[1] It employed doctors and nurses to care for those injured by enemy action and arrange for their treatment across the range of local and charity hospitals that existed at that time.
According to David Stark Murray "Until war became imminent it was only with the greatest difficulty that anyone could be persuaded to regard the chaotic and anachronistic structure of medical practice and hospital services as of any real importance to the nation.
One of the first tasks was to survey the assortment of mental asylums, public assistance institutions and other hospitals which had been put at the disposal of the service.
[7] Many hospitals were removed from cities into the country, so the scheme included provision of an ambulance service for moving patients from one place to another.
There was a system of area management, co-ordinated by group officers who controlled personnel and equipment which were pooled and allocated to different hospitals as required.
[5] A number of special treatment centres, were established in particular dealing with plastic surgery and war neurosis, together with staff and laboratory facilities for a national blood transfusion service.