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

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made of local convalescent homes particularly that at Testwood which closed in 1928.To be admitted, a patient now required not only a referral letter from his panel doctor but also two introductory letterswhich would last for one month though an O.P. attendance needed only one letter. A subscriber had at his disposal onesuch letter for every 10/6d subscribed. The unfortunate parents would have to hunt around for a patron with letters tospare before their child could be treated. However emergencies and accidents were treated without question. No chargeswere made and a suggestion that 2/6d be charged for a dental gas was firmly turned down. The rules at this time statedthat “Only women and children of those parents who are unable from want of means or other urgent cause, to be suitablytreated elsewhere and who after medical examination are shown to be in need of treatment are to be admitted aspatients”. One subscriber complained to the committee that a child whose father earned £7 per week should not havebeen treated at the hospital.In 1936 revised rules state that the parents of patients who could afford to do so, were to be asked to contribute towardsthe cost of treatment and maintenance. There was also mention of a Pay Bed ward but this does not appear to have beenestablished. Introductory letters were no longer required.Before the war the hospital had largely relied on subscriptions anddonations for finance but with the increased size and turnover there wasa need to find much more money. The Linen League continued to bevery active and provided not only linen but furnishings for the newnurses’ home. Pound Days also continued. The annual Carnival and flagdays were a valuable source of funds. Many of the local businessesparticularly the big shipping companies gave large donations butimportant contributions were also made by a number of working men’sorganisations notably the Southampton Tramwaymen. A ‘Penny in thePound’ scheme whereby some employers deducted that amount from aman’s wages as a form of health insurance was introduced to befollowed by other contributory schemes. Various new fund raisingschemes were introduced. A Children’s League was started in 1927 whereby individual schools in the neighbourhoodwere encouraged to support a particular named cot. In 1928 the ‘Gugnunc’ cot was endowed. This was the first of severalsuch cots ‘Named in Perpetuity’ each costing the donors £600. Probably the last to be endowed was the ‘Reid’ cot tocommemorate Flight Sgt. John Reid who had been shot down over Germany in 1944. It is sad that all the commemorativeplaques for these cots were lost when the hospital closed in 1974.In 1925 the first part of a new nurses’ home fronting Vinery Gardens was opened thus releasing accommodation in themain building for a small ‘tonsil ward’ The remaining half of the nurses’ home together with a lecture room was completedin 1931. Further expansion took place in 1927/9 The kitchen was enlarged and linked to a new ward kitchen above by a‘dumb waiter’. The Shirley Wing was added to the front of the building providing a new department for Massage, electricaland sunlight treatment together with X-ray on the ground floor and a 15 cot ward and sun balcony above, thus bringingthe total number of cots available to 45. New provision was made for the dispensary thus freeing space for a dressingsroom in Out-patients. An oxygen tent was donated in 1938. In 1928 a number of ladies volunteered to provide teaching tosome of the in-patients, The hospital was visited in 1929 by H.R.H. Prince of Wales who was surprised at its small size.In it’s Jubilee Year (1934) plans were made for a very large increase insize to provide up to 100 beds; this was to be achieved in stages over anumber of years. An appeal was organised for Stage 1 to raise £5000 -£6000 in order to build a new out-patients, a new theatre, a lift and tomake various other improvements. Number 5 Vinery Gardens waspurchased at the same time. At that time the theatre was upstairs byWard 1, The extensions were opened the following year by the Bishop ofWinchester Dr Garbett, bringing the number of beds up to 55. In 1940Oakfield House a substantial Victorian building next door which had beenthe Vicarage, and later belonged to Dr H. Carter, was purchased, It washoped that this would provide additional in-patient accommodationthough in the event it was used for administrative offices andaccommodation for senior nursing staff.At the outbreak of World War 2 the children were evacuated to Lord Mayor Treloar’s Hospital at Alton but emergenciescontinued to be admitted though they were transferred to Alton as soon as they were fit enough to be moved. Adults werealso admitted to Ward 2 but this practice ceased in 1942. The Children’s Hospital also acted as a First Aid Post and wascontinually manned by stretcher bearers during the Blitz on Southampton.During the air raids patients who were fit enough were brought down to the central corridor which had been speciallyreinforced and put to bed on benches later to be used in Casualty. Seriously ill children had to remain in the wards upstairsaccompanied by a nurse who was issued with a ‘tin hat’ for’ her’ own protection. In the event the hospital escapedany damage in the air raids though some bombs and also an enemy aeroplane fell uncomfortably close. ln 1942 DrMargaret Desser the R.M.O., herself a refugeefrom Czecho-Slovakia, and Dr K.Slaney received awards for bravery from the Ring for saving air raid casualties from the
ubble of a house. However once the worst of the Blitz was over children who had been evacuated from the city began todrift home. The Hospital routine began to return towards normal and there were more admissions. The O.P. Departmentremained active. Clinics for women continued until 1945 although in the previous year it had been agreed to delete thewords “and Dispensary for Women” from the title of the hospital. The nursing routines at this time were fairly rigid; childrenwere bathed on admission and had daily blanket baths. There was also the routine daily ‘head round’. Wounds weredressed daily. But there was little time for nurses to amuse the children and visiting was restricted to one hour onWednesdays and Sundays. Babies’ milk feeds were prepared in the wardkitchens where the food for the older children was also dished out. It wasa very basic diet with breakfast, lunch and tea and lights out at 7 p.m. Inaddition to nursing duties the nurses, who were all resident, wereresponsible for much of the cleaning and polishing in the wards and formanning the telephone out of office hours. When the domestic was awayor at weekends the nurses would have to do the washing of nappies andwoollens in the little laundry next to the mortuary down the garden! Thenurses were also actively involved in various forms of fund raising. A keyperson at this time was Mr Tee the porter/caretaker who not only took thechildren to the theatre but was always available for many jobs about thehospital and with his wife developed the garden to produce vegetablesand kept chickens.Clinically the types of cases admitted resembled those before the war but with the advent of sulphonamides and laterpenicillin the treatment of infections such as meningitis became possible. Small premature babies were still beingadmitted for care and those with gastro- enteritis were nursed in the side ward of Ward 2 by the ward staff.Even before the war was over plans were being made for further developments. In 1945 Dr C,E.M. Joad, the popular “Anyquestions” philosopher, launched an appeal on the radio for funds which brought in £1,549 towards the proposed 25 bedward in Oakfield and an up-dating of the X-ray Department. In 1947 proposals were put forward to enlarge the hospital to150-200 beds to include an infectious disease unit. The physiotherapy unit was moved to the Oakfield kitchen in order toprovide room for a small gastro-enteritis ward and a milk kitchen was also established.The other major project which was suggested was the provision of aconvalescent home. Various properties were considered before it wasagreed to purchase Brixedone House at Bursledon for the sum of £15,750.The deal was concluded on the 26 th of June 1948 just days before theinauguration of the N.H.S. This large country house with extensive outbuildings and grounds overlooking the upper reaches of the Hamble Riverhad been the home of the Thistlethwaite family before the war but had thenbeen commandeered, first to accommodate families made homeless by theair raids and later by the Navy, who used it as quarters for W.R.N.S.Several new appointments were made to the medical staff, Dr GeorgeOrmiston was appointed Paediatrician in February 1947. He had done much of his post-graduate training in the U.S,A.and had worked with Dr Alexis Hartmann in St Louis. He was expert in the field of water and electrolyte metabolism. Soonafter his appointment he set up a new Gastro- enteritis unit on the Ground floor in what had previously been the Massagedepartment. Dr Mary Copes who was already working in the area as a Child Psychiatrist was appointed to the Children’shospital in 1948. The number of junior medical staff was increased to three.IN THE NHSThe introduction of the National Health Service in 1940 brought major changes to the administration of the old VoluntaryHospitals such as the Southampton Children’s. National funding replaced the previous contributory schemes andvoluntary efforts. Administration became more centralised and professional. The Children’s Hospital thus became one ofthe Southampton Group of hospitals, itself part of the South West Metropolitan Region whose headquarters were inPortland Place, London. At that time there were only three general children’s hospitals in the South of England outsideLondon; Brighton, Bristol and Southampton the latter being the only one in the South West Metropolitan Region.Our local managing authority was the Group Hospital Management Committee (H.M.C.) with Mr Frank Jennings as itssecretary and chief executive officer. Each hospital had its own House Committee (in our case combined with RomseyHospital) which took over from the old Managing committee but had decreasingly less power. Mr Bedford who had beenChairman of the old committee continued as Chairman until 1955 when he was succeeded by Professor Rayment. In histurn he was briefly followed by Dr G.Johnson of Romsey and Miss F Wright S.R.N. before Dr W. Angus a local G.P. tookover the committee for many years. Medical matters were dealt with by the group Medical Advisory Committee (M.A.C.)comprising a number of hospital consultants, but it too had limited executive power. The medical staff of the hospital hadour own committee which met once a month. All medical committee meetings were held out of working hours and oftencontinued late into the night.There were also great changes on the medical front. The previous medical staff, mostly local practitioners living nearby
Page 3: FORWARDbyI.C.S.Normand. D.M. ,F.R.C
Page 7: In 1903 there was a donation of £5
Page 11 and 12: they could receive some schooling.
Page 13 and 14: very much in its infancy and little
Page 15 and 16: throughout the South and the Isle o
Page 17 and 18: and his team pointed us in the dire
Page 19 and 20: enrolled for one year. At this time
Page 21 and 22: West Paediatric Club based on Brist
Page 23 and 24: ward of about 25 beds, in a separat
Page 25 and 26: This appointment although it was go
Page 27 and 28: neighbour had had an in-growing toe
Page 29 and 30: The house physicians assisted the v
Page 31 and 32: APPENDIX 1Medical StaffDr W. Maclea
Page 33 and 34: Lady Superintendent Later Matron.Mi
Page 35: Analysis of Admissions and Deaths f

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