general practitioners. permits the minimum As soon as the work load demands and staffing recommendation would provide one surgeon, one internist, one pediatrician, one obstetrician/gynecologist and one or more general practitioners. doctor to do itinerate Such a level of staffing would allow one service for consultation and continuing education of the medical assistants on a scheduled visiting basis to each atoll. Complicated medical and surgical cases requiring more skilled care or highly specialized services would be referred to Hawaii, Guam or mainland U.S.A. for tertiary medical care. Such situations would be few and infrequent. The supervision of medical officers and medical doctors is done by the medical director in charge of hospital services and by formalized scheduled peer-review continuing education conferences. is provided A in degree of the form of supervision and consultations and referrals for tertiary care when required. The training of medical officers is recommended to be at the Schoo] of Medicine of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Several medical officers in the Marshalls have been trained at this school but currently there are no candidates in training. It is strongly recommended that selected candidates be sought and enrolled as soon as possible. completion of examinations. high The current school and program passing has the entry requirements University of Entrance The program is five years, with the first year being basic science studies on the main campus of the University of the South Pacific and the remaining four years at the School of Medicine. Of the final. four years, the first is preclinical basic science followed by three years of clinical study and experience in medical/surgical areas. Study is currently being undertaken to expand the training program to seven years which would result in a fully qualified medical doctor with the M.D. degree.