NINETY YEARS OF SERVICE HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL 1884-1974 By David A.J. Williamson. M.D. ,F.R.C.P. ,D.C.H. Honorary Consultant Paediatrician April 1990 CONTENTS Foreword I. Preface II,“Voluntary” Days. III.In the N,H.S. IV,Special Departments. V. Staff, VI.League of Friends. VII.Paediatrics in Wessex. VIII. Memories. IX. The Last Lap. Appendix I. Hospital Staff. Appendix II. The Work Load, Analysis of Admissions and Deaths for the Year 1931 FORWARD by I.C.S.Normand. D.M. ,F.R.C.P. Professor of Child Health. David Williamson’s fascinating account of Southampton Children’s Hospital will be a source of nostalgia for all who knew or worked at Winchester Road but it is far from being just a nostalgic memoir. To many it may come as a surprise to learn how Southampton for so long has kept in the forefront of ideas and practice in the care of sick children. Above all we read a story of extraordinary professional devotion and commitment from a staff of minuscule size by modern standards but who, because of their common ideals, achieved so much for their small patients with such limited resource behind them. It is now fifteen years since the Children’s Hospital closed but the tale of continuing expansion and innovation in services has not changed. In particular the Children’s Unit increasingly functions as a tertiary and research centre as befits its position as the only University hospital along the South Coast. Inevitably some of the intimacy has gone but there still remains a real sense of the happy family bound together in its pursuit of excellence for the care of sick children. We must all be grateful for the care and labour David Williamson has put into this volume that provides us with such fine examples of service over ninety years. PREFACE When my successor, Dr Chris Rolles, suggested that I should write a short history of the old Southampton Children’s Hospital while there were still some of us about who could remember the place, I agreed with some misgivings, knowing the fallibility of my own and, I suspected, other peoples memories. It did however seem important to try to record something about the place, of which I, for one, had so many happy memories and which was typical of many similar institutions of it’s period. This booklet falls naturally into two unequal halves, divided by the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, For the first section I have had to rely very largely on documentary evidence while for the second I have called upon my own and other people’s memories and I am most grateful to the very large number of persons who have helped me in this respect. A letter to the ‘Echo’ produced an excellent response from many ex-staff and patients. I am particularly grateful to those of my colleagues who have supplied me with contributions about their own departments. I would specially like to record my debt to the late Mr Norman McKeith who not only gave me some fascinating insight into the working of the hospital in the thirties, but also undertook some individual research for me. The current officers in the Health Service locally have been most helpful but sadly I have to record that the Service as a whole seems to have little regard for historical material. A great many quite basic documents have apparently been destroyed though a few remain in the District offices and some are preserved in the City Archives, I am most grateful to Mr E.J. Ives who lent me his own copies of the Annual Reports of the H.M.C. and to Miss M.A. Mulady for supplying me with a complete set of Children’s Hospital Annual reports which had come down to her via the nursing hierarchy, Both have been invaluable. I have also received a large number of photographs only a few of which has it been possible to reproduce here. However we intend to collect a selection of these together into an album which will be kept in the Department at the General Hospital; others together with various source documents will be deposited in the City Archives for safe keeping. I am indebted to The Southern Evening Echo for allowing me to reproduce photographs on pages 7 & 11, I would like to record my appreciation of the help given me by Sue Jacob and others at the Department of Teaching Media at the General Hospital for’ the art work and also to The Charlotte Frances May Foundation for their generous financial support which has made the publication of this booklet possible. “VOLUNTARY DAYS” The first half of the nineteenth century saw the founding of children’s hospitals in most of the big cities on the continent of Europe from St Petersburg to Constantinople. Curiously, Britain lagged somewhat behind. With the exception of the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women in 1816 and the Manchester Hospital for Children in 1829 most of our children’s hospitals were founded in the second half of the century. The Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, which opened in 1852, was quickly followed by similar hospitals in most industrial cities in the country but it was not until July 1884 that the Shirley Children’s Hospital and Dispensary for Women was founded. The objective was to provide a service for the people of Shirley and neighbouring parishes and thus to relieve the pressure on the South Hants and Southampton Hospital which already had a children’s ward. The original provision was “for the treatment of children suffering from any disease not of an infectious character as In and Out patients, and of women suffering from diseases peculiar to their sex as Out patients”. In 1888 the last phrase was modified to “all women suffering from disease irrespective of its nature” while ten years later the net was extended still further to include “old men of 60 years of age and upwards as Out patients”. The prime mover of the Shirley hospital’s foundation was a Dr C.G. Beaumont a general practitioner in Shirley. He was supported by the local vicar, the Rev A.D Burton, who became the first chairman of the Managing Committee and Mr Andrew Barlow a local philanthropist who provided valuable financial help. Members of the Barlow family featured as strong supporters of the hospital for many years. The first Hon. Treasurer was Commissary-General W.L.M. Young C.B. of 56 Winchester Road and the first Hon. Secretary, Captain Murton. The all male Managing Committee consisted of a further nine local worthies. The original Medical Staff consisted of Dr Beaumont and Dr E.J. Chamberlain L.R.C.P. both local practioners living nearby. The consultants were Dr W Maclean C.B., M.D. Consulting Physician and Mr T. Longmore C.B., F.R.C.S.(Later Surgeon General Sir Thomas Longmore), Consulting Surgeon. Both were on the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley being Inspector General of Military Medicine and Professor of Surgery in the Army Medical School respectively. The R.V.H. at Netley with 1200 beds had been founded in 1866 and was the medical headquarters of the army, including the Army Medical School. It is probable that the services of these consultants were obtained by Commissary-General Young who was also on the staff of the R.V.H. Mr J. McLachlan who commanded the Garrison Artillery was the surgeon dentist. The connection with the R.V.H. had lapsed by the turn of the century. The first home of the hospital was a pleasantly situated little white house at 38, Church Street Shirley, next to the Wesleyan Chapel, which was rented for £38.10s.10d per year. At that time Shirley was still a country village three miles from Southampton. The hospital provided four beds for children as well as the out-patient facilities mentioned above. The number of beds was increased to six after a period and later to seven. The hospital was run by the Lady Superintendent who was supported by another nurse, a maid and a part-time charwoman. In 1887 a Ladies committee was set up. Members of the committee would make weekly, later monthly, visits to the hospital and liaise with the matron passing on her requests to the Managing Committee. During its first eleven months there were only 25 in-patients (13 boys and 12 girls) admitted to the hospital. Their diagnoses were listed as follows: Medical. Surgical. Bronchitis. Acute rheumatism. Fracture of thigh. Lupoid ulcer of Croup. Chronic rheumatism. Dislocation of face. Ophthalmia, Paralysis. elbow. Hip joint Dyspepsia. Cataract. disease. Typhoid fever. Scalds. Necrosis. Dysenteric diarrhoea. Burns. Rheumatoid Cystitis. Abscess. arthritis. Contracted tendon. All the medical cases are described as ‘cured’ but two of the surgical were only ‘improved’ and three were still in hospital. In addition 217 children and 37 women attended out-patients having a total attendance of 1597 and there were also more than 60 dental cases. Thereafter most, but not all, of the Annual Reports of the Managing Committee give details of the cases admitted together with the number of out-patients treated. In analysing these statistics (Table I) it is often difficult to be sure of the true nature of the diagnoses stated. (Table II). It is also difficult to know if there was any form of clinical selection. TABLE 1 - Average Number of Admissions per Annum. Period 1884-1908 1909-17 1927-36 1884-1908 1909-17 Diagnosis Age TB, 5 9 10 Rheumatism 2 10 15 Nephritis - 1 4 Under 1 year 3 2 Respiratory 6 8 47 1-4 years 23 8 D&V - 2 12 5-9 years 26 34 Other infection 2 1 9 10+ years 12 11 Malnutrition 5 6 15 Ophthalmia 1 - Accidents 4 5 46 Length of Stay.