HUT HOSPITALS—A RED CROSS SUGGESTION.
PROVISION is at once to be made for some four hundred and ninety thousand men in four or five huge camps in various parts of the country. We wonder what arrangements are proposed for looking after the sick in these new wooden cities, for cities of one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand men require a good deal of hospital accommodation. Unless we are altogether mistaken, which of course is quite possible, the Royal Army Medical Corps, either of the Regular Army or the Territorials, will hardly be able to carry out the work, for the former have enough to do in France, while the latter are, we presume, looking after the health of the embodied Territorials. In these circumstances, why should not the Voluntary Aid Detachments or branches of the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance Societies, which are now, of course, under the orders of the War Office, be used to staff, under professional leadership—medical, surgical, and nursing—the Hut Hospitals required at the various camps ? The local Voluntary Aid Detachments near by would no doubt do all they could, but clearly they could not do all or even a tenth part of what would be required. On the other hand, the Territorial Association of the county in which the camp was situated would easily be able to call for volunteers from the Voluntary Aid Detachments throughout the county, and out of these to organize an auxiliary personnel staff which, under proper guidance, would be quite efficient. Take a specific case. A great camp is to be established at Englisham Common, in the county of Loamshire. Why should not the Loamshire Territorial Association organize what might be called a composite detachment from volunteers from all parts of the county to complete the necessary nursing staff and details of men's detach- ments which would be required ? Soldiers are no less soldiers because they are in England and not in France, and those who have undertaken the obligation of nursing soldiers should clearly be as willing, and we are sure would be as willing, to nurse them in the ailments which training in the winter is sure to bring as if they were wounded on the field of battle. In case any of our readers may think that this- suggestion is unnecessary, we may give them a practical illustration of the way in which men fall ill in camp, how impossible it is to nurse them in tents or huts in any comfort, and, finally, how necessary it is for their health to have a well-equipped hospital close at hand, even if they only go there for out-patient treatment or are only in for a couple of nights. The present writer last spring had the privilege of makingarrangements for a camp of eight hundred National Reservists, picked men all in good health, who came to him as Saturday-to-Monday guests. The local Voluntary Aid Detachment provided a marquee with several beds in it, and had medical officers, nurses, and orderlies on duty day and night. As the weather was quite perfect, neither hot ma cold, every one expected them to have no cases. Yet, as a matter of fact, two beds were occupied during the whole time of the camp, one man suffering from illness and one from a fractured ankle, and there was also a constant stream of men coming to have burns and small wounds attended to, and to get medicine for minor ail- ments. If the weather bad been bad this number would probably have been doubled. Now if that happens in a camp of a battalion during three days, what would happen in the case of one hundred to one hundred and twenty, thousand men camped in the winter and under- going a very severe military training ? Instead of two beds being kept going, in all probability there would be at least a hundred, even if all the bad cases were at once sent off to county hospitals. There would also have to be a very large dispensary or out-patients' department.
That the picked women and men of the county Volun- tary Aid Detachments would do the work, and do it well, we do not doubt. Amongst them are many thoroughly efficient nurses, and those who at present have only a smattering of knowledge would learn very quickly, for the bulk of them are women of education and quick intelli- gence, very keen, and therefore very rapid learners. Such a body of women as we have described would, under capable leadership, become in all essentials efficient within a very short time. By this, of course, we are not so foolish as to mean that they would be fit to act as theatre nurses or to undertake unassisted bad typhoid cases. If, however, as we have said, they were well led, they would very soon learn their jobs. As many of them have households to look after, it would probably be necessary for them to work in reliefs of, say, six weeks to two months at a time ; but there would be no harm in this as it would be a great advantage to the general medical training of the country to pass the keenest volunteers for nursing duty in each county through the hospitals.
Very possibly the ideas set forth above have already been thoroughly thought out by the Red Cross, the Army Medical authorities, and the Territorial Associations. If so, the publication of our suggestion will do no harm. If the matter has not yet been closely considered—as is of course possible, though we admit unlikely—and if we are right in believing that the Royal Army Medical Corps is too busy to undertake the work, then we think our suggestion is certainly worth the attention of the authorities. It would be a thousand pities to wait to create Hut Hospitals till illness broke out among the recruits in the new camps. Hardships and rough fare the men must expect, and will, we are sure, bear with fortitude knowing they are inevitable, but illness must be instantly relieved by the best possible treatment.
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