ninety years of service - University Hospital Southampton NHS ...

and supported by others with specialist status, all of whom had given their services entirely voluntarily, were graduallyreplaced by nearly whole time specialist consultants. Considering the magnitude of these changes they took placeremarkably smoothly with very little acrimony.Dr George Ormiston (1947) and Dr Mary Capes (1948) had both joined the staff of the hospital prior to the ‘AppointedDay’ and I was appointed Consultant Paediatrician in November 1949. Like Dr Ormiston,I had responsibilities inWinchester as well as Southampton. At that time most consultant appointments were designated “maximum part-time”i.e.9/11ths, so that we were able to have some private practice, In my case this never amounted to very much and laterwhen it was permissible, I opted to go full time. An important feature in those days was the Domiciliary Consultation whichwas quite a formal affair with the G.P. nearly always present. As well as being a valuable perk for the consultant they didgive him a chance to meet the G,P,s and also an opportunity for him to see the inside of the patients homes,At the Children’s Hospital in 1950 Miss Golay was matron and there were two main wards. Ward I. Gillespie, was dividedinto two sections the main one in the front overlooking Winchester Rd. had beds along one side and cots along the outerand there was also the ‘balcony’, which had previously been enclosed, providing 20 beds in all. In 1951 cubicles wereconstructed along one side of the ward with the loss of 5 beds. At the top of the stairs opposite the ward kitchen there wasa small treatment room with a side ward for skin cases next door. The poor babies with generalised eczema there werenursed naked with their limbs splinted to prevent scratching and painted all over with Gentian Violet. Next to the wardkitchen there was a two-bedded sick bay for nursing staff which later became the treatment room: a severe case oftetanus was successfully nursed there for several weeks. Nursing procedures were still quite primitive. With no CentralSterile Supply service all instruments etc had to be sterilised on the wards. Urine specimens from infants were collectedby means of a glass bird feeder strapped on with ‘Elastoplast’ under the nappy.At the back was Ward II, Obree, which accommodated 11 surgical and 12 ‘clean’ medical cases, Dr Ormiston’s smallgastro-enteris ward on the ground floor with Sister Hughes in charge had six cubicles. Dr Ormiston liked to have aspecimen of each baby’s stool on display in an enamel pie-dish at the foot of its cot, One nurse has complained that thisput her off rice pudding for life! Dr Ormiston retained sole charge of the unit until he retired.Ward I was presided over by Sister “Bunty” Boyce a wonderful person in the very best traditions of her profession. Shewould often be found still on duty late at night when one of her ‘treasures’ was in danger. She was adored by the childrenas well as by their parents. The whole hospital was delighted when later she was awarded an M.B.E. in recognition of herdevoted service. She retired in 1966.In 1948 12 children (900 p.a.) were still being admitted to Ward I for Ts& As on alternate days but this ceased with the opening of the children’sE.N.T. ward at the General. In the fifties infections such as poliomyelitis,congenital syphilis and tuberculosis were still quite common. There wasusually at least one case of TB meningitis requiring daily intrathecalinjections of streptomycin in the wards. Miliary tuberculosis too was notuncommon nor were bone and glandular T.B. due to the bovine bacillus.Although most town milk was pasteurised, this often did not apply inrural districts. Gastro-enteritis was still the dreaded complication forhospitalised infants.In most winters there was an epidemic of acute infantile laryngotracheo-bronchitis.Sometimes this almost overwhelmed our facilities.Every available cot would be occupied by a wheezing baby whileoccasionally some had to be accommodated temporarily in odd boxes or drawers. Steam kettles and oxygen tents wereeverywhere. The infant’s condition could deteriorate extremely quickly and it was always difficult to decide just when tocall in the E.N.T.surgeon to do a tracheostomy. One has vivid memories of Mr Alex Rusell, himself a severe asthmatic,arriving in haste at the top of the stairs by Ward I wheezing as badly as the infant he had come to treat!Cystic fibrosis had only recently been separated off from coeliac disease and most of the cases died in infancy. Thesweat test had not yet been invented. The cause of coeliac disease itself was still a mystery so that there was no effectivetreatment. Cases of ‘pink disease’ were still quite common. These were particularly miserable babies with characteristicitchy pink palms and soles. The condition disappeared as soon as it was shown to have been caused by mercurypoisoning from so-called ‘teething powders’. Childhood diabetes was much less common than it is to-day and there weretwo schools of thought regarding the importance of strict dietary control.We had very little to offer the unfortunate children with malignant disease. Those with various solid tumours had surgeryand probably radiotherapy at the Royal South Hants Hospital but those with leukaemia were usually sent home with aprognosis of only a few weeks to live, often to be readmitted in their terminal phase. A development in the late fifties wasthe gradual appreciation of the importance of non-accidental injury to children; with hind-sight it was apparent that manysuch cases had been missed, sometimes being mis-diagnosed as infantile scurvy.The streptococcal related disorders of acute nephritis and rheumatic fever were quite common. In both cases they weretreated by graduated bed rest .The progress was very gradual, starting in the case of rheumatic fever, with three weeksflat on the back without pillows. After a week or so at Winchester Rd the children were transferred to Bursledon so that