Military hospital ships: practical notes for medical officers on the selection, equipment, organization, and administration of a military hospital ship

Abstract

An endeavour has been made in these notes to justify their claim to being "practical" as set forth in the title.The sequence of events has been taken in its natural order from the sebection of the ship to the description of a complete voyage.The question of selection'devolves least on the Medical Officer,and therefore has been dealt with shottly. As regards the fitting -out and equipping of a Hospital Ship,it is most unlikely that,unaided,this duty would aver fall to any Medical Officer to supervise. The work in practically every known case falls to the Admiralty to carry out,but practical suggestions from Medical Officers, I have always found are welcomed.As before mentioned,it would be to my mind a mere waste of time to attempt to give all details of dimensions of pantries,and other structures,spaces between cots,and other such minutiae.Better it is,I think,to accept the standard we all know, and to rest content with suggestions for improvement on that standard.It is with organization and administration that all but a very few Medical Officers called to hospital ship duty will have to deal.For the working of a Hospital ship there is no standard set, and often no previous experience 7upon which to act.