LIGHT AND AIRINESS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 198, 19 May 1944, Page 5

LIGHT AND AIRINESS

N.2J. Forces* Hospital In New Caledonia N.Z.E.F. Official N'ews Service* NEW CALEDONIA, May 8. Illustrating the wide range of medical services that are being provided overseas for personnel of the New Zealand forces is tho Kalavere Hospital, in New Caledonia. Though not the main hospital of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific, it yet is able to provide facilities for treatment equal to those in some of the larger towns in New Zealand. It is pleasantly situated on a gentlysloping hillside. The river that runs down the valley is within sound of the hospital, and behind the twisting trunks of the white naioulis are banked the purple hills. The wards are prefabricated buildings specially designed for light and airiness, and with a wise provision for roominess. One complete block contains a modern operating theatre, Nray department, laboratory and physiotherapy centre. These are comparable to the similar services of any city hospital in New Zealand. They differ ,in that tl:r r >eopc is limited to the diseases that are common to troops in tropical countries, and they differ also in that the type of construction for the buildings is simple, relatively cheap, and is not intended to- be permanent, The wards are painted white, and are lit by electric light. The hospital patients come from all surrounding troops. Some are suffering from the effects of battle casualties, others nre the victims of the illnesses ani accidents incidental to military service. Members of the Allied forces and civilians. at the special request of local authorities, may.also receive treatment there. One ward is reserved for females. Entirely New Zealand,

The hospital is entirely New Zealand. Our own engineers have built it with New Zealand supplies. The staff which, ill addition to the medical officers, includes nursing sisters and V.A.D. s, aro ail members of the forces. On the camp site is a large convalescent depot, to which the majority of patients go after their discharge from hospital. The same cookhouses, quartermaster's supplies* control and organization, serve both units. Already large numbers of patients have passed through the hospital. To men returned from the forward areas and accustomed to being treated in tents with sand and coral noors the change to a modern hospital with an tne amenities of civilization is deeply appre ciated, and is a significant factor in accelerating their recovery to normal health.