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

ward of about 25 beds, in a separate annexe, at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. We did not at firsthave access to the newborn in the Maternity Unit at the General Hospital. At the time many obstetricians were unwilling tohand over the care of the neonates to paediatricians and I must confess that I personally had had practically no training orexperience in neonatology when I was appointed. However, in Winchester, Dr John Penny and Mr Phillip Mitchell werevery willing to give us the run of their nurseries and we established a happy and, I think, efficient service there.Unfortunately this happy state of affairs at Winchester came to an abrupt end when Dr Penny had to retire early for healthreasons and his successor did not hold with paediatricians caring for “his” babies. A bitter dispute ensued which, in spiteof strong support from the Regional Board, we lost. In the meantime Mr Knowlton and Mr Kilgour at Southampton hadrelented and we were now involved, though at first only partially, at the Maternity Unit.Within a year of his appointment Dr Norman left to join the staff of Great Ormond Street and we in Southampton coveredhis area for several months until Dr David Beynon was ready to take over. Dr George Crawshaw who had been our firstregistrar, took over West Dorset as temporary paediatrician. He held this post until December 1955 when Dr DavidVulliamy was appointed.The Wessex Region seceded from the S.W. Metropolitan Region in 1959 having its headquarters In Winchester with thedynamic Dr John Revans as Senior Administrative Medical Officer. Dr Neville Butler was appointed to take over theSalisbury district from Dr Beynon as well as Swindon, which had been separated off from the Oxford Region.We in Southampton again had to cover Bournemouth and Poole during Dr Beynon’s long illness though Dr PamelaDavies acted as locum for some of the time and again after his tragic death. Dr Beynon was replaced in Bournemouthand East Dorset in September 1961 by Dr Michael Simpkiss.Dr Butler resigned in 1963 to join the staff at Great Ormond Street and Dr Ormiston retired in the same year, This seemedto be an opportune time to reorganise the paediatric service in central Wessex. Under the new arrangement Dr JohnGreaves from Teeside took over Winchester with some sessions at Southampton and Dr Hughes Davies took overSalisbury with sessions at Winchester and Southampton, while I concentrated mainly at Southampton with some sessionsat Salisbury. The object of this reorganisation was intended to give each paediatrician a place at the SouthamptonChildren’s Hospital while providing a second string at each of the district hospitals to cover off-duty, but it was asomewhat cumbersome arrangement and Dr Hughes Davies soon decided to relinquish his sessions at Winchester. DrLilian Jones took on Swindon in 1964.During the fifties I had established peripheral out-patient clinics in Lymington, Basingstoke, Andover and Hythe. Soonafter his appointment, Dr Greaves improved the cover at Basingstoke and Andover and started a new clinic at Alton.At Portsmouth Dr George Lewis was appointed in July 1965 to support Dr Moseley and in December 1969 Dr TerryMacIntosh was appointed to Basingatoke with some sessions at Winchester, In 1973 he was joined by Dr Judith Darmadywhose contract also included some sessions in Community Paediatrics; the first such contract in Wessex and perhaps inthe U.K.. The importance of maintaining professional ties with our colleagues stimulated the formation of the S. W.Metropolitan Paediatric Club early in the 1950s. Meetings were held at the various centres of the Region. However, withthe independence of Wessex, which was unique at the time in not having a medical school, loyalties tended to changeand close links were forged with Bristol. Prof Victor Neal and Dr John Apley were particularly helpful and welcoming.Most paediatricians from Wessex joined the South West Paediatric Club which held two meetings each year, the winterone in Bristol/Bath and the summer one at a peripheral centre, We hosted the summer meeting of the club in 1967. It wasnot until about 1968 that there were enough paediatricians in Wessex to justify the founding of our own club.The establishment of the Wessex Medical School in 1971 and the appointment of Dr Colin Normand as Professor of ChildHealth at Southampton opened a new chapter for paediatrics in the region. Students were to obtain a significant portion oftheir clinical experience at various regional centres and many of the consultant paediatricians were given the titles of‘Honorary Clinical Tutor’.Various specialised services were developed on a Regional basis though few were particularly orientated towardschildren.Mr John Atwell’s appointment in 1969 marked the beginning of a Regional Paediatric Surgical service, which was to bewidely developed.The regional Orthopaedic service was based on Lord Mayor Trainers Hospital at Alton. Although included in both DrOrmiston’s and my own contracts we never succeeded in establishing a footing in that hospital.The Cardio-thoracic service was based on the Chest (Western) Hospital and cardioiogists held peripheral clinicsthroughout the region often in conjunction with local paediatricians.Children for Plastic Surgery and those with severe burns were treated at the Regional Unit at Odstock. Other children withunusual or difficult problems continued to be referred to London and other centres.I am very grateful to my colleagues Dr Mary Capes and Dr Leslie Bartlet for providing the following accounts of thedevelopment of the Child Psychiatric Services in our area,