SINGAPORE MILITARY HOSPITAL

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 86, 22 August 1941, Page 4

SINGAPORE MILITARY HOSPITAL

Auckland Doctor In Charge

LARGE AND VERY MODERN INSTITUTION

Advice has been received in Auckland that Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Craven, M.C., Royal Army Medical Corps, medical superintendent, of Auckland Hospital, is commanding officer of the Alexandra Military Hospital on Singapore Island. The Alexandra Hospital, which has been fully equipped to meet any emergency,' is one of the finest institutions of its type in the world. Planned a few years ago, the great hospital was practically completed before the outbreak of war.

Its equipment and facilities are of the highest order. The radiology section has apparatus to deal with all types of X-ray work. Another department pro vides for massage, ultra-violet or infrared rays' and a specialist handies ear and throat complaints. Operating theatres are air-conditioned and medical and surgical equipment is the most modern in the world. Attached to the hospital is a laboratory in which research and pathological examinations are carried out to safeguard services personnel from disease and infection.

The wards are in the care of English nursing sisters of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, and th. principal matron (Far East) has compiled a list of suitably-trained women in Singapore who will be called in to assist when the need arises. There is little disease among men of the services stationed in Malaya because of the splendid organization working throughout the country in combating possible sources of danger. Dr. Craven, who was appointed superintendent of Auckland Hospital in 1932. left for overseas a year ago. He had a distinguished Great War record, going to France in 1915 with the rank of captain in the Ist Northumberland Field Ambulance. He commanded the unit in the later stages of the war, and returned from active service in 1919 as lieutenantcolonel. He was awarded the Military Cross and the Cross of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.