SOLDIER OUT-PATIENTS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8200, 28 June 1919, Page 1

SOLDIER OUT-PATIENTS.

A MEDICAL OVERHAUL. The medical branch of the Defence Department has decided to set up a Special Medical Board for the purpose of examining all soldiers who are outpatients at all hospitals in New Zealand. This Board will travel over the whale of New Zealand with a view to classifying these cases. In addition to returned soldiers actually attending as out-patients, it is believed that there may be some disabled men who received their discharge before the possibilities opened up by the recent advances in military orthopaedic surgery and other kinds of treatment of war disabilities had developed. Any disabled men in this condition who desire their cases to be reviewed by the Travelling Medical Board should at once communicate with the Assistant Director of Medical Services of their military district (Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury or Otago). That officer will then arrange that these men are brought before the Board in the course of its itinerary. Cases requiring treatment will be sent to the most suitable hospital for in-patient treatment, so that they may get greater benefit. Other outpatients have reached a stationary position in regard to their disability, and where the Board is satisfied that no further good can be done, they will be hoarded out, and their pension finally adjusted. As the Defence Department has now a complete series of hospitals for specialist treatment, the Medical Board will be able in many cases to recommend transfers of patients to the hospital in which their particular disability will be dealt with by a specially trained staff. Soldier patients in the civil hospitals are to be included in this examination. The Board will make a special note regarding limbless cases and those requiring operative treatment. Every patient will have his case considered, with a view to providing him with the best treatment available in the Dominion. The policy of the Department is not to allow its soldier patients to indefinitely drift. The Board comprises il Consulting Surgeon to the Force!, and a suigeon who has had a wide experience on a hospital ship and in military hospitals. It will be able to determine what can be done to improve the condition of the patient, and to definitely decide if nothing further can be done by medical science, in which case the soldier will have his pension permanently arranged, and will be able to take advantage of the facilities provided by the State for the assistance of disabled men to learn special occupations suitable for them. It is anticipated that this Board will require several months to complete its itinerary. It is hoped that any discharged soldiers on permanent pension who consider they may be benefited by further treatment will report, as indicated, to the Assistant Director of Medical Services of their district. This will clearly be entirely to their advantage, as although their physical condition may be improved, their pension, if already made permanent, cannot be reduced.