[50 years of health care of war invalids in Finland. A good 20 years of work remains].

During the years 1939-1945 Finland was involved in the Second World War, divided for her part into three different wars: The Winter War, The Continuation War and The Lappish War. Finland was not occupied and she was spared wholesale bombing. The country suffered most of her casualties through the battles at the front, the majority being men born in 1886-1926. Some 700,000 men and women took part in her defence and almost half of them were wounded or killed. Finland was compelled to build up her health and medical services from scratch for the rehabilitation and care of those wounded in War. During the 1980's the geriatric problems of the war cripples have increased and many new patients are now complaining about their war wounds for the first time. The medical care of war cripples in Finland will cover 70 years; thus 20 years work remains.