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[Page 31]
All the wards were washed out every Saturday, but no disinfectant was used either in the water or in the wards.
During the last six months of my internment, owing to the pressure for extra room, they had to take in about seven huts from the camp and turn them into wards for the North Hospital, and these were used particularly for minor cases.
It was a common thing for seven or eight dead men to be taken from a train bringing prisoners from the different fronts. Soon after the prisoners arrived from the front, they were given a bath and their clothes disinfected, then they were brought before two doctors to be classed for work. I have met many men of different nationalities who, rather than put up with bad treatment on the farms and in the factories, would purposely injure themselves in order to be returned to the camps. Men have also continually irritated their wounds so as to remain in hospital rather than go before the doctor to be classed for work.
Each month a Commission was held by the Commandant and two doctors for the examination of men marked out of hospital. Very often the doctor would give a man a working number, but the commandant would have the power to over rule the two doctors. I have seen cases where the doctor has marked a man for work, but the Commandant would not allow the man to work until the next Commission – but the Commandant would sometimes class a man for work when the two doctors had marked him for no work. I have seen men on crutches being sent to the basket factory to work.
Anyone in the camp who wanted to see the doctor would have to