Army’s Mobile Medical Laboratory For Burnham

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29829, 23 May 1962, Page 7

Army’s Mobile Medical Laboratory For Burnham

New Zealand’s most up-to-date medical laboratory will arrive at Burnham Military Camp late next month. Mounted on a .five-ton vehicle it will be demonstrated for the first time at an annual exercise for medical officers in the Southern Military District.

At present in Dunedin, where it is attached to the University of Otago’s medical school, the laboratory has been several years in the making and equipping. According to medical authorities who have seen it, it is considered the most modern fully - equipped laboratory in the country. The laboratory has the latest microscopes, its own refrigerating unit, centrifuges, and even a still—for which the Army had to get a licence. The task of supervising the layout and equipping was carried out by

Major J. A. R. Miles, of the Otago University Medical School. The vehicle was made by the Central District armament and general workshop of the R.N.Z.E.M.E, at Trentham. The laboratory will be staffed by four—one officer and three medical technicians. It is expected that about 35 medical officers will attend the two-day exercise at Bumham on June 23 and 24. In addition to lectures on various aspects of modem medicine, there will also be demonstrations of a field ambulance section moving into the field, the new laboratory will be on view, and there will be the setting up of a 50-bed mobile hospital.' The directing staff will be the Assistant-Director of Medical Services (Colonel J. R. Dawson) and Major J. F. Spring, brigade major of the 3rd Infantry Brigade group.