INVALIDED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 8

INVALIDED SOLDIERS

PROVISION FOR RETURNED MEN STATEMENT BY SIR JAMES ALLEN By ToleEraßh.—Press Association. . Auckland, October 11. An extension of the provisions for the treatment of soldiers who return suffering, from consumption was an'iiounced by tho Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) to-day. A new sanatorium is to be erected at Hatuma, Hawke's Bay, tenders for the work close on October 16, nnd the contract will provido for the completion of the work in April.

Sir James Allen said that tho sanatorium will bo a most complete block of buildings, and in designing it the greatest care has been taken to make it as perfect as an institution of tho kind can be made.

Referring to the suggestion that tho Government had not looked far enough ahead in regard to hospital requirements for wounded soldiers, tho Ministor said: "As a matter of fact, we have been constantly looking ahead. The difficulty has been to '■ determine the maximum number of beds likely to be required. As to tho present situation, on September 30 we had 1065 ro- v turned soldiers in-patients in the hos-. pitals, and also 185 in-patients brought from the camps in New-Zealand, 1250 in all. I am advised that the maximum number of beds wo are ever likely to require in tho civil and Defence hospitals and homes is about 2000. The provision we have made already, including the proposed additions to the Rotorua institutions, gives a grand total of nearly 1900 beds, in case the war were to end shortly and the soldiers were to bo returned more rapidly than we anticipate. We have practically .unlimited hospital accommodation .at Trentham, Featherston, and Narrow Neck camps. Speoial facilities already exist in these camps, especially at Trentham, where ,an operating theatre, has teen established. If more beds are necessary, the annexe to the Auckland Hospital can easily ho enlarged. It has already been suggested that we should add to it wards for '60 beds. The Rotorua accommodation could also, if necessary, ho extended to 500 beds. 1 think the public will realiso that all possible forethought has been exercised.