Norway
Norway was first visited in 1949, by seven Society members and three wives, who sailed on the good ship SS Venus from Newcastle to Bergen and took the night train to Oslo where they were welcomed at the Rikshospitalet by Professor Holst (who later entertained the group on his island in the mouth of a fjord, in which the British bathed to the astonishment of their hosts!).
His operating list included a dextrous pneumonectomy and gastrectomy. Other thoracic and urological procedures were seen, and some orthopaedics and radiology. The Kifa operating table impressed.
In 1972 the Society stayed in the Hotel Viking, built to house the Press Corps covering the winter Olympics: some felt the architect had old scores to settle with journalists. In the Rikshospitalet they met once more Professor Efskind, who performed two aortic valve replacements expertly and quickly.
In the big Ulleval Hospital (workplace of father and son Dr Semb, whose name is associated with a vascular clamp) they again met the cherubic Professor Bruusgaard, who still favoured gastrectomy for peptic ulceration. As with many foreign trips, the party was entertained at the British Embassy; here the Ambassador was His Excellency Mr Ralph Selby and his wife Juliana.