Wounded and sick

In the area of the Fourth Operational Zone, the development of partisan medical services went hand-in-hand with the development of the liberation struggle as well as military and political circumstances in each region. Due to a different and much tougher German occupation regime in Slovenian regions of Štajerska and Koroška, in the area there were no partisan hospitals and organised partisan medical service, such as in the Ljubljana Region, until 1944. However, the wounded and sick began to be taken care of immediately after the armed rising.

The first partisan companies and battalions were leaving the seriously wounded and sick soldiers in makeshift bunkers and at reliable farms where they were treated by civilian physicians, students of medicine, medics and field workers. The medical service in partisan units began to evolve in the spring of 1942, and organised construction of partisan hospitals began in 1944 after the arrival of the 14th Division.