Celebration Or Concern

[Arthur Little]

... good question!

And the answer? ... ... bit of BOTH, probably.

I refer, of course, to our beleagured National Health Service - very much to the forefront in the news during this past week.

Once hailed as the "envy of the postwar world", 's NHS is/has been for years, in crisis - a shadow of its former glory - as it approaches its 70th anniversary.

So where has it all gone wrong? I mean, apart from far more people living to a much greater age than they did nearly three quarters of a century ago. Too many chiefs (notably penpushers) yet, by contrast, not enough "indians", definitely!

I take my hat off, though, to the dedicated surgical. medical, paramedics & nursing professionals who continue to work tirelessly (on our behalf) in hospitals throughout the length & breadth of the land.

[joebloggs]

Well said Arthur

The misses is working 4pm to 2am tonight in A&E

One cause of the queues in A & E are people going with minor ailments

[Arthur Little]

Well said Arthur

Thanks, Joe.

The misses is working 4pm to 2am tonight in A&E

... lo~ng hours.

One cause of the queues in A & E are people going with minor ailments

................ !

[fred]

Just saw pictures of the QE11 in Welwyn being demolished and it was only built in 1963!! The year I was born.. Mum pushed us kids up there with other Mums to catch sight of the Queen on the opening day event..
It was a great hospital that looked after my family and our whole community when we needed it...Now its gone.
Apparently they are sending a city of patients to Stevenage these days with an average 8 hour wait..
Disgusting how the NHS system has been destroyed by no mark Politicians and jobs worth's..
Glad I`m not there to witness the destruction of a once great institution.. Personally,I find it all very sad.

[grahamw48]

What a waste of a fine building... not to mention the care that was provided within it to the locals.

It seems to me that the whole NHS system is simply being abused by the ignorant and the parasitic, as with so many of our public-funded services these days.

It is time that those with 'self-inflicted' conditions... including being DRUNK, were made to PAY, and those making the lives of the hard-working staff a misery, not to mention the unfortunate genuine patients... properly PUNISHED.

[fred]

What a waste of a fine building... not to mention the care that was provided within it to the locals.

It seems to me that the whole NHS system is simply being abused by the ignorant and the parasitic, as with so many of our public-funded services these days.

It is time that those with 'self-inflicted' conditions... including being DRUNK, were made to PAY, and those making the lives of the hard-working staff a misery, not to mention the unfortunate genuine patients... properly PUNISHED.

16 years after the opening,if I ever got drunk outside at a party, I would deliberately fall in a hedge and not dare come out till morning Graham!! Forget A&E!

[joebloggs]

The opening day

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/welwyn...ered-1-4981447

[fred]

The opening day

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/welwyn...ered-1-4981447

"The Queen was accompanied by the minister for health - one Enoch Powell, five years before winning notoriety with his Rivers of Blood speech".
According to Dennis,it was the very first hospital to be built by the NHS after its foundation in 1947.



See that pram on the far right???...I was in it!!
Remember it well.
One of my first classmates Alan Hubbuck, was the first boy born there..
The last apparently was Zachary Alexander Fernandez..

[Arthur Little]

"The Queen was accompanied by the minister for health - one Enoch Powell, five years before winning notoriety with his Rivers of Blood speech".
According to Dennis, it was the very first hospital to be built by the NHS after its foundation in 1947.

.......................................................................................................... ... without my wishing to "split hairs", the NHS was actually founded in July 1948, by the first postwar Labour Government's Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan.

........................................................................ explains my previous mention of the forthcoming 70th anniversary.

[fred]

.......................................................................................................... ... without my wishing to "split hairs", the NHS was actually founded in July 1948, by the first postwar Labour Government's Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan.

........................................................................ explains my previous mention of the forthcoming 70th anniversary.

So you are telling me that they were spreading fake news even then Art???
Hell no!!! Surely not!!

[fred]

Here`s a better history perspective of the NHS AND the QE2 hostpital in WGC Art... I actually learned a lot from reading the article as I really had no idea..Makes me even prouder of where I am from though..
Although these days it almost seems a moot point sadly..


Welwyn Garden City was a pioneer in health care well before the NHS began.

In January 1921 the King’s physician Lord Dawson of Penn was invited to the town to speak about organising health resources.
A year later Dr Hubert Fry and his wife Gladys Miall-Smith were persuaded by a friend to move to Welwyn Garden City after Gladys was dismissed from her post in maternity and child welfare in St Pancras for marrying! They were shortly joined by Dr C.H Furnival and in April 1922 a Health Council was formed with one committee organising first aid and the other infant welfare.
The Hollies Nursing home was established on the corner of Youngs Rise and Elm Gardens by local nurses in 1924 and the first aid equipment moved there and the child welfare clinic moved to The Lawrence Hall, Applecroft Road.
The Health Council became the Health Association in 1925 and a community trust was formed with regular weekly subscriptions from local employers and individuals to pay for health care. Around the same time The Hollies allocated two beds for Association use.
The first Cottage Hospital was formed in 1929 with the purchase of The Hollies. It had eight beds – three of them private – an operating theatre and a full complement of consultants, doctors and nurses. It soon became clear that a hospital of up to 100 beds was required and various schemes were considered to raise the cash to build one.
Sadly, Dr Fry died in 1930 from blood poisoning picked up while carrying out a post mortem at the London Cancer Hospital. His wife stayed in Welwyn Garden City continuing to work in local health care.
In 1940 the Cottage Hospital moved to Fretherne House in Church Road, when staff and pupils at this former boys Prep School were evacuated. The new premises provided space for more beds, a larger operating theatre, an x-ray machine and outpatient facilities.
The hospital was funded by donations and fund-raising from fetes, dances and a hospital week once a year. One popular form of fund raising was a stunt involving local residents posing as highwaymen and stopping motorists on North Road to demand money for the Cottage Hospital Fund!
The introduction of the National Health Service in July 1948 safeguarded the hospital’s future, but the successful and valuable work of the army of fundraisers was recognised and remained.
Plans for a new, bigger hospital were first mooted before the Second World War but it wasn’t until March 1958 that work started on a 22-acre site at Howlands, on the southern side of Welwyn Garden City. The eight story T-shaped building – known as the QEII hospital - was finished in 1962, with the first patient admitted in August of that year. It was the first general hospital to be built since the war.
Highlight of the project was on 22 June 1963 when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to town to officially open the hospital named after her.
The Original Cottage Hospital was sold to a pub/restaurant company. It was refurbished and re-opened as the aptly re-named Doctor's Tonic in November 1982 and still exists today.

https://www.newqeii.info/about/histo...yn-garden-city

[fred]

I can remember my Mum phoning our GP directly (Dr Constable) if she had any concerns about us kids.. ..
He was at our house with his Doctors bag within the hour..
Imagine that happening today??
Either I am really old or the world is spinning too fast and no one cares...WTF has happened to my country???
Why is no one angry anymore?
.... sake!!!!

[Arthur Little]

So you are telling me that they were spreading fake news even then Art???
Hell no!!! Surely not!!

, Fred ... they were simply a year out with the date. Probably just a printing error.

But your historical account of Welwyn's pioneering role in health care, many years ahead of the NHS, is an extremely interesting read!

[bigmarco]

Really proud of our NHS and sad to see the way it's now suffering under successive governments.
Probably have to acknowledge that it's just offering too much for free nowadays. Cosmetic surgery, Gastric By pass, translation services etc etc there's an endless list of things available for free that you have to question.
I even heard a discussion on LBC the other day about making Vaping available on the NHS. It's cheaper to vape than it is to smoke so why would you even consider offering this?

[grahamw48]

They need to get back to healing the sick, not pandering to the pathetic.

[Arthur Little]

... A&E stands for Accident & Emergency ... NOT Anything & Everything!