MEDICAL OFFICERS DEFENDED

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 94, 20 April 1916, Page 8

MEDICAL OFFICERS DEFENDED

* \ NO "COOLING OF HEELS" AT TRENTHAM.

Referring to a statement made in an. Auckland telegram and published in last' evening's Post, Colonel Valintine, In-spector-G-eneral of Military Hospitals, told a reporter to-day "that he took exception to the assertion that the medical men at Trentham have nothing to do. "Anyone who has kept in touch with affairs .at Trentham," said Colonel Valintine, "realises to the full the very excellent work being done by the medical officers there and how much their efforts have resulted in. Not only is the camp one that might reasonably* be described is a model one, but the health of the men is such that I have only to-day received an intimation that, it has been necessary to close the largest ward there as there are no patients. In fact, the health of the men at Trentham and the camps generally has never been better. Therefore the reflection suggested that the medical men there are cooling their feet is, to say the least of it, a very ungenerous one. Colonel Andrew and lu's staff are kept constantly engaged, and it is almost entirely due to their vigilance that matters are so satisfactory. "As regards the question of medical fees generally, there is no doubt that some men are benefiting by the war,'but that applies to all trades and professions. But speaking of the medical profession as a whole, they have been most patriotic, as is evidenced bv the large number of medical men who have sacrificed lucrative practices and the comforts of happy homes to give their services either at Home or abroad for the Empire. And though there is not as much glamour surroundingv the work of the medical men who are on duty at Trentham and the other camps, they aie deserving of just as much credit as those who have gone to the front, inasmuch as they also have relinquished lucrative practices and given up the comfort of their happy homes without any idea- of any possible gain or glory."