WAR'S HEAVY TOLL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10546, 24 March 1920, Page 4

WAR'S HEAVY TOLL

SHELL-SHOCK PATIENTS THE SOLDIERS' HOSPITAL AT HANMER. , The soldiers' hospital at Hanmer, which has been extended, is now in full going order for the treatment oi patients. There is accommodation i'or 170 to 180 patients, and at present there are ISo receiving; treatment. iUajor P. C. Chishohn, the medical oiheer in charge, has epe. cial training in shell-shock and allied complaints, and is probably the most advanced specialist at present in tn« medical profession in New Zealand. Before being sent to Hanmer soldier patients are concentrated at Trentnam and placed in the. care of Colonel D. S. Wylie, another specialist!. Colonel Wylie, after cases have been carefully diagnosed, drafts the patienta to the several military hospitals, where special treatment . may be obtained, according to the- class- of ,disease or complaint to be dealt with.' At the present time there are 35 patients in the hospital at Trentham, who, are to be transferred to Hanmer,- and these men, together with those now under treatment at the hospital. Trill practically make up the institution's full complement. It is stated that:* large staff is necessary to look after the patients, as in some ■ instances" an or. derly has to be told'off to take care of a. single patient. ' ;. A medical officer informed a "Times'* reporter yesterday that a great advance had been made., in medical science as an outcome of the war, and diseases of which little was known in the days of the South African cam. paiga were now being treated with the utmost success. Surgeon-General MoGavin, Director. General "of Medical Services, who arrived from the south yesterday morning, paid a visit of inspection to the Chalmers, Cashmere, and Hanmer sanatoria, and satisfied himself that the work that was being carried out at those institutions was in the beet interests of the soldier patients.