HC Deb 09 March 1916 vol 80 c1722
111. Mr. R. McNEILL

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, at the outbreak of war, an order was in force forbidding medical officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps to operate in abdominal cases; whether, notwithstanding this order, an eminent surgeon operated in abdominal cases in Antwerp in the autumn of 1914 with satisfactory results; whether the order nevertheless remained in force until after September, 1915; whether the usefulness of operation in abdominal cases in saving life has now been established, provided the operation can be performed with a minimum loss of time; and whether steps are being taken to inaugurate a complete system of operating field hospitals as close as possible to the fighting zone?

Mr. TENNANT

I cannot find that the order referred to is anything else than a figment of some fertile imagination. The arrangements in France have the full approval of the consulting surgeons, and of others most competent to judge. I have quite recently received a report from Sir Frederick Treves, in which he states that in many cases a man in need of a grave operation has found himself on the operating table within three or four hours of his being shot, and that he was informed of cases in which operations upon the skull and the abdomen had been carried out within two and a half hours of the receipt of the wound; and he adds that such prompt attention could not be obtained by a wounded civilian in any rural district in England. If he so desires, I will show my hon. Friend the whole of the Report from which I have read this extract.

Mr. McNEILL

Does the right hon. Gentleman know that the facts spoken to by Sir Frederick Treves are extremely exceptional, and will he be prepared to say that there is an organisation whereby facilities are provided for operations to be carried out at the front?

Mr. TENNANT

Such a sweeping statement might not be permissible or proper, but there is an organisation of clearing stations so near the front that they are constantly under shell fire in which these operations can and do take place at all hours of the day and night.