A WAR TIME PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1918, Page 7

A WAR TIME PROBLEM.

SHORTAGE IN DOCTORS. London, Nov. 29. Whatever else the war has done, it has undoubtedly quickened the progress of medical and surgical science. New discoveries of the very 'highest importance to the human race have been made in the, treatment of wounds, whilst as to the dreaded campaign diseases which used to carry off soldiers by thousands, some have been practically ''killed," and others "scotched" "to such an extent that from even the worst of theru the mortality has been reduced to an almost incredible degree. During the South African War disease was far more deadly to the British soldier than 'bullet and shell. Typhoid was the enemy's most effective ally, and in its assaults upon pur army killed no less than 50.(100 In the present war, out of the millions of Empire soldiers who have served on the Western front only about 3000 have succumbed to typhoid. The statistics from Salonika and Gallipoli would, of course, be much leas favorable, but even in these places, where the normal sanitary conditions in peace times are bad, there has been no parallel to the epidemics of cholera and dysentery which in previous campaigns reduced armies to impotence and inaction in a few weeks. In Mesopotamia no doubt matters were worse as regards these diseases, but even there, though the medical services broke down in lamentable failure, and where a large proportion of the troops employed were not likely to observe Western ideals as regards sanitary matters, the death roll from typhoid and its allies, though serious, was far smaller than might reasonably have been expected, considering the climatic conditions and the woeful shortage of practically every medical and sanitary requisite for an army under campaign conditions in such a country.

As regards mortality from wounds received .in battle, there are no precise figures available, 'but according to certain French statistics the number of those who succumb after reaching base hospitals does not exceed five per cent. While not forgetting that the armies of to-day are fed and clothed as no other armies have been since war was invented, and that, well'fed and well clothed troops can endure under conditions under which ill-fed and ill-clothed troops would collapse, the fact remains that our armies owe their comparative immunity from ithe campaign scourge of previous wars to [a medical service that has reached a state of perfection hitherto only dreamed of, and to the heroism, self sacrifice and marvellous skill shown by the doctors and surgeons attached to our forces in the campaign areas and at home. Unfortunately there appears at the present time to be a shortage of qualified men, and. one that is bound to grow, for our armies are growing day by day, whilst, as the casualty lists show/death is taking a heavy toll of medical men at the front, and the "output" of qualified students had diminished appreciably during the last two years.

The severity of the shortage is indicated from Sir Donald MacAlister's speech at the General Medical Council, in which ho slid that instead of their being ldflO third-year students ready to qualify in 1919, they could only count last January, when a census was taken, on 572 men and 2tll women—a shortage of moro than 25 per cent. Since then there has been some improvement, for the authorities 'have been forced to a better appreciation of the problem, and the Minister of National Service has promised that he will provide, if possible, that, the supply of students in training shall be maintained at a level sufficient to ensure the annual accession of at least a thousand new medical practitioners to the Register. Meantime the Army continually makes a ( new demand for fresh drafts from the heavily depleted ranks of the doctors remaining in civil practice, and as the medical needs of the Army must remain the primary consideration to the end. the outlook for the sick among the civil population of these islands is not to be contemplated altogether with equanimity, for the shortage in doctors is accompanied by an even worse shortage in nurses, and shortage in most of those things the doctors prescribe for patients, coupled with expanding prices for all the essentials of y»e sick room.