THE MEDICAL SIDE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20254, 23 May 1940, Page 2

THE MEDICAL SIDE

NATION’S WAR EFFORT COMFORTS FOR WOUNDED PLEA TO ALL The,urgent need, for personnel and funds to assist the Army Medical Service.and its two auxiliaries, the Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John,-was stressed by Colonel F. T. Bowerbank, Director-General of Medical Services, in a broadcast address. « After explaining the relationship between the Army Medical Service on the one hand and the Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John on the other. Dr. Bowerbank said that field ambulances, general hospitals, convalescent hospitals, hospital ships* and other medical units would be required in increasing numbers, and this would mean the calling up not only of large numbers of medical officers and trained nurses but also non-com-missioned officers and men for these units. Help Needed “As more and more strained nurses leave New Zealand and when the hospital ships are ‘cornmissioned and , the sick and wounded; begin to return to this country from overseas, every available member of both societies also will, be needed to help in New Zealand in the base hospitals, the convalescent homes, in the camp hospitals, and in many other ways,’’ he continued. “But it is not only male and . female personnel they will be called upon to supply. The Government provides all the multifarious equipment for the field ambulances and for the military general hospitals overseas, everything in fact which will make these medical units equal in efficiency to the base hospitals in New Zealand; but these units are far away overseas and there are no friends and no relations to take to the patients those odds spd ends which make for the extra comfort of the sick and wounded soldier. Comforts for Wounded “Do you remember the Red Cross kitchen in the hospital where all sorts of delicacies were prepared for those who were dangerously an.d seriously ill, and the Red Cross gift store where there were all kinds of comforts made by the women of New Zealand, and lastly the Red Cross motor ambulances and ambulance drivers of the Voluntary Aid Detachment who were ready at ,all‘."times of. the ' day and night to meet the convoys, of .sick and wounded? On The Home Front “This is only a little of what these societies are doing to helo the Army Medical Service overseas, but at home there is still much for them to do—to continue •to train men so that they will be available later for the New Zealand Medical Corps; to train girls and women‘as V.A.D.s, and for those who are unable to do this, to sew and knit and collect- small gifts which mean so much to the sick and wounded soldiers. “Very soon most New Zealand families will have someone overseas as •;« soldier, sailor, or an airman, and by assisting the Red Cross Society and the St. John Ambulance Association in the great work they are doing, you will he helping the Army Medical Service to bring back .health and strength to your sons and brothers and husbands overseas.”