Senior medical staff at Wollongong Hospital will oppose any move to have an asthma clinic established there for the exclusive use of Dr Alexander James' treatment methods.
They will agree to an asthma clinic only if other treatment methods also are used.
Senior officials of the Australian Medical Association's South Coast branch also will insist on the use of other methods if a clinic is established in Wollongong, but independent of the hospital.
Members of the South Coast medical profession say they have ignored claims that Dr James has been 100 per cent successful with his treatment.
"I know of no doctor who has never had a failure." a senior hospital official said yesterday.
Health Minister Jago's announcement on Saturday that he would recommend the establishment in Wollongong of an asthma clinic at which staff would be trained to use Dr James' methods took the hospital's medical staff by surprise.
The hospital's board of directors will consider Mr Jago's "commendation" at its next meeting on February 11.
Mr H. Wren, deputy chairman of the board, yesterday said he could not speak on behalf of the board, but claimed establishment of a clinic was "quite a possibility."
Mr K. Hazell, assistant chief executive officer, said if the board agreed to establish the clinic, it almost certainly would be built within the hospital complex.
Dr James was cautious on the subject yesterday, and said he would prefer to "wait and see."
"There have been many disappointments." he said.
Meantime, a joint statement by Mr D. Armour and Mrs R Makula, president and secretary of the Asthma Action Society, says the society "caustically criticizes the evasive and indefinite terms" of the statement by Mr Jago.