Metadata
- Title: ROYAL AIR FORCE MEDICAL SERVICES: MEDICAL REHABILITATION [Main Title]
- Film Number: AMY 589
- Other titles:
- Summary: The Royal Air Force is a very technical fighting service, aircrew must be fit to meet the physical and mental demands imposed by high speed aircraft, whilst ground crews must be fit and able to clamber about the aircraft and work in confined spaces. All members of the Service must be fit for general combatant training. Loss of manpower through disability is kept to a minimum. Treatment progressing through hospitals, rehabilitation units and RAF stations results in the return of men and women in the shortest possible time, ready to play their full part in service life.
- Description: Reel one: Rehabilitation begins in the ward where physical training instructors take their patients through a series of exercises to hasten their recovery. Film cuts to a ward where several patients, aided by various mechanical aids or supports, receive attention from a physiotherapist, whilst those bedridden before or after an operation are attended by nurses and doctors discussing their treatment. In the gymnasium a variety of exercises are overseen by physical training instructors. Outside, in the sun, gentle sporting activities take place on the grass. Examples of the nature of the injury are seen as the camera closes up to a selection of patients. Typically, a few days after their operation, patients are sent to a rehabilitation unit. Aircrew go to the Headley Court in Surrey to complete a programme of graduated exercises, specifically designed to restore full mobility to the damaged limb. Social activities are arranged to aid recovery, and visits made to nearby areas of interest and entertainment, to encourage optimism for a speedy and full recovery. Film cuts to view of departing coach returning discharged patients to their respective RAF stations. In Devon, the Collaton Cross rehabilitation unit caters for technicians and women of the WAAF who have sustained injury to a limb, with emphasis on hands and fingers. Film cuts to many examples of injuries and the diverse nature of the therapy administered, from basket weaving to tennis. The Technical repair and development section at the Chessington rehabilitation unit are responsible for the implementation of the latest electrical and electronic instrumentation to monitor the patients progress. Polio victims are treated at Chessington. At all units the patient’s progress is monitored to assess when they can return, fully recovered, to their post in the RAF. A few will not make a full recovery and will return to a civilian life, aided by the Education officer in conjunction with the Ministry of employment. Reel two: The film returns to Headley Court where the physical training instructor, the medical officer and the physiotherapist work as a team with access to a large and complex variety of facilities, to provide the best possible treatment currently available, thus minimising the loss of manpower to the RAF. The remainder of the film is devoted a series of clips reviewing the activities at Headley Court.
- Access Conditions:
- Featured Period: 1945-1975
- Production Date: 1953
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: ROYAL AIR FORCE (Production sponsor)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations:
- Keywords:
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Sound
- Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Length: 670ft
- Notes:
- Link to IWM Collections page:
- Related IWM Collections Objects: