Celebrating 70 years of the NHS Celebrating 70 years of the NHS! Your Weekly NEWS
Celebrating 70 years of the NHS Celebrating 70 years of the NHS! Your Weekly NEWS
Celebrating 70 years of the NHS Celebrating 70 years of the NHS! Your Weekly NEWS
70 years of the NHS Welcome to your NHS70 vintage edition of Weekly News which you can cherish as a keepsake for years to come! We ve packed this edition with staff stories, facts, photos and memories which we hope you will enjoy! On Thursday 5 July, staff and volunteers will attend vintage tea parties across the Trust s three main sites. There, they will raise a cup of tea or coffee to celebrate 70 years of the NHS and also 20 years of UHMBT. Tea parties will take place at: The Skylight Restaurant, RLI, 2pm-3pm, Lonsdale Grill Restaurant, FGH, 1.30pm-3pm (featuring Radio Lonsdale) Westmorland Bite Restaurant, WGH, 1.30pm- 3pm Your Weekly NEWS Tickets have now sold out for the events. Our NHS 70 celebrations will continue until the end of the year! Look out for coming events in future editions of the Weekly News. We would like to say thank you to everyone who has shared their stories and taken part in our NHS70 events. Last month we asked 70 staff on each site to take part in an aerial photograph and I think you will agree the results were amazing. It was so good to see a real mix of clinical and non-clinical staff from a variety of roles taking part. A big thank you also goes to our estates colleagues who helped to make these photos happen. Everyone who registered their name in advance of the events have been emailed a copy of the photograph. If you would like a copy of any of the photographs please email the Communications team at: communications.team@mbht.nhs.uk.
Celebrating our hospitals This year,we are celebrating the 20 th birthday of when our Trust was formed on 1 April 1998 from the merger of Lancaster Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Westmorland Hospitals NHS Trust and Furness Hospital NHS Trust. The Trust and its hospitals are steeped in fascinating history. Some key facts include: At the beginning of 2006, the Trust obtained University Hospital status as part of the introduction of a medical school and central education centre to Cumbria and Lancashire The Trust obtained Foundation Trust status on 1 October 2010 UHMBT now has over 8,000 staff, having recently welcomed over 500 community staff working in south Cumbria. Community colleagues working in community services in north Lancashire will join the Trust later this year In 2018, we have a diverse workforce and staff roles include: nurses and midwives, clinicians, dietitians, lab technicians, I3, cleaners, porters, chefs, phlebotomists, admin and MANY more! There are 459 Royal Voluntary Service volunteers working across our sites. These are just a few magnificent NHS milestones but we want to know which ones are important to you and why. Please email us at communications.team@mbht.nhs.uk.
Remembering the RLI On 12 July 1893, Mr James Williamson, the owner of the Lune Mills linoleum and table cloth manufacturing company on St George s Quay (later Lord Ashton), laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) - now Medical Unit 1. Three years after the stone was laid, the building was completed. On 24 March 1896, King George V and Queen Mary were invited to perform the official opening ceremony. The site s Bromley Ward was opened in 1940, and during World War II, cellar operating theatres were introduced, followed by the Maternity Unit which was opened in 1976, with a medical unit for the elderly (now Medical Unit 2) opening in 1984. The centenary building opened it s doors in 1996. Recent investments have included a new 1m acute stroke unit (the Huggett Suite), a Macmillan Information and Support Centre, a revamped therapies department and a new diabetes centre. Commemorating WGH The 24m Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) opened its doors to patients in 1991, with many staff transferring over from the old Westmorland County and Kendal Green hospitals and Meathop Hospital near Grange-Over-Sands. The ante-natal clinic at the original Helme Chase Maternity Hospital in Kendal (before WGH) was opened in 1966 by Ald. T. Hourigan, Chairman of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board. Recent developments at WGH have included a new 1m cardiac centre. Before WGH was opened, other hospitals serving the area were: Kendal Memorial Hospital (1869-1906) and Westmorland County Hospital (1908-1992). Treasuring FGH Furness General Hospital (FGH) was built over two phases between 1984 and 1989. Kendal Memorial Hospital, built on land near the top of Captain French Lane, was given in 1869 by James Cropper as a family memorial to his wife, Fanny Cropper, who had died in 1868, aged 43. The hospital opened with eight beds in autumn 1870, with its building costs funded by subscriptions and surplus cotton relief funds. Developments over the years have included: the Elective Orthopaedic Unit at FGH which was officially opened on 16 March 2008 to introduce the Enhanced Recovery Programme dedicated to providing a high quality experience for patients requiring hip or knee joint replacement. In 2016/2017 alone, the unit at FGH cared for 370 patients. Most recently, FGH saw its new 12m South Lakes Birth Centre officially open in February 2018. Other hospital facilities in the area have included the 2.8m mental health unit Dane Garth, which opened in 1992.
My granddad Charles Brigg My grandfather, Mr Charles Brigg, was chairman of the Cumbria Area Health Authority - a voluntary position in those days - during the 1970s. He was very aware that North Lonsdale Hospital was becoming inadequate for the needs of the Barrow area and was determined to fight for a new and bigger hospital. He, along with others, was instrumental in lobbying parliament for this to happen and was in personal touch with Barbara Castle (Minister of Health at that time) to press for the funds and go-ahead to do this. Ultimately he was successful, and when permission was granted, he was asked to cut the first sod of the new building in a digger! There is a photo of him doing this in the main corridor at FGH today. Every time I walk to theatre to collect a patient, I see my granddad's picture and feel extremely proud. He was a wonderful man, always helping others, visiting the old folk who lived near him. They were often at least 20 years younger than him! He was delighted when I trained as a nurse and then began working at FGH. My grandfather eventually moved from Whitehaven to Barrow to be near the family and was himself treated in the hospital he had worked so hard for. He died at the age of 100 in 2007. Sarah Doughty, FGH Kendal County Hospital and beyond December 1982 saw the appointment of Dr John Halsey and the introduction of our Rheumatology department. The bone density service started in 1992. It was a privilege to have worked continuously for John during his 28 rewarding years with the Trust. My proudest moment was being part of the team that won Rheumatology Team in the NHS Doctor and Hospital Doctor Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in 2002. John was also announced as Hospital Doctor of the Year so it was a double celebration. It was certainly a challenge keeping up with the ultra-fit Dr Wendy Dodds on the underground escalators the following day! Having spent 20 years at the county hospital, it was all change with the move to the newly completed Westmorland General. Today, you will find me working as a patient navigator in the Dermatology and Plastic Surgery department. I enjoy working as a team in this extremely busy speciality. The NHS has been a great organisation to work for, allowing me the flexibility to decrease and/or increase my hours according to family circumstances and giving me enormous job satisfaction. I am very proud to have been a part of the NHS for over 40 years and helping patients in their medical journey has always been of paramount importance. Sue Dowker, WGH
My mum, my hero From early childhood, Carol Brearley, of Morecambe, had a dream to be a nurse just like her role model - her mum Ruth Rattigan. Carol, who has been a Macmillan Breast Care Specialist Nurse for UHMBT at the RLI for 17 years, commends her mum s enthusiasm for nursing and her broad range of nursing knowledge. Carol, who was brought up in Halifax, said: I had always wanted to be a nurse from being a little girl. My mother was a nurse and she trained before the NHS came into existence. My mum seemed to know so much about nursing and medical conditions and treatments. As a little girl, I used to love to go to meet her from work and wait while she changed out of the nurse s uniform. She was very proud when I got in to Leeds General Infirmary to do my nurse training and she said that it was like old times when she came to see me in the nurses home. Ruth trained in Woolwich during the Second World War and worked all over the country as a nurse over a 40 year period. She finished working as a night sister in Halifax. Carol Brearley, RLI Celebrating our volunteers! Louise Munro is just one of many people who volunteer their time at UHMBT. Louise, 23, provides companionship for elderly patients on five of the wards at the RLI and helps to improve patients stay and experience. Volunteers like Louise really do make a difference to our patients and are a massive help to our staff. A big thank you to you all! Results of the Big Bay We re pleased to announce the joint winners of the four week NHS70 historical quiz were Ben Wilkinson, Anticoagulant Therapist, and Caroline Squires, Medical Secretary - both with eight out of 12 answers correct. Ben and Caroline can collect their prizes from the Communications Office, Springville House, RLI from Friday 6 July. Congratulations to both of you and well done!
Spot anyone you know? Do you know anyone in the above photographs? We will be posting nostalgic photographs on the Trust s Twitter account until December 2018 as part of our year long celebrations. You can follow us on Twitter @UHMBT, join in and reminisce with your colleagues.