Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

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Medical Boarding

As a general rule it was 2 NZEF policy not to carry out surgical procedures unless they were urgent or else offered the prospect of permanent relief of symptoms sufficient to enable a man to be retained in useful employment overseas. Cases that were graded for return to New Zealand included all the chronic suppurative otitis media cases, cases of chronic sinusitis that had failed to respond satisfactorily to treatment, cases of nasal polypi, cases of deafness that would tend to deteriorate under service conditions, all cases of chronic laryngitis, and some selected cases of otitis externa which were resistant to treatment and had a nuisance value owing to constant requirement of medical supervision. The sort of case that could safely be retained overseas was the dry aural perforation in a safe area of the drum or the mildly deaf.