The Evacuation Route Flashcards
Give the order of places in the evacuation route.
- Stretcher Bearers
- Regimental Aid Post (RAP)
- Field Ambulance/Dressing Station
- Casualty Clearing Station (CCS)
- Base Hospital
(From the Base Hospital, most patients were sent back to England by train.)
How many stretcher bearers were there per 1,000 soldiers, and how many did it take to carry one soldier?
16 stretcher bearers per 1,000 soldiers.
It took up to 4 stretcher bearers to carry one soldier.
What basic medical supplies did stretcher bearers carry?
Bandages and morphine for pain relief.
What was the function of the stretcher bearers?
To recover the dead and wounded.
What was the function of the RAP?
A battalion regimental medical officer had the job to distinguish between the lightly wounded, and those needing more medical attention. He would bandage very light wounds with dressings, and send men back into action. The rest were sent to Dressing Stations for treatment, sometimes after being given pain relief.
How many people worked at a Regimental Aid Post?
There was just one medical officer, and a team of up to 30 orderlies and stretcher bearers for each battalion.
What was a Field Ambulance?
A large, mobile medical unit with medical officers, support staff and, from 1915, some nurses.
What was the function of the staff of the Field Ambulance?
They set up Dressing Stations in tents or derelict buildings to receive the wounded sent from the RAP, and sort them into more or less serious cases, a system known as triage.
How did more serious cases get to Casualty Clearing Stations from the Field Ambulance and Dressing Stations?
By motorised or horse-drawn ambulances, or by lorry.
How many casualties could a CCS deal with at a time?
A CCS could deal with a thousand casualties at a time, but often had far more in the first two years of the war.
What equipment/rooms did a CCS contain?
- Operating theatres
- Mobile X-ray machines
- Wards with beds for around 50 men
- Kitchens
- Toilet blocks
- Accommodation for the medical staff
Fill the blanks, describing a CCS:
By ____, they were performing more operations that the hospitals, including many __________.
- 1917
- Amputations
What kind, and how many, staff members did a CCS have?
There were usually around seven doctors, with nursing and other staff.
How far away from the fighting was the CCS typically?
They were seven to twelve miles from the fighting.
True or False:
The CCS was the first, large, well-equipped medical facility the wounded would see.
True.
