Boulogne under the Red Cross

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VIII, Issue 3, 1 July 1915, Page 147

Boulogne under the Red Cross

The French seaport and watering place has undergone an extraordinary transformation. It is now what may be termed a hospital town for the British wounded. All the principal hotels are turned into hospitals or lodge the officials of the British Red Cross Society. At the railway station the goods sheds have been converted into an enormous military hospital. The work has been so well done that dismal uninhabitable buildings have been changed into a series of spotlessly clean, bright wards well lighted, warm and ventilated. There is even a specially equipped ward for pneumonia cases, and two thoroughly up-to-date operating theatres. The Casino has also been converted into a hospital. The Cafe restaurant makes a fine ward, containing over 90 beds, and at the ' bar " medicines are now dispensed. The finest ward of all is the great Baccarat Hall. The cashier's office is now a sisters' room, and the "American Bar" a Rontgenray room. Never have the British wounded,

or probably any wounded, been so well looked after. The hospitals are as well staffed as they are equipped. Eminent consulting physicians attached to the army visit daily to advise on medical cases of difficulty, and a still greater number of eminent surgeons attend, and no major operation is performed without the approval of one of them. There are also specialists as well as operating surgeons who are celebrated for particular work. The transport is equally good. The Red Cross Society has some good motor ambulances on the roads in France. They are at every point of the lines of communication and at every base, and are ready at any hour of the day or night. There is also now an adequate number of ambulance trains on the lines of communication, and the latter types embody the newest refinements in hospital-train construction. — From The Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb. 27, 1915.