Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
History
Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
Medicine, Military; Military hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Medical care -- United States
_Second_: The caring for the veteran patients in the same hospitals in
which the sick of the Navy are being treated. In assigning
accommodations to the patients of the Veterans’ Bureau there are many
problem which complicate this matter. Manifestly it is necessary for the
Navy to be prepared to receive the patients from its own personnel, and
when it is considered that the fleet may at one time be in the port of
New York and sending its sick to the New York Hospital during such time
and then sail away for another port to then transfer its sick to another
hospital the difficulties are apparent. If we could divide the ships
between different ports and their sick between different hospitals the
matter would be easy of adjustment.
Again we have only a limited number of beds in our three hospitals on
the Pacific Coast and at the present time a large fleet is based on this
station so that we are unable to offer accommodations in those hospitals
to the Veterans’ Bureau and at the same time make adequate provision for
the naval sick.
As a general rule we are only able to provide hospital facilities for
general medical and surgical cases, but much of our work is in studying
cases of suspected tuberculosis and where a positive diagnosis is made
the determination of the extent of the process.
At Great Lakes, Ill. owing to the urgent needs of this section of the
country, we have agreed to care for approximately 300 neuropsychiatric
patients, this in addition to 300 beds for general patients. In order to
obtain medical personnel trained in the supervision of such cases it was
necessary to withdraw our psychiatric specialists from various stations
where their services were needed, but it was felt that this was a
greater need. To provide for additional men trained in this specialty we
now have a number of young medical officers under training at St.
Elizabeths Hospital.
The Navy is not only indebted to Doctor White for this service but it
owes him obligations for his many years of instruction to the classes at
our Naval Medical School. At the present time there are under
consideration plans for the establishment under Doctor White of a school
for the training of psychiatric personnel for other services caring for
veterans, taking advantage of the abundant clinical material at St.
Elizabeths.
At our hospital at Chelsea, Mass., we have been able to offer 539 beds
to the Veterans’ Bureau and from the letters I receive, as well as from
a personal inspection, I can attest the care that is there being given
our veterans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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