FLOATING HOSPITALS OF NEW WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4646, 26 April 1902, Page 6 (Supplement)

FLOATING HOSPITALS OF NEW WORK

Since St. John’s Guild inaugurated its floating hospital service, so many improvements have been made that the system is practically revolutionised. There are fe.. mothers amidst the tenements of the metropolis who are not familiar with the day and hour when cue boats make their trips and the nearest embarking point. With the little one in her arms, the mother takes her place in lino or. the pier with perhaps five hundred others, and awaits tae careful examination of the physician appointed to inspect the group in order to ascertain the character of each ailment, especially if contagious or not. The inspection concluded, she is admitted to .the enclosure at the end of the As soon as the hospital ship reaches the pier, out come the gang planks, and a score of sturdy tars neatly uniformed spring ashore to assist their passengers aboard. In spite of the throng, each mother and child are quickly assigned to the proper ward or deck. Each boat has its ward for contagious diseases, where the little sufferers thus affected can get the benefit of the trip and treatment without the danger of infecting others. Another deck is entirely devoted to cots where the more serious cases are placed, provision bing wisely made for the mother caring for it. Ample space is afforded for those who are able to walk about or to play a little, and the arrangements are so planned that the vessels are never overcrowded. With their passengers aboard, the flag of the Red Cross and the Stars and Stripes flying at their mastheads, the hospitals start on their mission of mercy. The mothers and iidren have nothing to do but rest upon the decks, swept by the ocean air, yet carefully protected from the summer heat by awnings. Not so with the physicians and nurses, for their work must continue throughout the day. A visit is mado to each deck, and a glance and a few words are usually sufficient to diagnose the cases which need but slight attention. It is astonishing how many require only nourishing food, invigorating air and possibly a salt, water bath, to be again completely restored to health; but thero_ are some who need a critical examination and careful treatment, else possibly their lives may close before they return to their tenement homes. Each vessel is providd with a complete stock of drugs for prescriptions, and as the examining physician determines the nature of an ailment he quickly notes the remedy needed, and hands it to the nurse. She makes a memorandum of the location of the child and its name on the prescription, which is immediately filled at the dispensary. Often a surgical operation is required, but the instruments are at hand to perform it. Sores, sometimes wounds, need dressing. Cases have been received where the child was suffring from a broken arm or a limb dislocated. As may be imagines, the physicians find an extensive variety of disease, but such are the facilities that nearly all can be treated en route or at the hospital at the termination of the voyage.—“ Quiver.”