SOLDIER PATIENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17258, 6 September 1919, Page 10

SOLDIER PATIENTS.

HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION,

UP-TO-DATE INSTITUTIONS*

TREATING TUBERCULAR CASES. [BY TELEOKAEa. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Friday.

i The Pnkeora military hospital, which has been established at Ha turn a, Hawke's Bay, is now in a position to receive patients. - The institution has been specially de-signed-and equipped to deal with chest complaints. The site was selected for that purpose, and has a considerable elevation above the sea level. A view of the surrounding country can be obtained from the hospital, and, as the climate in Hawke's Bay is mild and not so subject to sudden changes of temperature as many other parts of the Dominion it is eminently suited for tubercular cases.

The work of transferring soldier patients from other institutions to Pukeora is now in progress, and a number who have been receiving treatment at the Cambridge Sanatorium and Featherston military hospital are to be transferred almost immediately. In. the first instance provision was made at the hospital for 100 beds, but the accommodation has since been increased to provide for 150 patients. A similar institution to that at Pukeora has been built at Cashmere Hills, Christchurch. The building, or buildings, are adjacent to the civilian sanatorium and the institution is now in working order. All the returned soldiers whose homes are in the South Island, and who are suffering from chest complaints, will be treated at Cashmere Hills, where there is accommodation for 50 patients at present. Later the accommodation is to be increased to 100 beds.

It is understood that the equipment of these hospitals is to be on the most up-to-date and scientific lines, and the medical men in charge have received special training in chest complaints in England. "Major Aiken is in charge of the institution at Cashmere Hills and Major abort is in charge at Pulceora. The facial, or jaw hospital as it is more generally known, has been completed at XnKiedin. It ib on the most modern lines and will serve a good purpose. It is stated that a great advance has been made in facial surgery during the war, and all the most approved scientific methods will be available _at the institution. The . hospital at Trentham, which is being extended, is to be confined to the treatment of general and orthopaedic cases. At present it is being utilised as a mobilising centre, and the patients receiving treatment there number 247.' At Featherston, where there axe 143 patients, cardiac ailment cases are to be specialised in.