Geneticist's departure 'a huge loss'

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

Auckland University's first full professor of medical genetics, Dr Ingrid Winship, is leaving the country little more than a month after giving her inaugural lecture.

South African-born Dr Winship, who also heads the Gene Technology Advisory Committee, has accepted a job at one of the world's leading centres of genetics, Victorian Health Genetics in Melbourne.

Her husband, cardiologist Dr Gary Gordon, has already moved to Melbourne and Dr Winship said leaving after nine years in Auckland was "a personal family decision".

"I have been very happy here but I'm not the lone ranger," she said. The couple have a 12-year-old son, Iain.

Dr Winship has been clinical director of the Northern Regional Genetic Service since she arrived in New Zealand, and was a half-time senior lecturer and then associate professor in the Auckland Medical School until this year. She gave her inaugural lecture as the first full professor of genetics on September 30.

There is only one other fulltime geneticist in the northern regional service and two in the Wellington-based central regional service, which covers the southern half of the country.

The clinical leader of the Wellington service, Dr Joanne Dixon, said the four geneticists were already "under enormous pressure".

"Patients are waiting months, if not years, to see a genetic service because there are not enough staff to go round," she said.

The international benchmark was one clinical geneticist to every 500,000 people - twice New Zealand's ratio.

Otago University cancer geneticist Professor Tony Reeve, a fulltime researcher, said Dr Winship would be "a huge loss".

"Ingrid is charismatic. She's a real leader. She has led clinical genetics from the front," he said.

"Clinical geneticists are a very rare breed and to replace her at that level will be extremely difficult. It's a bit of a shock."

Auckland Medical School dean Professor Peter Smith said the university was beginning an international search for a new professor, but might have to reduce the position back to an associate professorship if it could not find anyone with the right expertise.

Auckland District Health Board clinical support manager Fiona Ritsma said locums would be appointed to the regional genetic service if a permanent replacement could not be found before Dr Winship left at the end of the year.