MILITARY HOSPITALS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 251, 18 July 1921, Page 8

MILITARY HOSPITALS

THE TRANSFER OF CONTROL CRIPPLED CHILDREN UNDER TREATMENT EXPLANATION BY GENERAL M‘GAVIN General Sir Donald M'Gavin, head of the Military Medical Service, made a statement on Saturday concerning the transfer of tho military hospitals to civil control. He said that during the war and for a short time afterwards sick and wounded soldiers returned to New Zealand in such numbers that t'he hospital accommodation provided for the requirements of the civilian population in peace time was quite inadequate to receive them. It became necessary, therefore, for the Defence Department to provide extra hospital accommodation, and this need was met by the building of new hospitals and sanitaria, by additions to existing hospitals and by the temporary use of existing buildings. Another factor that made necessary iSie institution of special military hospitals was the peculiar nature of the treatment required in many of the cases. "During the war,” continued General M'Gavin,” certain disabilities occurred which either had not existed in civilian life or had existed in such slight degree that special attention had not been directed to their treatment. It was necessary that medical officers should lie specially trained in this work for treatment of tho soldiers when they returned to New Zealand. It necessarily followed that these specialists, often using special equipment, had to be located in centres to which patients requiring tho various treatments might be sent. These military hospitals and sanatoria have for some time been in excellent Tunning order, and it is felt that the time has arrived when the institutions may he handed over to the Health Department for actual administration 'without loss of efficiency in the treatment of tho returned soldier and without any curtailment of the privileges that the returned man receives in a military hospital and to which his country feels he is entitled. "The treatment of the sick is the function of the Department of Health, end it is logical that this Department should he concerned with the. sick of the whole country, and that its function should not be shared by any other Department. It is possible, also, that the actual cost to the country may gradually he lessened by the more complete utilisation of. the accommodation available in the military hospitals. Tho number of returned soldiers requiring treatment in those hospitals and sanatoria has gradually diminished. so that the whole accommodation provided for this purpose has not been required, and for several months past civilian patients have been admitted for treatment. Children suffering from deformities have been accommodated at the (Rotorua Military Hospital and the Trentham Military Hospital. There are about seventy of these children in each institution. Civilian patients are being treated also at Pukeora Military Sanatorium, and so the accommodation not required by returned soldiers has been put to effective and economical use.

“Although the Department of Health will actually administer tho hospitals, tho Minister of Defence, who is also Minister of War Pensions, will continue to supervise the interests of tho returned soldiers in reference to medical treatment and pensioning. The decision as to whether a returned soldier is entitled to treatment by the Defence Department for a particular disability will still remain with the Defence Department. It has been arranged with the Department of IJt'alth that no reduction in pension or discharge from hispital or sanatoria on account of misconduct will be made without reference to the Director-General of Medical Services as heretofore. It has also been nrrnnerd that the other privileges to which service patients are entitled will be continued precisely in the same way ns in the past. In fact, the service pal tients in these institutions will hardly be aware that any change has taken place. "It has been arranged in pursuance of this policy that the Pukcora Sanatorium shall be handed over to the Department of Health on August 1, and it is hoped that it may be possible to arrange for the remaining institutions to bo similarly handed over before the end of the year. ■ "The Director of the Division of Hospitals of the Department of Health (Colonel D. S. Wybe) will be the officer of that Department immediately in control of these hospitals. Colonel Wylie had long service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, especially at Brockenhurst Hospital in England. He is well known to the majority of the men who were in hospital and thoroughly understands and appreciates the point of view of the disabled soldier.”