James Lister Newman (23 April 1903 – 17 October 1983) was a New Zealand geriatrician and advocate for the elderly, a medical superintendent at Cornwall and Green Lane Hospitals in Auckland, and writer of the Family Doctor column in The New Zealand Herald.
Early life
James Newman was born in London in 1903 the son of Charles Arnold and Kate Newman, née Beck. He was one of three sons of whom two, James and Charles, became doctors. He attended Shrewsbury School followed by Magdalene College at Cambridge University where he gained his Natural Sciences tripos. Newman qualified with an MRCS and LRCP in 1927, having completed his clinical years at Kings College Hospital in London. In 1929 he received his MB BChir medical degree from Cambridge Medical School.
Career
Newman's first positions were in London at the Royal Chest Hospital, Drury Lane Dispensary and the Fountain Hospital. He gained a Diploma in Public Health (DPH) in 1931 and a MD Cantab in 1933; his thesis, later published as an article, was on the thyroid and intellectual disability. He practised in public health, first as assistant medical officer of health in Southampton and from 1933 in the same position to the London County Council with responsibility for the East End. He became deputy medical officer of health in West Sussex in 1936 the same year he gained the MRCP. During World War II he was medical officer in charge of mobile first aid posts in Warwickshire and for ambulance services in Coventry. He wrote on various aspects of his public health work, including a study of the incidence of impetigo in Southampton and an outbreak of infectious hepatitis in the Lavant Valley.
In 1947 he emigrated to New Zealand where he became the medical officer of health for Northland, based in Whangarei. During the 1948 polio epidemic he did not close schools or restrict attendance at public functions in areas where there were no polio cases, an approach which was supported by other doctors. This brought him into conflict with Dr George McCall Smith, the medical superintendent of the Rawene Hospital in the Hokianga, who demanded widespread closure of schools and shops.
Newman resigned as medical officer of health in 1949 citing difficulties with the bureaucracy of government which hampered the work of the district health offices, the Official Secrets Act which prevented relevant information being used for the education of the public, and the lack of recognition in the public service of professional qualifications and experience. He returned to clinical medicine in 1950 as a registrar and then specialist at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland. In 1952 he was appointed medical superintendent of Cornwall Hospital which catered for obstetrics and gynaecology and geriatrics. It was here that he became dedicated to improving standards of care for the elderly, in hospitals, rest homes and in the community. He wrote an unpublished history of the hospital. In 1953 he became MRACP and was elected FRACP in 1959.
In 1959 he became medical superintendent of Green Lane Hospital. Summing up the state of geriatric care in New Zealand he advocated for geriatrics to care for the whole person rather than just treating disease, and for better services and facilities, such as geriatric annexes to general hospitals. He called for better prevention and management of incontinence in patients in hospitals and rest homes by modifying institutional routines to suit the patient.