TRENTHAM HOSPITAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 148, 18 March 1919, Page 6

TRENTHAM HOSPITAL

A BIG ORTHOPAEDIC CENTRE

PREPARATIONS WELL IN HAND

Rapid progress is being nintlo with the preparation of "i'reutlium camp for use as an orthopaedic hospital. The hospital erected when the. camp was being used fo.' training purposes is tho ccnlro of tho new institution. Close to this hospital were rows of the huts used by the soldiers, each hut being UOft. long and 25ft. wide, with accommodation for about sixty men. Ten of these lints pro being used for tho new hospital. The walls have been' lined, tho ventilation mid lighting have been brought up to hospital requirements, and the huts have been Hnked together ingeniously by means of passages. Lavatory blocks have been provided, and the ten huts make. now an excellent hospital capable of 'accommodating three hundred men. Each hut has a nurses' sitting-room and 11 .ward kitchen. The huts on the other site of the roadway have been turned into quarters for tho nurses and orderlies, and they also are being fully equipped.

The curative work that is to be undertaken at the Trentham hospital will require much vocational and specialised training. Tho prims purpose of. an orthopaedic hospital is to restore as fully as possible powers and functions that ha-'o been lost or impaired owing to the injuries suffered in battle. A soldier who Ins been wounded in iimb or body mav have his injury entirely healed, but mav stilt bo in a mora or less disabled condition owing to impairment of bone, uniside, or nerve. If he is left to care for himsell without expert guidance he' may be a cripple all his days. But' medical science had learned how to do much to Kelp him. It is this branch of military medical work, enormously developed i'.i scope and importance during the present war, that is known as orthopaedy. Military surgeons who havo been specially trained in the United Kingdom under Major-General Sir Kobert Jones, the leading authority ( on military orthopaedics, are being posted to the Now Zealand military hospitals, and the preparations at Trentham are being made unler their direction.

I'or the purposes of the vocational training additional hutments at Trentlmm are being utilised. These huts are bein* divided into workshops of various kinds. ' There is to be provision for boot repairing, surgical boot making, blncksiuithing, iron working, leather working, upholstering, acetono welding, hairdressing, ' etc. A. library is being provided, with space for reading and study. There will be lecture rooms, .where farming and commercial subjects will be taught. Store rooms are required, and the Y.M.C.A. has been given charge of a hutment that is being converted into tw> halls. The camp huts, arranged in regulai; lines fronting on the metalled Trentham loads, lend themselves readily to all these adjustments and alterations, and the medical authorities are in no danger >of being cramped for space. They con take all the- huts that may be required for their institution without interfering with the other purposes for Which Trentham Camp is to be used. A gymnasium and a massage hall are part of the scheme.

Just how many of the Trentham huts will b.i used for medical purposes cannot be known yet. But the preparations are being made with a view to the possibility of heavy demands being made upon iho accommodation, owing to the rapid demobilisation of troops. Several huts have been set apart for the . use of "walking cases," and other huts have been fitted with cubicles for the use of cot cases. These huts have their own lavutoiv and bath accommodation, and could be put to use without any delay in the event of «, sudden influx of patients. The medical officers estimate that before the end of next month they will be readv to receive 700 or 800 men at 'the Trenlhaiu hospital without congestion. The principal medical officer at Trentham. Colonel T. Mill, was forr..-erly in charge of the New Zer.mnd hospital at Walton-on-Thames, and he has made a close study of orthopaedic treatment. He will have with him experrenced officers wlio have had training in electro-thera-. phy anrt massage, X-ray work, curative training,' and orthopaedic gymnastics. The workshop instructors are being chiswi carefully, and their experience and practice will cover a very wide range. They will bo prepared to teach men new trades as well as to direct vocational operations intended primarily to remove or reduce physical disabilities duo to the war.