MEDICAL ORDERLIES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16430, 25 January 1919, Page 4

MEDICAL ORDERLIES.

QUESTION OP THEIR DISCHARGE. We liavo received the following from the Minister of Defence:— Owing to the necessity of having a fully-qualified staff of medical orderlies on duty in the Dominion to deal with the thousands of sick and wounded who are being returned to New Zealand this year, the Medical Department of the New Zealand Forces find it impossible to grant discharges to men at present employed in the military hospitals. The former employers of these men are earnestly requested, both on the scoro of their duty to their country and to the men who have fought, and also as a duty to those men who are still able to render very valuable service to the sick and wounded, to preserve places for those men whom the military cannot discharge at present. Every effort will he made to discharge the medical orderlies as soon as possible, and a number of urgent cases connected with essential occupations havo already received consideration, but it must be evident to all that the first consideration is the care and attention of the returning invalids, and that this duty cannot be adequately done, except by men who havo been specially trained for the work.