CASUALTY CLEARING STATIONS DEALT WITH TWO GROUPS OF PATIENTS
Casualty Clearing Station 37 (Courtesy Wellcome Library, London)
1. The wounded - termed battle casualties. There were nearly 2 million battle casualty admissions in France and Flanders with 151,356 deaths.
2. The sick (e.g. dysentery, bronchitis) and injured (e.g. road traffic accident). These patients were termed non-battle casualties. There were over 3.5 million non-battle casualty admissions in France and Flanders with over 32,098 deaths.
The First World War was the first war fought by the British Empire in which the number of deaths from battle exceeded the number of deaths from disease. Enemy action accounted for 95% of fatalities in France.