THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1918. MILITARY HOSPITALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16996, 1 November 1918, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1918. MILITARY HOSPITALS.

A RESPONSIBLE committee, appointed by recognised authorities, has made a careful examination of the provision for the treatment of returned disabled soldiers. It has presented a series of conclusions, based upon ft careful analysis of all the information at its disposal, which point to the urgent need of expanding and improving the available hospital institutions and their equipment. The competency of its judgment is not likely to be seriously questioned; ! the right of the patriotic societies to make such an investigation is freely conceded. Public interest in the welfare of returned soldiers is too intimate to permit any suggestion of a censorship that might conceal defects, and tho Government must in fact look to the active co-opera-tion of patriotic citizens if the country is to discharge its simple duty to the men who have suffered in its defence. There is a disquieting suggestion in the report that some attempt was made to thwart investigation by limiting the evidence to be given by officers whom, it questioned. Such a proceeding was so clearly ill-advised that the Minister for Defence -will no doubt take an early opportunity of presenting any further information on the subject that, had it been available, might t have modified tho committee's judgment, and would now enlighten the public. No such qualification can completely disarm the committee's grave criticisms, for there is, unfortunately, little room for doubt that they have substantial foundation. Various causes have no doubt contributed to the highly unsatisfactory conditions which the committee deI scribes in its report. They probably include some lack of judgment on the part of the Government's advisers, misled by a too optimistic estimate of probable requirements, and the effect of that anomalous arrangement which existed until six months ago by which military hospitals and convalescent homes were kept under the dual control of Public Health and Defence Departments. The consequences appear in their most aggravated form in the neglect of consumptive soldiers and the involved carelessness of public health. The committee takes .an incontrovertible position in maintaining that no soldier should be discharged from institutional care until he has been completely cured and his disease is no longer a potent danger to himself and his neighbours. Sir James Allen is probably accurately informed in his statement that of the 700 or 800 soldiers who were returned as suffering from tuberculosis "most of these men have bo improved as the result of the voyage that it has been safe to allow them to go" to their homes. He does not suggest that there are not still men requiring treatment for whom accommodation is not available or that there are not. civilians unable to obtain proper care because the existing sanatoria are inadequate. The committee has reported that until permanent buildings are available— in six or ten months— for consumptive soldiers is required immediately, and it has suggested a temporary arrangement as an urgent necessity. This proposal may involve greater expenditure than the Government has contemplated, but in such a matter injudicious economy cannot be too strongly condemned. There is no reason to suppose that- the Dominion's gratitude to its returned soldiers, and its sympathy with them in their suffering, are not reflected in the Government as a whole, and Sir James Allen, in particular, has already given evidence of his anxiety to remedy the mistakes of the past. But much still, remains to be done. Even after four years of war, there is no clear definition of the respective duties of the , Government and the patnotio societies, or of different Departments, towards the returned disabled soldier. Military hospitals are under the control of the Defence Department but the Waikato Sanatorium is Btill under the direction of the Health Department; the Government has not yet decided whether orthopsedio workshops should be built and equipped with public or patriotic funds, and there may be other points of confusion or misunderstanding in other parts of the Dominion. Now that attention has been called to defects and discrepancies, the Government should immediately review the whole subject, and determine which Department is to be responsible for the treatment of all returned soldiers requiring medical care or functional training. Unquestionably these duties should be entrusted to a single department, as duality of control, at all times unsatisfactory, is in this matter open to the strongest objections. The Government may, indeed, find it necessary to create a special department. It -'must otherwise satisfy itself that the Defence Department with its present organisation can give tho necessary attention to such onerous and diverse responsibilities as the training and equipment of military forces and the treatment and recuperation of invalid soldiers. The Minister who is entrusted with the welfare of disabled soldiers should take further steps to remove all causes of misunderstanding by convening a conference representing the advisory board of the Patriotic Associations and the central committee of the Red Cross Society. By this means a basis for co-opera-tion between the patriotic societies and the Government could be clearly defined. Throughout the Dominion, there are patriotic men and women eager to assist the Government, and while they will not be discouraged by such distressing disclosures as the Auckland committee has made, they will expect the Government not to make excuses, but to initiate immediately measures which will invalidate all future criticism.