INJURED R.A.F. PILOTS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23360, 20 June 1941, Page 11

INJURED R.A.F. PILOTS

‘SPECIAL INCENTIVES

TO RECOVERY

METHODS OF PREVENTING BOREDOM

LONDON, May 14. Probably no body of men in the country has greater need of enlightened medical care than the pilots and flying crews of the R.A.F. Men who have been living under conditions of great strain and daily danger for months and then get wounded or fall ill are apt to feel the effects of recent experiences which left them untouched at the time, writes the aeronautical correspondent of “The Times.” The sudden change from almost feverish activity to the inactivity of hospital treatment and convalescence may lead .to boredom, which is the airman’s greatest enemy when he is forced to cease air operations. Convalescence is the danger period, It is then that symptoms sometimes appear of what has become known as flying fatigue—a sort of lethargy and inertia which may retard recovery or, in certain circumstances, may unfit a pilot for further flying duties. Fortunately this contingency was foreseen in peacetime and steps were taken to combat it. The Air Ministry provided for officers and N.C.O.S’ convalescent hospitals situated in the most beautiful parts of England and each staffed by men and women who understand and appreciate the special types of cases with' Which they have to deal. About these places there is nothing of the atmosphere of a hospital or nursing home; • no long list of rigid rules, of “do’s" and, even more important, of “don’t’s”; no hard, uncomfortable chairs and bare rooms; no barrack-room discipline. In short, everything is done to help the men forget that they are in a convalescent hospital and to make them feel at home and at ease. For rules there is substituted a code of conduct which no self-respecting R.A-F. man would break; in place of the bare rooms are comfortable apartments with easy chairs and settees; and instead of the usual cheerless and drab building of a hospital there is a roomy,, cheerful place which, apart from its size, might be mistaken for a country house. . The grounds oi the R.A.F. officers hospital include a golf course, wooded slopes, smooth, green lawns, and colourful flower beds. The hospital has its own swimming bath; there are indoor and outdoor lawn tennis courts, squash courts, billiard rooms. sun lounges, reading and writing rooms, libraries; a very large gvmnasium, a concert hull, •cinemfi, find dfince hall, and, strangest of all, the usual hospital accommodation, a bar where one may have either beer or wines, but not SP From time to time coach outings are organised to neighbouring moors. Every week there are several lawn tennis and golf tournaments and a

swimming and water-polo gala; once a fortnight there is a first-class concert; and in alternate weeks a dance. The officers may invite whom they please. At regular intervals the patients play the staff at lawn tennis and golf. In the gymnasium there are so many aids to fitness that it is hard to remember them all. They all have the same purpose: to enable men who have injured limbs to regain complete use of them without the necessity of doing hours of tedious exercises. Curious Exercises

Everything is organised, • but it is done in such a way that it appears to be almost haphazard. During fine weather one may see 20 or 30 men out on a lawn doing in pairs exercises which look something like a cross between wrestling in' the Cumberland style and a Rugby foptball tackle. At the same time other? are practising their approach shots, putting, or driving on the golf course in preparation for the medal competition; others are playing lawn tennis, swimming, walking, reading, or dozing in' the sun lounges. . , There are times when the gymnasium resembles a fair ground. Half a dozen men, some walking with sticks, others with their backs in plaster of pans, are knocking down skittles as fast as an orderly-.can put them up; others are doing exercises on the floor; punching with gusto a bag which has Herr Hitler’s face on one side and Signor Mussolini’s on the other; swinging Indian clubs; balancing on horizontal bars; cycling on a machine which records the "distance they have covered”; riding on a machine which bucks like a bronco and is known locally as the “camel”; and so on. Dan Maskell, the famous lawn tennis coach, who has trained most of Britain’s Davis, and Wightman Cup players, is one of the R.A.F. instructors. As well as playing lawn tennis with the officers he joins in the other games and helps to organise the concerts. The hospital staff is almost entirely R.A.F. All the doctors have made a psychological as well, as medical and surgical study of the special types of cases which come to them from the operational squadrons. The nurses are either members of Princess Marys R.A.F. Nursing Service or V.A.p.s. The commanding officer is rightly proud of the high percentage of patients who return to duty. Without claiming any of the credit for himself, he believes that it is due largely to the sympathetic and understanding treatment which the meft receive and to the absence of Irksome restrictions.