SOLDIER OUT-PATIENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1997, 1 July 1919, Page 1

SOLDIER OUT-PATIENTS.

A MEDICAL OVERHAUL. Wellington, This Day. The Medical Branch of the Defence Department has decided -to set np a Special Medical Board for the purpose of examining all soldiers who are out-patients at all hospitals in New Zealand. This Board will travel over the whole of New Zealand with a view to classifying these cases. In addition to returned soldiers actually attending as out-patients, it is believed that there may be some disabled men who received their discharge before the advances in military orthopaedic

possibilities opened up by the recent surgery and other kinds of treatment of Avar disabilities had developed. Any disabled men in this condition avlio desire their cases to be reviewed by the Travelling Medical Board should at once communicate with the Assistant Director of Medical Services of their Military District (Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, or Otago). That officer Avill then arrange that these men are brought before the Board in the course of its itinerary.

Cases requiring; treatment will be sent to the most suitable hospital for in-patient treatment, so that they may get greater benefit. Other outpatients have readied a stationary position in regard to their disability, and where the Board is satisfied thjit no further good can be done they will be boarded out, and their pension finally adjusted. As the Defence Department has now a complete series of hospitals for specialist treatment, the Medical Board will be able in many cases to recommend transfers of patients to the hospital in which their particular disability will be dealt with by a specially trained staff. Soldier patients in the civil hospitals are to lie included in this examination. The Board will make a special note regarding limbless cases and those

requiring operative treatment. Every patient will have his case considered with a view to providing him with the best treatment available in the Dominion. The policy of the Department is not to allow its soldier patients to indefinitely drift. The Board comprises a Consulting Surgeon to the Forces, and a surgeon who has had a wide experience on a hospital ship and in military hospitals. It will be aide to determine what can be done to improve the condition of the patient, and to definitely decide if nothing further can be done by medical science, in which case (he soldier will have bis pension permanently arranged, and will be able to take advantage of (lie facilities provided by the State for Iho assistance of disabled men to learn special occupations suitable for them. • It is anticipated that this Board will require several months to complete its itinerary. It is hoped that any discharged soldiers on permanent pension who consider they may be benefited by further treatment will report, as indicated, to the Assistant Director of Medical Services of their district. This will clearly be entirely to their advantage, as although their physical condition may bo improved,, their pension, if already made permanent, cannot be reduced.