Topic Summaries

Treatment in the trenches

GCSE > History > Pearson IGCSE > GCSE History: Medicine and Health in Britain (1000-Present) Topic Summaries > Modern medicine > Treatment in the trenches
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Summary table
  • Stretcher bearers collected and carried wounded men to the first stage of treatment.
  • Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC): army branch responsible for medical care, founded in 1898.
  • First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY): women’s organisation founded in 1907. They sent women to the Western Front to support medical services, drive ambulances, and provide first aid and food.
  • Regimental Aid Posts (RAP): provided immediate first aid, aiming to return as many men as possible to the front line. They could not treat serious injuries but were often located in communication trenches for rapid response.
  • Advanced Dressing Stations (ADS) and Main Dressing Stations (MDS): treated more serious injuries. They were in abandoned buildings, bunkers, or tents. They were staffed by RAMC field ambulance units, which could treat 150 patients or thousands during major battles. 
  • Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS): dealt with the most critical injuries. They set up in buildings like factories and schools, further from the frontline. They also used a triage system: wounded soldiers who could walk were returned to the front, those needing hospital were sent to base, and those with no chance of survival were made comfortable.
  • Base hospitals: performed the most serious operations and were located near the coast for easy evacuation to Britain. They were divided into wards with specialist doctors.
  • Underground hospital at Arras (Nov 1916): built in tunnels and caves under Arras, known as Thomas Cave. It had 700 beds, waiting rooms, an operating theatre, a mortuary, electricity, and piped water.

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