NUMBER OF UNFITS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 76, 24 December 1918, Page 4

NUMBER OF UNFITS

fr— - A MINISTER'S VIEWS. Tho attention of the Minister of Publie Health has been' directed to the statement prepared, by the Defence. Department regarding the numbers of men who have been rejected unfit in the examinations of recruits by military medical boards during the past three or four years. Tho Minister said yesterday, that before the statement appeared he had instructed the Chief Heaith Officer to prepare a report on the unfitness disclosed by the examinations conducted by - the medical boards, and also to put h'iniself into touch with the British Medical Association to enlist the assistance of the civilian branch of tho medical profession in getting a comprehensive survey of the figures. The Minister had suggested that the B.M.A. might be willing to dissect the report, and so to show the causes of tho unfitness causing such numbers to be' rejected for military service. The suggestion made by a medical man in Wellington the other day that there should be a periodical inspection of' all the youth of the Dominion * appealed strongly to him n<i the method by which incipient disease might be checked, and early treatment provided. This was undoubtedly the best means by which the health of the' community could be safeguarded and maintained.