EXCELLENT MEDICAL SERVICES

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXI, Issue 15232, 23 December 1942, Page 4

EXCELLENT MEDICAL SERVICES

WITH N.Z. FORCES New Zealand has sent nearly 200 medical officers to the Middle East in addition to more than 2000 noncommissioned officers and men of the Medical Corps, about 246 Army nursing sisters, and about 230 members of the hospital service of the W.W.S.A. These figures were given in a broadcast address by Brigadier H. S. Kenrick, C.8.E., who has been in the Middle East with the Medical Corps. There was now a complete chain of medical units from the front line down to the base, he said. Blood transfusions could now be given to wounded men three or four miles from the front line. Three general hospitals, with a total of 2400 beds, had become highly organised. The success of the New Zealand Division, said Brigadier Kenrick. had been achieved hv sacrifices but there- was comfort in the knowledge that the medical services gave tße best treatment and had the best facilities for the recovery of the men. About 65 per cent, of the wounded. eventually returned to full duty while only 30 to 35 per cent, were |>ernia.nently unfit for further service and returned, to New Zealand. As the Prime Minister had stated recently, only 133 New Zealand soldiers had died of sickness in three years of war—a very low figure for mer. serving in tropical climates under hard conditions.