“ INDIFFERENT TO COUNTRY NEEDS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19240, 29 November 1930, Page 34 (Supplement)

“ INDIFFERENT TO COUNTRY NEEDS.”

ST JOHN AMBULANCE MEMBER URGES REFORM. A plea for the St John Ambulance Association to pay more attention to the country districts, where the need for instruction in first aid is said to be great, was made by Mr W. A. Carpenter, clerk of the Mount Herbert County, in an interview yesterday. “I attended the meeting on Tuesday, when it was decided to launch a campaign for funds for a new building and facilities,” said Mr Carpenter; “and I was impressed by the apparent concern of those present for the needs of the city and their apparent indifference to those of the country. One speaker quoted the increasing traffic in the city, with its danger of accidents, as an argument in favour of a free ambulance service. It must be remembered, how- | ever, that there are nearly one hundred doctors in Christchurch city and suburbs, and that skilled medical attention and hospital treatment are within a few minutes’ call of any accident there. The crying, need is that of the country.” Difficult to Secure. While praising the work of the association in giving first aid instruction in the city and at large centres suth as Rangiora and Kaiapoi, Mr Carpenter said that a far greater need existed in the country districts where, though bad accidents occurred just as frequently as in the cities, medical attention was very difficult to secure. In the urban districts it was safe to leave an injured person until a doctor arrived, but in less well-served places an otherwise doomed life could be saved by a little knowledge on the part of * those at hand, or at least sustained during the hour or more required to bring a doctor to the scene. Wropg handling by uninstructed persons, too, could easily 1 turn a simple injury, like a broken leg or arm, into a compound one. Great Scope Offered.

A great work offered itself to the St John Ambulance, said Mr Carpenter, in reaching out to the small country centres and spreading knowledge of first aid there, paying the fee to the medical instructor and lending its support to those who were prepared to organise the local groups. First aid was a simple science which could be learnt in a few lessons when competent instruction was available. Local bodies for the most

part would be prepared to make grants towards the expense of local lessons in ambulance work, for that would be of immediate and permanent use; but in the hard times through which the country was passing they would be extremely unlikely to contribute towards the huge sum at which the St John Association was aiming—a sum which would be spent largely on maintaining a band of trained nurses and ambulance men whose services would often not be available in the country districts until too late. Mr Carpenter is one of the oldest members of the St John Association in the world, his certificate bearing the date 1878.