THE ORTHOPAEDIC UNIT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 92, 13 January 1919, Page 4

THE ORTHOPAEDIC UNIT

COLONEL WYLIE INTERVIEWED. The officer in charge of the Orthopaedic Unit at the Christclmrch Hospital, Lieutenant-Colonel D- S- Wylie, told a "Sun" representative last week that 60 soldier patients are nor being treated in the institution. The building of a fresh block, designed to provide accommodation for 100 additional beds, will bo commenced this month,' and Colonel Wylio anticipates that ;it ■ will be completed in about iliree months. Various sections of tho hospital devoted to "after-treatment," including massage, electrical baths, and curative workshops' will be in working order in about a week.

Colonel Wvlie said that it was a misconception to think that there was a definite relationship between tho curative workshop .. treatment and vocational training. Tho primary object of .the hospital workshops'"was merely curative, and the Orthopaedic Unit could not undertake to produce tradesmen in the timo at their disiiosal "vyitli a patient. I A patient would be' put to that work which would yield the best results from a curative point of view, but if, consistently with that, it is possible to give a man the class of work to which he has been accustomed, it will bo done. Colonel Wylic states that the equipment .of the unit from tho point of view of material is not yet complete, as quite a considerable quantity of apparatus lias still to arrive •* from Great Britain. It is clear, however, that very complete arrangements are being made to help the injured soldiers back to health and strength. Curative workshops, inchiding those intended for both woodwork, and metal-work, have been erected and equipped with 'benches and various apparatus. The pleasart surroundings 9f tho hospital grounds should prove a factor in restoring to health and strength the men who liqve suffered in nerve and limb in the service of their country.