Whilst on this subject reference must be made to the help afforded to the hospitals by Red Cross workers. Two schools of thought existed. Some Commanding Officers preferred to have no helpers, because of the trouble some of them gave. Others passed to the other extreme. Our own experience was that the workers organised by Mrs. Elgood were most helpful for the functions they undertook, with one or two exceptions, but those exceptional people gave a certain amount of trouble. They came not to help, but to criticise, and they carried their criticisms not to the Commanding Officer, but to the Australian public, and so caused trouble.
We are convinced that the Japanese method of organising the Red Cross is sound. It is organised and disciplined in time of peace, and when war is declared it becomes part of the army medical reserve and is mobilised for service. Every one is under military control, and consequently these crudities are avoided. If we were to repeat our experience we should have welcomed the visitors, but insisted that they should be under some measure of discipline, and that a serious breach of regulations should be followed by their withdrawal. In some instances visitors wrote to the Commander-in-Chief, and complained of the food the patients were getting. The Commander-in-Chief sent the letters on to us, and we then brought the visitor in contact with the Commanding Officer of the hospital, and the complaint was investigated. How much more direct and simple it would have been if the visitor who saw something he believed to be wrong had immediately asked for the Officer Commanding! But the "secret and confidential" candid friend is apt to become somewhat of a pest.
There is another and more serious aspect of the matter. The medical officer is alone competent to judge what food should be issued to patients. Visitors who criticise the diet of the patient are assuming a function which they are obviously unable to discharge. Diet sheets are provided for each ward, and on these is entered the number of different diets prescribed by the medical officer. These diet sheets should be the only and the final authority of what should be issued to the patient in the way of eatables. As it happened, ladies sometimes brought into the different wards of the hospital foods which constituted an added danger to the patient. On one occasion green melons were issued to a large number of sick men by kind-hearted visitors. The men became so ill that the medical officer confiscated the melons, made inquiries, and only then ascertained the source of supply. A strong-looking soldier on a milk diet might evoke the sympathies of a lady visitor, who lodged a complaint regarding the supply of food, but the nature of his disease and the method of treatment adopted by his medical officer are surely the principal consideration. As everything conceivable in the nature of food and drink can be supplied through these diet sheets, the obvious course is to pass all Red Cross foodstuffs directly into the Quartermaster's department to be distributed in the ordinary, and the only safe, channel. This was the practice followed at Heliopolis.
The following articles were supplied in this way at the time of expansion, and show what assistance a properly controlled Red Cross system can render.
QUARTERMASTER'S REPORT BY LIEUTENANT P. E. DEANE
Assistance rendered the First Australian
General Hospital by Red Cross in Hospital
ExpansionApril
Skating Rink opened.
Abbassia Venereal Diseases Hospital opened.
Casino Infectious " " "
The following were obtained immediately on requisition on Red Cross:
May
Great rush of patients—Luna Park expanded, Palace Hotel expanded.