The approval of a "revolutionary new scheme of medical classification" was reported in The Canberra Times on this day in 1967.
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About 70 Canberra doctors had met the night before and unanimously approved the scheme to go ahead at the Canberra Community Hospital.
The scheme was based on similar ones in the United States and Canada, and would be the first of its kind in Australia.
The hospital would be divided into four departments, and each doctor would be allocated different privileges based on qualifications, training and experience.
This would remove the possibility of doctors performing treatments they were not suitable for.
A doctor with minor privileges would not be allowed to perform operations where a patient might be in serious danger.
The major privileges required to perform those treatments involving danger to patients' lives would only be given to full-time specialists.
The scheme would be trialled subject to the approval of the minister for health, Jim Forbes.
It had already been approved in principle by the board of the hospital the previous week.
