-4-
 
pied sections. About 5000 have found their way into the ranks of 
 
the Partisans. Both their knowledge and their skill are, by our 
 
standards, of an unacceptably low order.
 
         There are virtually no trained nurses. What nursing is done 
 
is more of a "practical nursing" and "orderly" nature, by willing 
 
but dirty and unskilled women wearing either no uniforms or ordi-
 
nary soldier' s uniforms.
 
        I inspected the divisional hospital near Partisan GHQ. It 
 
contained about l50 patients, housed in dirty and ill-ventilated 
 
rooms with about 15 patients per room averaging l0' x l4'. There 
 
were no beds, no blankets, no sheets, no pillows, no sanitary fa-
 
cilities, no utensils. The patients lie on the floor, head to 
 
the wall and feet toward the center of the room, in dirty old 
 
clothes which are never changed, and with maybe six or eight 
 
inches of floor space between each patient. There is some effort 
 
made to segregate operative from non-operative cases and particu-
 
larly infectious cases, but this is by no means completely prac-
 
ticed either in this or any other hospital that I heard of. There  
 
are practically no drugs. Anesthetics are hardly ever available 
 
or used for any purpose. Bandages are in such demand that the 
 
same bandage is taken off a patient, washed in cold water and put 
 
on another patient as many as ten or twelve times before being  
 
thrown away. It is not uncommon for a bandage to be put on an 
 
amputated limb only until the bleeding stops, after which it is