TRENTHAM'S NEW USE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 19 March 1919, Page 6

TRENTHAM'S NEW USE.

•A GREAT ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL

The Minister of Defence writes :* Grass is growing on the big drill ground at Trentham camp to-day, but the big place is no "white elephant", even "though* its original purpose has ceased. Every part of the camp is required for military uses of the future, and a prompt start has been made in adapting i it *f or neiw requirements. Workmenaacr c pusy converting many of the old hutments into hospital wards. These large, Healthy hutments, with a little adaptation, make fine wards, and by an ingenious system of connecting them up with a corridor and providing the usual hospital conveniences, they wall provide hospital accommodation for aJbout 700 soldiers, who will return to New Zealand needing orthopaedic treatment before they are discharged. Treatham had its well equipped hos^ pital in tih© training days, and this now makes the centre of the great institution at present coming into being. Many of our soldiers will remember Krithia road, a camp street close to the hospital compound. It was lined with hutments, most of them 140 feet long, with a width of 25 feet. Divided into halves, they housed sixty men. The old central partition has been taken out of ten hutments on one side of the street, the walls have" been lined wibh matchboarding, the ventilation brought up to hospital standard, and the lighting improved. Each hutment is partitioned off afc one end, to provide a nurse's sitting' room, a ward Kitchen with range, andy ample cupboard accommodation. The only new buildings to be provided are lavatories with concrete floors, where the patients will have hot and cold baths and showers. But ior the lavatory blocks, the whole scheme involves no extra building, for the hutments lend themselves well to the new purpose, and th c block of ten makes a hospital for 300 patients, with communication from end to end. It is a good example of economical planning. Still more old hutments are being iised for occupational workshops, lectur* rooms, massage room, and recreative purposes. In every case their adaption is an inexpensive process. Another series of hutments has been converted into temporary hospital wards for 800 walking cases, so that the Defence Department is quite ready for a rush due to the evacuation of our hospitals in Elngland. I

New Zealand's orthopaedic treatment for its disabled soldiers is under the diroction of military surgeons who have been thoroughly trained under Ma|«rCreneral Sir Robert Jones; the originator of military orthopaedics, and one of the world's greatest authorities on that subject. We are also benefiting by being able to secure the best appliances from England. Everything will be ready for 700 patients at Trentham in less than a month.