MEDICAL SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24837, 10 February 1942, Page 4

MEDICAL SERVICES

The organisation of emergency medicql and hospital services is a vitally important part of our preparation to meet the dangers inherent in the spread of war to the Pacific area. The review given by the Minister of Health on Sunday evening showed that the Department of Health and the special branches of the E.P.S. have been commendably active in planning to meet whatever situation may arise in the event of enemy attack on these shores. Mr Nordmeyer was able to say that a scheme involving the co-ordination of hospital facilities in contiguous districts had now been so perfected that, regardless of the locality that might suffer, complete arrangements existed for dealing with casualties, even if these were on a heavy scale. That is a large claim to make, and the fact that the Minister is able to advance it confidently suggests that much valuable work, both of training and of organisation, has been quietly and efficiently performed in recent months.- It is a Very real satisfaction to know that arrangements, apparently considered adequate by the Minister and responsible members of his depart-

merit, halve been completed for emergency hospital accommodation. Actually, Mr Nordmeyer says, some 21,000 additional beds can be found throughout the country should occasion make provision on this extreme scale necessary. Plans are also in readiness for the. evacuation from hospitals, to their homes or subsidiary establishments, of patients who might be required to make room in the main institutions for more serious cases. This is planning on. a realistic scale, of which the country, in the light of future possibilities, has every reason to be appreciative. One aspect of these preparations, which was not touched on to any extent by the Minister, concerns the capacity of qualified medical practitioners to maintain services, both, military and civil, in the extraordinarily difficult conditions that now obtain. It is well known that a great man/ doctors have already been called out of private practice or from hospital staffs to proceed overseas or to give the attention riecessary to the health of men in the country’s various military establishments. The strain on those who remain in the civilian sphere, now heavy enough, threatens to become even more exacting as additional men are called to the colours and new training units are formed. We do not know to what extent the military camps are demanding full-time service from practitioners, but there is evidence that many so situated are finding their military duties insufficient to engage all their attention, some of which, where camps are near their places of private practice, might advantageously be given to those who would normally be their patients. If civilian medical needs are neglected—and it is common knowledge that many of the doctors remaining in private practice are being seriously overworked in their endeavours -to cope, with the extra calls that are necessarily coming to them—the health of the people may suffer. Mr Nordmeyer stresses, rightly, the nfeed for safeguarding health" in these trying times, in order that the demand for professional services may be reduced. In these circumstances it may be worth while to examine the possibility of enabling some of the debtors who are at present on fulltime military duties to divide their time between military and civil practice. It may be found that health standards in the camps can still be maintained while the position as regards medical attendance in the larger centres of population is being appreciably eased.