WAR'S HEAVY TOLL

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1920, Page 5

WAR'S HEAVY TOLL

SHELL-SHOCK PATIENTS. THE SOLDIERS' HOSPITAL AT lIANMIiR. The soldiers' hospital at Hanmer, which has been extended, is now in full going order for the treatment of patients. There is accommodation for 170 to ISO patients, and at present there are 135 receiving treatment. Major P. C. Chisholm, the medical officer in charge, has undergone special training in shell-shock and allied complaints, and is probably the most advanced specialist at present in tiie medical profession in New Zealand. Before being sent to Hanmer soldier patienU are concentrated at Trentham and placed in t)>(- cure of Colonel D. S. Wylie, another specialist. Colonel Wylie, after cases have been carefully dingnosed, drafts the patients to the several military hospitals, where special treatment may be obtained, according to the class of disease or complaint to be dealt with. At the present time there are 35 patients in the hospital at Trentham, who are to be transferred' to Hanmer, and these men, together with those nov.under treatment at the hospital, will practically make up the institution's full complement. It- is stated that a largj staff is necessary to look after the patients, as in some instances an orderly has to be told off to take care of a single patient. A medical officer informed :t. Wellington Times reporter that a grej.t. advance had been made in medical science as an outcome of the war, and disease? 'of which little was known in the diy.-i of the South African campaign who now being treated with tho utmost success Surgeon-General McGavin, DirectorGeneral of Medical Services, pairl a. vi.'it of inspection to the (Jhalmcs, Cashmere, and Hanmer sanatoria, and satisfied himself that, the work that was being carried out at those institutions was in the best interests of the soldier patients.