MEDICAL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 119, 13 February 1941, Page 6

MEDICAL SERVICES

Rehearsal Under Active Service Conditions

FULL PARADE OF. UNIT To test the efficiency of the Medical Services Unit of the Wellington Emergency Precautions Scheme, a rehearsal is to be held in the city on Saturday week iu which from 700 to 800 people will take part. The various activities of the unit will be called into operation and will carry on as if Wellington had been attacked by an euemy raider, involving certain casualties in various parts of the city and suburbs. Arrangements will be made to evacuate two wards at the Wellington Public Hospital and the more seriously “injured” will be admitted. They will be transferred there from advanced dressing stations, staffed by about 500 trained members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and the Red Cross Society. Ou -the appointed day the officer in charge will open sealed orders and will act on the assumption that a hit and run raid has taken place. He will send assistance to the streets where injuries have taken place, the “injured” being so identified by labels attached to them indicating the nature of their wounds. These people will be given an envelope containing instructions as to the street to which they shall repair and also the label detailing the nature of their injuries. A responsible person will classify the injuries and indicate by means of coloured cards whether the casualty should be sent to base hospital or whether he or she can receive medical attention outside hospital. Prior -to the rehearsal, a full parade of Die Medical Services Unit will be held, starting at 2 p.m. from the front of Die new library building in Mercer Street. The mayor of Wellington, Mr. Hislop, will take the salute at -the main entrance to the Town Hall. After the mayor has addressed the parade, a siren will be sounded as the warning that all branches of the unit are -to take up their positions.