Heatherwood Hospital 1976

Bullbrook appeal thanks

The management committee of Bullbrook Youth Club would like to thank all those who gave toys, books, etc in response to our appeal in aid of the Children's Ward at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot.
We would particularly like to say very big Thank You" to the following disco groups who gave their services free of charge: Solar Sounds of Bracknell, and the Ascot based "Free and Easy.
While we are about it, may we also express our gratitude to those boys and girls who turned up for this night without whose help we would not have been able to buy a new cassette player for the Children's Ward.
Secretary, Bullbrook Youth Club. Calfridus Way, Bracknell.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/01/1976

 

Nurses On The Ball

The nurses and doctors of Heatherwood Hospital exchanged their stiff and starchy uniforms and air of quiet authority on Sunday for the hilarious atmosphere of the football field.
All togged out in striped football jerseys and a variety of shorts, the nurses tackled the doctors on the pitch at Victory Playing Fields, Ascot.
The match was in aid of new equipment for Ward 2, and was arranged by the Heatherwood Social Club.
Quite a crowd gathered to watch the fun, and the game did not strictly adhere to Football Association rules.
The final score was unsettled at the end of the game, but a "good sum of money" was raised the game, a hospital spokesman said.
Extract Bracknell Times 08/04/1976

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by three photos.
The first showed The Heatherwood Hospital doctors and nurses, clean and tidy before the beginning of their charity football match.
The second showed A nice bit of footwork, as the doctors manage to get the ball away from the nurses.
The third showed NOT the usual image of the hospital nurse, but these Heatherwood girls still look confident.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

 

Heatherwood's Mixed Bag

There was a truly mixed bag of items for sale at the Friends of Heatherwood Hospital jumble sale at Ascot on Saturday.
They ranged from a lavatory unit to silver dancing shoes, and included buttons, books and bric-a-brac.
Stalls were piled high with clothing for all members of the family and there were plenty of people trying on summer clothes to complement the glorious sunshine outside the building.
The lavatory did not find a ready buyer very quickly but a marble sink top with taps attracted several likely looking customers, though some were put off because it was too heavy to carry away.
But many people were buying and crowds staggered away from the sale laden down with useful garments and items.
The sale was the first fund-raising event by the Friends for their latest cause, redecorating the nurses' home. Mrs Valerie Mason told the Times last week that the decoration would probably be done on a room-to-room basis, as money becomes available.
The hospital needed between £7,000 and £8,000 for the job and had hoped for the money to come out of national funds, but due to recent cutbacks, the management have gone to the Friends for help.
The jumble sale raised £57 towards the funds which will be further swelled with the annual fete in the summer and other fund-raising activities.
Extract Bracknell Times 15/04/1976

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
This showed TWINS Suzy and Angela Byrne (5) tried this marble sink top out for size and were amazed they could both get in it.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.

 

Consultants Defy Strike Call

The majority of consultants at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot are defying the call to strike today and tomorrow.
Of the ten consultants working in the East Berkshire district on today and tomorrow only three will be taking strike action said hospital administrator Mr Derek Fairman yesterday.
There are 33 consultants at Heatherwood and more may be affected by the strike if it goes on next week.
But as the Times went to press discussions among the junior doctors and consultants were still going on to finalise arrangements in Berkshire. The strike is over the phasing out of pay beds.
The doctors and consultants in Oxford Regional Health Authority feel that the British Medical Association has not taken a hard enough line to force the Government to climb down on their policy.
Two beds
  There are only two pay-beds at Heatherwood, one for maternity cases and the other in gynaecology.
Dr Martin Baylis, of Reading, deputy chairman of the BMA'S Junior Hospital Doctors Committee, warned that while emergency cover would be provided the strike action would escalate if the,Government did not back down on some policies.
Last month, junior doctors at Heatherwood refused to go on strike or work a 40-hour week dealing with emergencies only.
Extract Bracknell Times 22/04/1976

 

New Hospital Phone System

Discussions which will lead to the installation of a new internal telephone system at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, are being held between hospital administration officials and the GPO. Heatherwood Hospital Administrator, Mr Derek Fairman, said this week the present internal automatic system is old and it is now difficult to obtain spare parts when break downs occur.
Because of its age and type, the system requires all internal calls to go through the switchboard, which along with outside calls, often leads to overloading of the switchboard. Also, it cannot be extended to keep up with the growth of the hospital.
The installation of a new telephone system at Heatherwood was listed as a Proposed Minor Capital Item for inclusion in the list of reserve schemes 1976/77 at the recent meeting of the Berkshire Health Authority held at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough.
Overloaded
  A sum of £18,000 was set aside in the list for the new telephone system. The present system was described in the list as "overloaded and is constantly breaking down. No spares obtainable."
Mr Fairman said the hospital has a perfectly good external GPO system. A new internal system would be coupled to this. The installation of a new system will be carried out by the GPO and the time involved before work starts is up to it. but there is likely to be some waiting period.
Extract Bracknell Times 27/05/1976

 

Bracknell Lions' New President

Bracknell insurance broker, Mr James Gay has been elected the new president of Bracknell Lions Club.
A member of the club for the past four years, Mr Gay from Harmans Water, is married with three children, and has lived in the new town for six years.
And at his first meeting as president last week, he announced two tentative community projects which will be considered this year. Last year, the club raised £1,500 for a foetal heart machine for Heatherwood Hospital.
Extract Bracknell Times 29/07/1976

 

Junior Doctors Resume Action

Heatherwood Hospital, which serves patients from Bracknell and Ascot, will be restricted once more to "emergencies only" from next Monday as a result of the local junior doctors' decision to resume industrial action.
The doctors met at King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor last Wednesday and decided unanimously to implement "emergencies only," which was first used as a tactic last winter, in protest at Health.
Secretary David Ennals decision to "out of blue cut doctors salaries for nine weeks of the year, including holidays, which breaks the agreements reached"
Mr Ennals has ruled that extra money agreed with the doctors for the long hours they work cannot be paid while they are on leave or sick.
The doctors are up in arms about this, because they say Mr Ennals is breaking an agreement already reached and put into action by many area health authorities. They claim that it will mean a pay cut of between £6 £12 a week for approximately 80 per cent of junior doctors throughout the country.
Severely
  Heatherwood Hospital will, like other hospitals, be hit severely by the doctors' action, although as yet there are no plans to close wards down. Gynaecology and orthopaedic services are expected to be cut back severely, and there will be long delays for outpatients.
There is no major surgery carried out at Heatherwood at the moment anyway because of a shortage of nurses, and it is expected that this situation will continue until the end of August regardless of the doctors' dispute.
Heatherwood's casualty department will close after 5 o'clock each evening, and now routine cases for treatment will be admitted into the hospital. Other details have still to be finalised by hospital officials and doctors.
In a statement issued by Heatherwood doctor Alan Dellow, for the whole of the East Berks district, the doctors say: "This action will be subject to minor variations in interpretation according to the special problems of each Division."
"No closure of units or deployment of medical and nursing staff, as occurred during last winter, is at present envisaged, but out confrontation with the DHSS may be protracted and necessitate escalation of action."
They add: "We are not asking for more money, we are making no new demands, we only ask that the agreements be honoured."
Extract Bracknell Times 05/08/1976

 

Help Wanted

An appeal for volunteers is being put out by Ascot District Day Centre Trust, who want helpers at their old people's luncheon club, which is held at the Kingswick annexe on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Attendance at the centre would not necessarily be a weekly duty, since if enough volunteers come forward a rota will be organised.
Volunteers are also required on a similar basis for collecting lunches from Heatherwood Hospital and returning the containers after they have been used. No heavy lifting will be required.
Anyone wishing to help the trust in this way should contact Mrs Martin, at 13 Sunning Avenue, Sunningdale, or phone Ascot 20984
Extract Bracknell Times 12/08/1976

 

Ascot

This year's League of Friends Fete at Heatherwood Hospital, ascot, will be on Saturday, September 4 at 2pm.
The fete, which will be opened by Ian McCulloch, who played Greg in the television serial the Survivors, will have train and pony rides and many sideshows.
Extract Bracknell Times 26/08/1976

 

Heatherwood Fete Special

The fete coverage in the local paper consisted of two pictures with the following captions.
Top. An introduction to the world of model railways as this little boy concentrates on the mechanics at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital fete.
Above. The awe and mystique of the railroad grips all generations at Heatherwood Hospital fete.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photos here.
Extract Bracknell Times 09/09/1976

 

Childbirth Presentation

Members of the local branch of the National Childbirth Trust presented two foam wedges to Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital maternity unit to support mothers in labour.
The group raised money for the wedges by holding a market stall in Bracknell.
Extract Bracknell Times 16/09/1976

 

New Hospital planned for Bracknell

By Michael J. Moore
A district hospital is on the cards for Bracknell, if East Berkshire Health District recommendations get the go-ahead.
And Heatherwood Hospital at Ascot, now serving the area, will be shut down eventually if Bracknell, with its escalating population, gets the new hospital.
The news has renewed the old controversy of long closed and now derelict hospital premises at nearby Crowthorne.
East Berkshire Health District's management team is recommending that a site is bought in Bracknell. Initial plans are for a community hospital, later to be turned into a district general hospital, plus facilities to take care of geriatric patients.
The new/hospital would provide Bracknell with a much needed, highly-specialised service, including maternity, orthopaedics, general medicine and surgery.
At present, Bracknell residents have to use Heatherwood Hospital.
They have complained that it is too far away and difficult to reach by public transport. Furthermore, in spite of extensions, the existing hospital is now unable to cope with local demand.
The proposal to site the hospital in Bracknell has re-awakened the controversy over Pinewood Hospital which was run down and closed in 1962 The 60-acre estate and buildings was bought for £156,000 in 1973 by Wokingham District Council from the Department of Health.
Bracknell District Councillor for Crowthorne, Coun Bill Brown, says he warned against the closure 12 years ago. He argued that the predicted population increase in the area would justify a major hospital to serve Bracknell and Crowthorne districts.
Now Coun Brown wants to see the proposed hospital built on the Pinewood site, off Nine Mile Ride, half way between Bracknell and Wokingham,
"It would be ludicrous to build a hospital in Bracknell itself," he said. "A hospital should be situated in a wide open space so that people can walk about in the grounds."
He suggested that a figure of a quarter of a million pounds would be enough to buy the Pinewood estate from Wokingham District Council. This was only a rough estimate, he stressed, but "it would cost even more than the bankrupt health authority could afford to buy a site in Bracknell Town.
"Motorways make Pinewood easily accessible and the drainage of the site would not present a problem.
Rotting
  "At the moment Pinewood is just waiting and rotting," said Coun Brown The proposals are to be looked the by East Berkshire Community Health council.
The council has asked voluntary organisations in the East Berkshire health area to give their views on the proposed hospital.
Miss Juliet Mattinson, Secretary of the East Berkshire Community Health Council said that it would be "a long time" before plans went ahead.
In fact, it will be five years before Bracknell's new hospital gets beyond the planning stage, and then only if there is enough money to meet the costs.
Mr Brian Mackness warned that no date could be set for the opening of the new hospital until plans were finalised. Even then the economic situation and restrictions on public spending could render it a long way off.
Another possible site for the hospital is Farley Hall, Bracknell Development Corporation's headquarters. When the corporation winds up, this building could provide a suitable spot for the hospital, according to the health management team's report.
Specialised
  The hospital proposed for Bracknell will start off as a community hospital and develop into a district general hospital
It will be a hospital involving "high technology" requiring highly-trained and specialised staff, and sophisticated equipment.
National Health Service policy is to concentrate these resources into a limited number of hospitals so that maximum use is made of them.
Major accident and emergency units are provided in district general hospitals, where the full range of supporting facilities are available.
Children can be admitted to specialist care in this type of hospital.
Extract Bracknell Times 28/10/1976

 

Better Deal For Mentally Ill

A group seeking a better deal for the mentally ill is holding a public meeting next Tuesday to discuss setting up a Bracknell and District Mental Health Association.
The meeting has been organised by a small group of people who are worried about the lack of facilities for the mentally ill.
The nucleus of the group consists of Mr David Chapman, a Bracknell-based social worker; Coun Mrs Dorothy Benwell, Chairman of Bracknell District Council; Mrs Gillian Martin, another social worker in Bracknell; and Mr Bernard Graham, Chairman of the National Health Service Committee, East Berkshire Community Health Council.
Day centre
  "The group would like to see a day centre set up in Heatherwood Hospital," says Coun Benwell.
"We are very aware of the lack of facilities for helping families who have someone mentally ill. "We aim to give a start for them to realise they are not alone. The group intends to highlight the problems in the mental health services in the district so that more facilities can be provided.
At present the group says that none of the facilities outlined in a recent Government White Paper are provided in the Bracknell area. This, it says, leads to much suffering and unnecessary admissions to hospital.
The group would also want to press for a fully comprehensive programme of psychiatric care that would include adequate marriage guidance services and for a full-time community worker.
If the group forms a Bracknell and District Mental Health Association, it would be affiliated to MIND, the National Association for Mental Health. It would be a pressure group on health authorities for positive action and a platform to educate the public on the problems surrounding mental health.
Guest speakers at the public meeting will be Dr M. W. Robinson, a Bracknell GP, Dr L. Low-Beer, a consultant psychiatrist, and Dr G. O'Gorman, Chairman of the Thames Valley Association for Mental Health.
Wokingham MP, Mr Bill van Straubenzee, has been invited to attend. The meeting will be held in the Social Development Office, Broadway, Bracknell, at 8pm.
Extract Bracknell Times 04/11/1976

 

Bracknell man Receives St John award

A Bracknell man is to become a Serving Brother in the Order of St John.
Mr Ronald Douglas Heath, of Timline Green, Bracknell, is to be honoured by the Order of St John for services to humanity.
He is one of 140 members of the order who will receive an insignia at the investiture ceremony to be held in the order's Grand Priory Church, Clerkenwell, London, on Thursday, November 25.
Divisional Superintendent Heath has been with St John Ambulance for 18 years. He was on duty at Sir Winston Churchill's funeral.
His work for St John Ambulance has included many hours at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital casualty department and assisting with first-aid at Fluidrive Engineering in Bracknell for the past 18 years.
Extract Bracknell Times 11/11/1976

 

New great Hollands Centre Ready For Opening

By Simon Hedger
The new Great Hollands Health Centre opens next Monday, November 15. The Great Hollands centre is the first of three to be built in Bracknell, and was built by the Ascot and Bracknell sector of the Berkshire Area Health Authority at a cost of £236,000.
The other two centres scheduled for the town are to be built at Birch Hill and Skimped Hill in the town centre
The Skimped Hill centre should be completed early next year.
Surgeries
  The centre will cater for the population in the Great Hollands area, and two surgeries, at present in Van Dyke and Yardley will close and be transferred to the new centre.
Among the many aspects of health that the new centre will cater for are child dental care, chiropody services for the elderly and disabled, ante-natal clinics, child care and family planning services.
Built in the centre of Great Hollands, in Great Hollands Square, it is hoped that the centre will become an integral part of the community in Great Hollands.
In the field of minor injuries the centre should take some of the pressure off the local hospitals. The centre will be open daily from 9am to 5pm. It will be able to cope with minor mishaps and less serious injuries.
More serious cases will still have to be dealt with by Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot.
Because of financial restraints the centre will not become fully operational immediately.
However. Mr Colin Harris. who is responsible for the administration of Health Ser vices in Ascot and Bracknell. feels that this will give time for the centre to develop on a gradual basis within the community
The Senior Nursing Officer, Mr Neville Smith, is very enthusiastic about the centre, and both he and Mr Harris are confident that the centre will be accepted by the people of Great Hollands as a place where they can receive a wide range of medical and health care.
Residents
  The two practices moving to the centre on Monday are Dr Ravinder Dhillon's surgery, at present at 55 Yardley and Dr Malcolm Kremer's surgery, at present based at 1 Vandyke.
The centre will only cater for residents of Great Hollands, and its telephone number is Bracknell 50531.
Extract Bracknell Times 11/11/1976

 

Bracknell is to have its own Mental Health Authority

Bracknell is to have its own Mental Health Association to put right what has been called "the serious lack of psychiatric facilities in this area
This was the outcome of a public meeting on Tuesday night when about 100 people packed into Bracknell's Social Development office to hear three experts describe the appalling lack of mental health facilities.
Doctor Gerald O'Gorman, chairman of Thames Valley Association for Mental Health, told the audience: "This is a deprived area as far as psychiatric services are concerned. We have a serious lack of psychiatric facilities in this area and there is a hell of a lot of work to be done."
Dr O'Gorman, also a member of the Area Health Authority, said pressure groups should be set up "to become a thorn in the side of the Health Authority to ensure that this serious deficit takes highest priority."
Remoteness
  He said that the back-up services for people who have come out of hospital after treatment for mental illnesses are very bad and that there is an urgent need to provide occupations, companionship, social help and entertainment and recreation for such people if they were not to end up back in hospital.
He said that mental illness is best treated in the community by people befriending patients coming out of hospital, and suggested a register of befrienders be set up.
"The problem is that the number of befrienders tends to wear out, they are a very special sort of person who are willing to cherish and support patients.
He said that St Bernard's Hospital at Southall which, serves Bracknell has enormous problems, and should be integrated into the community more.
Once a patient goes to such a large institution they regard themselves as shut off. We must make such hospitals part of the community not removed from it."
A report by the East Berkshire Community Health Council mental health services committee last week said: "Bracknell, Ascot and district are served by St Bernard's 25 miles away.
The remoteness of these facilities in an old Victorian asylum make it impossible for the team of consultants, community psychiatric nurses and hospital based social workers to provide an adequate service.
"Problems of families are very much aggravated by the difficulties of visiting and the almost impossible public transport facilities. The desirable aims of a flexible system of admission, day-care, out-patients, emergency admission and crisis intervention are not possible where the facilities are at such a great distance from the population it serves."
The need for facilities closer to the community was reiterated by another speaker to the meeting, Dr Leila Low-Beer, a consultant psychiatrist at St Bernard's. She said: "A day hospital has been promised to us at Heatherwood Hospital in spring of next year.
Dr Low-Beer added: "Psychiatric illness is born out of isolation and can be coped with by trying to break down this isolation which if successful will end the progression which leads a patient into hospital."
The third speaker Dr Maurice Robinson, a local GP, said that this type of isolation should be treated by day centre and community support facilities.
There was a real need for voluntary workers to help patients to cope with their problems, he said. He estimated that one in 10 of a doctor's patients has a psychiatric problem, and if the average doctor has a consultation rate of 50-60 patients a day "it virtually means you can only give five minutes to a patient with a psychiatric problem.
"Under these sort of work-loads the psychiatric care a GP can give is not going to be a fantastic service.
In many cases the follow-up to psychiatric problems is non-existent because a doctor just doesn't have the time.
"Most people only go to their doctor when there is a crisis, and with only five or 10 minutes consultation they feel that they are wasting the doctors' time because there is no physical illness they can show.
Dr Robinson felt that doctors are doing their best but that more after-care service and social services support was needed.
"Most cases would never get to hospital if we had crisis points in the community where 90 per cent of cases begin. We need more voluntary organisations, social centres and skill centres for isolated people these things happening.he said. Mrs Dorothy Benwell, chairman of Bracknell District. Council, who chaired the meeting, said that the idea of the meeting was to highlight the problems in the district, and what facilities were needed within the local community
She took a motion from the floor, which was overwhelmingly supported by the meeting that a steering committee be set up with the object of forming a Mental Health Association for the Bracknell area.
Extract Bracknell Times 11/11/1976

 

Hospital Plan Welcomed

Bracknell district's Environment committee last week warmly welcomed the proposal of the Berkshire Area Health Authority to build a hospital in the Bracknell area. The building of a new hospital would eventually mean the closure of Heatherwood Hospital at Ascot.
Councillor Dr Brian Gennery. who is Bracknell's council's representative on the Health Authority, said that the idea may be a "pipe dream," but he welcomed it all the same. "This town needs a centrally sited district general hospital," he said. He added that with Bracknell growing the need for a hospital would increase.
Crowthorne Councillor Bill Brown said that the new hospital did not have to be in Bracknell. The hospital's catchment area would also include Wokingham and Crowthorne.
The Pinewood site in Crowthorne is still worth looking at with great care," he said.
Extract Bracknell Times 18/11/1976

 

Heatherwood Phase Out Lashed

The phasing-out of Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital is to be officially opposed by hospital workers.
They claim that Heatherwood should not be replaced by a new hospital in Bracknell but should remain as the district hospital for the area, and point out that there is still room to build an extension for 500 beds.
These views are expressed in a report entitled: "A plan for Rationalisation and Development of Hospital Services in East Berkshire," published by the Heatherwood and Windsor branch of the General and Municipal Workers' Union.
The report is a reply to the area authority's plans to phase out Heatherwood and build a new hospital in Bracknell.
The report attacks the authority, "We are amazed at the quality of the report and we feel that a far greater degree of investigation, in depth, should have taken place bearing in mind you are dealing with patients and with taxpayer's money."
Taxpayer's money is not there to be showered like confetti," says the report. And it recommends that "in the present financial climate" the project be scrapped. "Whoever made the statement that Heatherwood was not central should be removed from any planning committee of the future," the report claims.
building of a new hospital in Bracknell because the land available at Heatherwood is sufficient to provide another 500 beds; the cost of buying land at Bracknell would be prohibitive services (gas, water and electricity) at Heatherwood are already there; and Heatherwood is central to the population and well served by the area's transport services.
It recommends the extension of the Churchill House Hospital in Bracknell to take extra patients
Extract Bracknell Times 23/12/1976

 

Around Bagshot & District

A Charity bottle in Bagshot's Hero pub was smashed by nurses to reveal a £140 collection from the three-month operation.
Together with £30 from a Dutch auction. regulars raised enough money to buy gifts for two hospitals.. Frimley Park and Heatherwood in Ascot.
They include a dolls' house with working electric lights and furniture, a fish tank and presents for all children in the two hospitals.
Extract Aldershot News 24/12/1976