Heatherwood Hospital 1984

Jinx Day Strikes Unlucky O'Neill

Jonjo O'Neill, the season's leading jockey with 77 winners, was struck by the Friday 13 jinx at Ascot yesterday.
The former champion jockey took a crashing fall when Torreon failed to rise at the open ditch and ploughed right through the fence during the Green Highlander Handicap 'Chase.
O'Neill was taken to nearby Heatherwood Hospital for x-rays to his back, but was discharged later.
Torreon trained by Peter Easterby broke a bone in his back and was destroyed.
Extract Western Daily Press & Belfast Newsletter 14/01/1984

 

Cup clash of heads

Two players were taken to Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, for treatment after being injured during the Berkshire Trophy Centre Senior Cup semi final between Reading Garage and Highmoor at Wokingham last night.
Kevin Sheppard, of Reading Garage, and Highmoor defender Richard Winfield were involved in a clash of heads in the match which Reading Garage won 6-1.
Sheppard had nine stitches inserted in his wound and Winfield six.
Extract Evening Post 05/04/1984

 

Private Firm May Run Rehabilitation Centre

Treatment at a threatened world famous east Berkshire rehabilitation centre may continue but in the hands of a private firm. The fate of Farnham Park Rehabilitation Centre given a six-month reprieve last November is again up for discussion by East Berkshire Health Authority And the authority could end up paying a private firm £84.000 a year to provide intensive rehabilitation at the Slough centre which has won fame for its NHS treatment of injured top sportsmen.
Repeat
Officers are recommending negotiations should be held on the sale of Farnham Park with companies which I could also continue to provide intensive rehabilitation there.
It is estimated the move would save nearly £329.000 a year which could be used to improve rehabilitation throughout the district and officers believe most of Farnham Park's workload. other than intensive treatment, could be carried out in expanded facilities at Slough's Wexham Park Hospital A report going to Wednesday's authority meeting stresses the importance of rehabilitation work and says expansion and improvement of facilities is needed at Wexham Park. Ascot's Heatherwood and Windsor's King Edward VII hospitals.
At Wexham Park it is envisaged extending the rehabilitation unit to include a hydrotherapy pool. an extra gymnasium. more treatment rooms and better workshop areas. Rehabilitation services in the community also need boosting. with more staff and better links with social services.
Relieved
Former patients have fought the proposed closure of the centre and last November it was granted a reprieve after pressure from watchdog group East Berkshire Community Health Council.
Since April the centre has been closed at weekends.
This plus other economy measures could net about £18,000 a year savings. If authority members decide to back the proposal to "contract out" intensive treatment, the arrangement would be reviewed when the new facilities at Wexham Park were opened.
Extract Evening Post 12/05/1984

 

Closure Threat Delayed

A threat to close a centre in east Berkshire which is famous for its treatment of injured top sportsmen has been postponed
The fate of Farnham Park Rehabilitation Centre was due to be decided by the East Berkshire Health Authority yesterday But the decision has been deferred so all parties can comment.
The authority's need to make savings prompted the proposed closure although last November it was granted a reprieve after pressure from the East Berkshire Community Health Council. Yesterday the authority was recommended to talk about selling Farnham Park to companies which would continue to provide intensive rehabilitation there.
Workload
The health authority would pay a private firm £84.000 a year to provide the service. but it is estimated the move would save nearly £329.000 a sear This could be used to improve rehabilitation throughout the district. Officers believe most of Farnham Park's other work load could be done at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. They said extended and improved facilities are needed at Wexham Park, Ascot's Heatherwood and Windsor's King Edward VII hospitals.
At Wexham Park the rehabilitation unit could be expanded to include a hydrotherapy pool, an extra gymnasium. more treatment rooms and better workshop areas.
But health authority chairman. Dr Donald McWilliams, told the meeting at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital that none of the consultants at the hospitals involved had seen the report or the recommendations
Some members expressed concern about the length of time the fate of Farnham Park has been under debate. But Dr McWilliams said he hoped a final decision could be made at the June meeting.
Members agreed that the arrangements for weekend closure and other savings at Farnham Park should continue while discussions on its future continue.
Extract Evening Post 17/05/1984

 

Cycling for Charity

Bracknell bike riders were out in force yesterday as about 800 people took part in a 50-mile ride for charity.
And the organisers hope the ride will raise around £20,000 for Leukaemia research and the Special Care Baby Unit at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot
The ride started and finished at the South Hill Park arts centre in Bracknell and the course ran through Sonning. Taplow, Cookham, Windsor and Eton. The sponsored riders were of all ages and included whole families.
Tremendous
Mr Richard Jobson, chairman of the organising committee, said: "It was a tremendous day. It was not a race but a ride and people were out to have a good day rather than worry who would finish first."
A trip to France is the prize for the person who raises the most money for charity.
The ride was organised by Rotoract in Bracknell group of people between 18 and 28 who raise money for many charities.
Extract Evening Post 04/06/1984

 

Gemma Keeps Ice Cool

Little Gemma Price knows how to keep a cool head when the heat is on.
The sunshine two year old tucked into an iced lolly as she enjoyed the Mediterranean style weather at Heatherwood Hospital's fete. The weekend event at the Ascot hospital was opened by singing star Iris Williams.
Cash raised from the fete, which was organised by the League of Friends, will go towards the hospital.
Extract Evening Post 11/06/1984

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
This pictured Gemma price tucking into her ice lolly.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

 

Hospital Cutbacks Could Cost Lives

By Sean Ryan Health Correspondent
Controversial plans to cut back hospitals and move health care back to the home could cost lives, a union leader has claimed.
The allegation came as East Berkshire Health Watch launched its response to a 10-year plan drafted by the local health authority.
Nurse Wendy Benford, member of the East Berks joint health union committee, said: "The health service is already costing lives at the moment.
"The way this plan is designed, it can only get worse because they aren't going to increase the manning levels."
Condemns
NHS watchdogs and unions believe many more staff would be needed to provide care in the home for the elderly, handicapped and mentally ill.
And they say the draft strategy makes no provision for a big increase in groups like home helps, community nurses and physio therapists.
A report drawn up by Health Watch, the unions and Windsor and Maidenhead Labour Party condemns a proposal in the 10 year plan to shut down the emergency unit at Maidenhead's St Mark's Hospital.
Care
Threats to cut back emergency services at King Edward VIII. Windsor, and to concentrate more on Heatherwood and Wexham Park are also slammed.
The detailed, 31-page report calls instead for Binfield Park Hospital for the mentally handicapped to be kept open.
And it describes as irresponsible a lack of plans to step up the district's ambulance service in line with the increased pressure which would result from keeping more patients at home.
The report concludes: "The finance is not there to provide the support system necessary. Without this support, community care may lead to no care at all."
Extract Evening Post 12/06/1984

 

Closure Plan Attacked

Controversial plans to shut down Binfield Park Hospital have been fiercely attacked by the East Berkshire Health Watch group.
The hospital for the mentally ill could be axed as part of a re-jigging of health care services in the area over the next ten years. East Berkshire's Health Authority wants fewer hospital beds and more community care. And representatives say Binfield Park, with 50 residents, is not suitable as a hospital.
But angry members of the East Berkshire Health Watch a joint health union committee are fighting to keep it open.
In a report responding to the health authority's 10 year draft plan, they have urged officials to change their minds.
Health Watch vice-chairman Andrew McInnes said:
"If the health authority really wants to see more community care in smaller units places like Binfield Park must carry on.
"That hospital is ideal for small-scale care and it just does not make sense to close it down.
"The authority seems to want to centralise all its resource's on Wexham Park and Heatherwood hospitals and that will lead to less not more community care."
Extract Evening Post 19/06/1984

 

Safety Checks After Shock Health Disclosures

Probe ordered into hospital
A major safety probe into operating conditions at a Berkshire hospital is under way today after a series of shock disclosures.
But the hospital authorities have stressed that the lives of patients are not at risk.
Urgent remedial work is needed to bring antiquated operating theatres up to date at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital and an expert has been called in to carry out rigorous safety checks.
Hospital authorities have admitted calling off surgery and shutting down operating theatres when temperatures went out of control.
The alarm has also been raised in other areas of the troubled hospital.
A case of typhoid in a child was unconfirmed for three days while laundry staff were unaware of the need to handle contaminated linen separately, oxygen pipes were stored in un-sterile conditions and rubbish could not be burned when a vital incinerator broke down.
Heating
Overtime has been cut back and cleaning rotas reduced in non-clinical areas of the hospital, which a year ago sealed off its special care baby wing when a mystery virus struck six infants.
Chief administrator lan Orger admitted yesterday there was concern about sterile conditions in the operating theatre and said a microbiologist was due to report on the matter soon.
He blamed problems with ancient heating and ventilation units for the closure of the theatres when temperatures dropped dramatically or rose too high.
He said: "One of the theatres is 60 years old and the other is 25. Basically we are planning remedial work on these theatres shortly. pending the building of new ones.
Basically technical advances have improved so tremendously over the last 25 years we have been over taken by events. Ventilation, heating, cooling and technology is ever so much more sophisticated today. "It's fair to say the risk of infection is slightly higher in an old building than in a spanking new one, but because it's older we make strenuous efforts to ensure cleaning is carried out regularly in that area."
And he stressed that' patients on the waiting list of the hospital which carries out about 4,000 operations a year have nothing to fear. "Patients lives are not at risk and we are very proud of the high standards of care on offer at Heatherwood," he said.
The hospital incinerator which broke down six weeks ago leaving staff to cope with piles of rubbish is to be replaced next year as part of a £12million redevelopment scheme on the site.
A new 100 bed psychiatric unit is to be built together with a pharmacy, kitchens, staff dining room and accommodation hostel.
Improvements are planned in other departments including the special care baby unit and health chiefs are also hoping that cash will soon be available for brand new operating theatres.
Mr Orger said at times temperatures in the operating theatres reached the 80s in the summer and that the ventilation unit did not adjust automatically.
Diagnosed Operations had to be delayed for a couple of hours while the temperature was brought down manually. "Sometimes in winter the heating unit is not working to its full capacity and the theatres start about 10 instead of 8.30 prompt," he said.
He agreed that a couple of months ago the hospital had treated a child typhoid victim. Although the killer disease was not diagnosed for three days the youngster was isolated from other children and nurses looking after him burned clothing after visiting him.
"Once it had been diagnosed appropriate action was taken obviously to deal with linen and this sort of thing." he said.
But he admitted that initially laundry from the typhoid victim was not treated separately and was only later put into coded bags when the disease was confirmed.
He added that a member of staff had asked him about whether the linen should be treated separately and said the matter did not cause any difficulties for laundry staff.
Oxygen pipes he admitted had been stored in a boiler room for several days because there was nowhere else to put them. However, they were thoroughly cleaned and sterilised before being linked to patients beds.
Mr Orger pointed out that all the hospital's life-saving equipment, such as ventilators and heart monitors, were up to date and it was only engineering plant such as heating units which were out of date.
Extract Evening Post 05/07/1984

 

Call for Urgent Hospital Spending

By Sean Ryan, Health Reporter A major Berkshire hospital urgently needs the go-ahead for a new suite of operating theatres, health watchdogs claim.
East Berkshire Community Health Council has backed surgeons and union leaders who raised the alarm over conditions at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
Some operation
Some operations were called off in Heatherwood's "outdated" theatres when temperatures and humidity levels went out of control.
And the CHC's hospital services committee decided on Thursday to urge the regional health authority to approve spending within weeks for a new building.
Secretary Juliet Mattinson said: "We are aware of the need for new theatres and we shall be pushing for them.
"We said quite recently that we would like to see the new theatres tied in with provision of day surgery beds and we will be reinforcing that."
Refusal
A safety probe was ordered at Heatherwood earlier this month as hospital workers accused management of letting standards drop. They claimed patients risked infection in the operating theatres.
The independent inquiry followed a refusal by surgeons to operate when conditions became unsatisfactory. Hospital authorities say patients' lives are not at risk and high standards of care are being maintained.
But a microbiologist was called in to carry out the investigations.
His report is expected this week.
Miss Mattinson said the CHC was convinced there was no evidence for earlier allegations of an improper delay in dealing with a child's case of typhoid two months ago.
She warned that it would probably take two years to rebuild a new suite of operating theatres. In the meantime, surgery would have to continue with the existing facilities.
Extract Evening Post 16/07/1984

 

Pressure Mounts for New Operating Theatres

East Berkshire health watchdogs have joined the clamour for new operating theatres at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
Members of the area's community health council have called on Oxford Regional Health Authority to make the new theatres a top priority in the next ten year plan.
But they reject claims that the hospital's current theatres are unsafe and patients lives are at risk following a series of disclosures by union officials earlier this month.
"We have been reassured by top clinical surgeons that those theatres are still safe and we do not want any undue panic," said the community health council's secretary Miss Juliet Mattinson, after last week's hospital services committee meeting.
"We have already approached the regional health authority and urged them to make the new theatres a priority in the first part of the new ten year plan.
Alarm at the safety of the theatres was sparked off earlier this month when union officials disclosed they had been shut down when temperature levels soared out of control.
The officials also claimed unclean air was pumped into the theatres from water tanks containing algae, and that cleaning services had been cut back to dangerously low levels.
Hospital administrator Mr Ian Orger denied patients lives had been at risk, but accepted the two operating theatres were 'antiquated'. "No one has been at risk and our infection rate is very low but it is nevertheless time for a complete update."
The two theatres one 61 years old, the other 25 years old are due to be shut down completely for three days next month for a routine clean and check up.
Danger
And hospital authorities are expecting this week a full scale report on the theatres following a survey by a microbiologist.
We are naturally very careful indeed about safety measures in the theatres and if there was any danger at all they would be closed immediately," said Mr Orger.
Union officials at the hospital are also pushing for new operating theatres. "Obviously we want new theatres as much as anybody," said the health and safety representative of the joint health unions Mr John McDougall.
Extract Ascot Times 19/07/1984

 

MP Calls For New Theatres At Heatherwood

A Tory MP is pressing for out-dated operating theatres to be replaced at a Berkshire hospital which is awaiting the results of a safety probe.
East Berkshire MP Andrew MacKay says health authorities must give top priority to building new theatres at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
The hospital needs urgent remedial work to bring theatres up to date.
A micro- biologist is due to report this week on sterile conditions in the theatres. After a series of shock disclosures in which union leaders claimed patients' lives were at risk, Mr MacKay demanded a full report from hospital authorities.
Typhoid
Health chiefs have admitted calling off surgery and shutting down operating theatres when ancient heating and ventilation systems broke down, but they stressed there was no risk of infection or danger to patients.
It has also been confirmed that a child was nursed for three days before typhoid was diagnosed, that rubbish piled up when an incinerator broke down, that cleaning has been drastically cut in non-clinical areas and that oxygen pipes were stored in unsterile conditions.
This week Mr MacKay was assured in a report from hospital administrator, Mr lan Orger, that lives were not in danger and high standards of care were being maintained.
Mr MacKay said yesterday: "I accept what the administrator says. It seems to me that the operating theatres are desperately old. It's a matter of priority that funds should be given to update them. "Representations have been made to the area health authority to get them updated as soon as possible and I don't think there is any danger at all because of these operating theatres. "Things could be more efficient if the hospital had modern operating theatres and this only redoubles my resolve to press the authorities to get modern operating theatres."
The Oxford Regional Health Authority is now considering a request from the district health authority for cash for new operating theatres.
Development costing £12 million is planned for Heatherwood in the future. A new 100-bed psychiatric unit is to be built together with a pharmacy, kitchens, staff dining room and accommodation hostel.
Extract Evening Post 25/07/1984

 

Fund Set up in Memory of Brave Sam

The brave battle for life of a Bracknell schoolgirl has inspired her parents to set up a fund to help other families caring for sick children.
Courageous Samantha Laws was a victim of the killer disease cystic fibrosis which claimed her life on March 28th the day after her 15th birthday.
But her memory will be kept alive in the Samantha Laws Memorial Fund launched by her family as a thank you to medical staff at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital where Samantha died.
"Sam was always bubbling and laughing, always thinking of others rather than herself," said her father John yesterday. His wife, Geanette added: "She loved to help in the special care baby unit while she was in hospital. She was very interested and would go round selling raffle tickets and things.
Cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease of the lungs and digestive system, was diagnosed by doctors when Sam was three months old.
Her parents had no way of knowing before she was born that they were carriers of the illness Sam's older brother Adrian, now aged 18, is perfectly healthy.
As she got older the popular Brakenhale schoolgirl found it harder and harder to breath and needed frequent hospital treatment for chest infections.
With the money Sam's parents, of Warwick Crown Wood, Bracknell raise they plan to give practical help to parents caring for sick children at home and to buy equipment for Heatherwood Hospital and its special care baby unit.
Extract Evening Post 01/08/1984

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
The picture was a head and shoulders shot of Samantha Laws
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

 

Webmaster Comment:-I had the good fortune to interview Sam a number of times for the children's show on Radio Heatherwood.
Pictures of Sam are available on the Radio Heatherwood history web site, when she was a visitor for the children's Christmas party in 1983.

  Children's Show 

Children's Show Radio Heatherwood "WD 2"

Clean-Up At Hospital

The antiquated operating theatres at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital I will be shut down for three days next week for a thorough clean and check up.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the theatres. one 61 years old, the other 25 will be closed for their annual routine maintenance service.
Earlier this summer alarm was sparked off about the safety of the theatres when union leaders disclosed they had been closed down after temperatures shot out of control and unclean air was being pumped into them from water tanks containing algae.
The officials also complained that cleaning services at the hospital had been cut down to dangerously low levels.
But hospital administrator Mr Ian Orger denied patients lives had been at any risk, though he admitted the two operating theatres were antiquated.
Priority
Now the theatres are to be closed for three days for an extensive clean. And a report is currently being prepared by a London microbiologist on the overall state of the theatres.
"While they are not unsafe we certainly would like to see new theatres at the hospital and hope the report will strengthen our case with the Oxford Regional Health Authority," said Mr Orger.
Ideally we would like to see the building of two new theatres for Heatherwood high in the health authority's priority list."
Mr Orger added that with the recent hot weather there had been no repeat of the problems faced last year with the ventilation system which sent temperatures haywire in the operating theatres forcing them to be closed.
Two new theatres at Heatherwood would cost an estimated £4 million. The possibility is currently being considered by the Oxford Regional Health Authority as part of its next ten year plan.
East Berkshire MP Andrew MacKay said he would be making his own representations to the authority urging them to build the new theatres. Following a report on the recent union allegations, Mr MacKay said he was satisfied conditions at the hospital were safe but far from perfect.
"Some of the accusations were clearly unfounded but the under-lying problem at Heatherwood is that the two operating theatres are desperately old fashioned. They are not dangerous but they do impair efficiency.
The staff do a wonderful job given the conditions but it's high time improvements were made."
Extract Ascot Times 02/08/1984

 

Centre May Benefit Disease Victims

By Sean Ryan Health Reporter
Scores of multiple sclerosis victims could benefit from a controversial new treatment beginning this month in Reading.
A therapy centre due to open on August 20 in Patrick Road, Caversham, has already attracted a five month waiting list.
It will provide decompression chamber treatment to 160 Thames Valley patients by the end of the year.
Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis (ARMS), which raised funds to pay for the hyperbaric oxygen unit, stresses it offers no cure for the crippling disease.
But it claims seven out of 10 patients will sense a halting or relief of symptoms including failing sight and speech, partial paralysis and incontinence.
Success
And despite the reservations of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, a similar NHS unit at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital reports success with the treatment which has divided medical opinion.
Research commissioned by ARMS has shown multiple sclerosis could be caused by fat blocking blood vessels in the brain.
The theory is that this makes the vessels more porous, allowing blood fluids to seep out and attack vital nerves which control the body.
Some scientists believe a series of sessions in a pressure chamber constricts the blood vessels, preventing the leaks which do the damage. And patients breathing oxygen through a mask under these conditions may build up a resistance to the symptoms of the disease.
Reading ARMS organiser Derek Lambley said: "It's proven now that it's very helpful to a lot of people. It alleviates some of the symptoms for about 71 per cent. "The benefit can vary from quite minor to fairly dramatic. The majority come somewhere in the middle.
It can help with virtually any of the symptoms. The MS Society has warned sufferers not to pin their hopes on the new treatment.
False
  Reading branch chairman Lew Dickinson told the Evening Post in a letter earlier this year: "It is wrong to raise false hopes by promoting a treatment which has not been properly evaluated."
ARMS has raised more than half the £50,000 needed to set up the Caversham centre and has been granted an interest free loan by a local businessman.
Reading's unit is the 22nd of its kind to open in Britain.
Extract Evening Post 04/08/1984

 

Hospital Needs A Facelift Report

Ascot's Heatherwood hospital desperately needs two new operating theatres and that's official.
Following the recent exposure of poor conditions and out of date equipment the hospital asked a top senior London microbiologist to carry out an independent survey into Heatherwood and his findings support claims for a complete face-lift.
And hospital chiefs are quick to point out that the report backs up their assurances that patients at the hospital are in no danger whatsoever.
Hospital administrator Mr Ian Orger said he was pleased with the report because it will add extra weight to their argument in trying to persuade area health authority chiefs that two new surgeries are vital.
He said: "It is a very fair and accurate report which is done on a totally independent basis because the microbiologist carrying out the work has no connection with us at all.
Claims
"Basically it supports our claim that two new operating theatres must be brought in and it also stresses that this is hardly surprising since one of the present theatres dates back to the 1920s and the other to the 1950s.
"The report says that our ventilation systems need some work done on them because they are not up to standards as do our heating and air systems.
"Open gullies within the hospital also need to be changed and there are other smaller points like concern over the distance patients have to be wheeled around the hospital and our outside corridors.
"But mainly the new theatres are highlighted as a necessity which we have thought was such for some time.
"The report also says that we are not up to British Medical standards in some areas but that is because these were introduced in 1972, long after the hospital was built, and we can only change equipment to a certain extent.
"Now we must put in our claim to Oxford Regional Health Authority for the new theatres. They will be sent a copy of this report which should back up our claims.
"We are not thinking about them refusing but when they are going to start work on the new theatres.
"Obviously money will be difficult to come by because between £2.5 and £3.5 million will be needed for the theatres but we are confident they will be built.
"We have a big development going on at the hospital at this moment but none of this could be diverted to building new theatres because it is almost a unit and if one of the new buildings suffered so would all the others.
"Overall the hospital is in no way a danger to patients. Our infected laundry is dealt with in a way which is completely safe.
"Our theatres are out of date but not dangerous and there is no risk of infection. "Conditions are not ideal but there is no question of any danger.
We would like improvements and are hoping the Oxford Regional Health Authority will oblige."
Extract Ascot Times 20/09/1984

 

Hospital Health Problem No Hazard

By Sean Ryan Health Reporter
A major safety probe into conditions in a Berkshire hospital's antiquated operating theatres has criticised their heating, ventilation and lighting.
But the inquiry found no evidence of a health hazard to patients at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot.
Vital
The investigation was ordered after surgeons and union leaders raised the alarm.
Senior doctors who refused to operate when temperature and humidity levels went out of control demanded urgent safety checks.
And the unions revealed that a child's typhoid was unconfirmed for three days while laundry staff were unaware of the need to handle contaminated linen separately.
They said oxygen pipes were stored in unsterile conditions, rubbish could not be burned when a vital incinerator broke down, and cleaning rotas had been cut.
The probe was carried out by an independent London microbiologist in July.
Heatherwood administrator lan Orger said the scientist's five-page report supported concern about the operating theatres.
Mr Orger added: "He didn't like the ventilation arrangements, saying they were outdated and should be replaced.
Standards
"The heating, lighting and ventilation arrangements do not comply with the latest British standards because they came about since the theatres were built-one is 60 years old and one is 25."
Worried hospital bosses and surgeons have been appealing for more money so that new operating theatres can be built at Heatherwood.
Mr Orger said: "The report strengthens our position in as much as we can now contact the regional health authority and say it supports us.
"On the other hand we are grateful the theatres are not dangerous and constitute no health hazard to patients."
Consultant anaesthetist Dr Joe Warren said the inquiry had allayed fears for patients but shown doctors had been right to refuse to operate in "depressing" conditions when temperatures and humidity were considered unsafe.
The report was also welcomed by East Berks health union secretary Keith Stout, who claimed important union fears which had previously been ignored were now confirmed.
Extract Evening Post 20/09/1984

 

Update for hospitals

A community hospital for Bracknell, three new theatres for Heatherwood Hospital and more beds for the elderly at Wokingham Hospital are on the cards in the health authority's strategic plan for the next 10 years.
Oxford Regional Health Authority's plan, which cover the period 1984-1994, will be considered at a special meeting of the authority tomorrow.
Among the main themes of the plan are proposals to increase gradually the money allocated to health promotion which should peak at around £1 million a year by 1994. This is ten times the figure originally suggested in the outline strategy document published in January.
Care
Priority has been given to the elderly, mentally ill and mentally handicapped, the so-called "Cinderella Services." To this end, 145 new beds for the elderly are planned for Wokingham Hospital.
For Bracknell, the long term plan is to build a new community hospital in the town, although this will probably not be completed until the current ten-year planning period is expired.
Heatherwood Hospital at Ascot is presently undergoing improvements and will be further updated within ten years to include new outpatient, accident and emergency, X-ray and records accommodation Three new operating theatres, including one for day surgery will also be provided.
Binfield Park Hospital for the It seems likely that mentally ill will be closed if consultations reveal that this is necessary.
The health authority hopes to implement more local and sensitive services with the emphasis on more care in the community and support for home-based patients.
Manpower increases are higher than in the outline strategy following suggestions that population levels would rise, demanding more staff and money to meet the proposed standards.
Money is expected to be tight. Revised forecasts from the government have left the health authority £52 million short on its budget for new buildings with the result that the plans to replace some outdated hospitals have had to be deferred.
If approval is obtained from the regional health authority on Friday, the plan will be submitted to Mr Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Social Services.
Extract Crowthorne & Wokingham Times 27/09/1984

 

Act Now Call in Outdated Hospital Row

By Sean Ryan, Health Reporter A Berkshire hospital at the centre of a storm over outdated operating theatres looks likely to get £1,500,000 to replace them, But Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, may have to wait up to nine years for the crucial money.
Now, administrator Ian Orger is demanding urgent action by the health authorities to get rid of the old theatres sooner.
An independent inquiry last week condemned heating, lighting and ventilation in Heatherwood's theatres. one of which is 65 years old. The scientist who carried out the probe, after surgeons and union leaders raised the alarm, concluded conditions did not comply with latest Government standards.
Blueprint
Although doctors stress there is no health hazard to patients, they have refused to operate at the hospital when temperatures and humidity have gone out of control.
News of cash for two new general theatres and one for day surgery comes in a 10 year blueprint outlined by Oxford Regional Health Authority But regional strategy indicates that the money should be spent between 1991 and 1993
Mr Orger wants to see funds on the table now so that the theatres can be ready for use within the next five years.
He said: "I hope they will reconsider and bring the theatres forward in the plan.
"The theatres are totally out of date, their equipment is out of date and so much else is expanding at Heatherwood we feel they lag far behind other developments.
"We will be reminding the region of their commitment to replace them, and will be pressing them sooner rather than later."
Approval
Other plans for East Berkshire outlined in the strategy, to be approved tomorrow, include the start on a long-awaited £4 million community hospital in Bracknell.
Binfield Park Hospital for the mentally ill is likely to close in line with the authority's aim to cut back institutions and support more care in the community.
Extract Evening Post 27/09/1984

 

£400 Raised In memory of Brave Girl

Almost £400 has been raised for a fund in memory of the tragic school girl victim of a killer disease.
Courageous Samantha Laws died in March on the day after her fifteenth birth- day after a life long battle against cystic fibrosis.
Her grieving parents. John and Geanette of Crown Wood, Bracknell, decided to set up a fund to keep Samantha's memory alive and to say thank-you to medical staff at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital where Samantha died.
The Samantha Laws Memorial Fund was launched at Bracknell Show in August. Already £370 has been raised to help other victims of cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease of the lungs and digestive system.
A seven-strong committee has now been set up to run the fund which is a registered charity.
Friends and well-wishers have rallied round to offer support, volunteering to take part in sponsored runs and to organise fund raising activities.
Samantha's father John said that his daughter was always thinking of others rather than herself. Her courage had inspired them to set up the fund to help other families care for sick children.
Extract Evening Post 02/10/1984

 

Health Plan Gets Mixed Reaction

By Claire Morgan
Plans for health care in Bracknell, Wokingham and Ascot, passed by Oxford Regional Health Authority have been greeted with a mixed response from officials who fear that the changes do not do enough.
At a special meeting last Friday, health chiefs approved plans for a major overhaul at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, including the provision of three new operating theatres, an X-ray and more outpatient facilities
Also included in the authority's strategic plan are proposals to provide a further 145 beds for the elderly at three hospitals in Berkshire, including around 50 at Wokingham.
The plan gives as its aims a gradual policy of cutting back old, institutionalised hospitals and increasing support for elderly, handicapped and mentally ill home-based patients.
One of the casualties of the plan, is Bracknell's new community hospital which has been under consideration for some years but has now been pushed to the end of the ten year span of the blueprint.
Mr Ian Islip, district administrator for the West Berkshire Health Authority which covers Wokingham was cautiously pleased at the extra provision for the elderly at Wokingham hospital.
District administrator for East Berkshire Health Authority, Mr David Treloar, is disappointed that Bracknell's community hospital has suffered such a set-back in the plan.
But he will continue to negotiate with health chiefs with a view to progressing the facility.
"I think we would like to see it brought forward, but we recognise the region has all sorts of other problems to take into account as well as East Berkshire," he said.
Mr Treloar welcomed news that Heatherwood Hospital, in addition to getting three new theatres, will be updated.
He said: "We have been saying the theatres are a bit out of date for some time and if Heatherwood is going to be the hospital to provide general hospital services for the whole of the southern part of our district, then really it ought to have modern operating theatre facilities.
Mrs Marion Fergusson Kelly, town and county councillor, said the extra provision of beds for the elderly at Wokingham Hospital would be less effective if adequate additional supporting services were not also considered.
She said that she saw severe problems ahead if inadequate provision for such services as physiotherapy and speech therapy were made at the same time as the extra beds.
East Berkshire Community Health Council, the consumer health watchdog, reacted to the news about the long delays to Bracknell's new community hospital with dismay Miss Juliet Mattinson, the council's secretary, said: "We saw it as one of the key bits of the whole plan.
So clearly having it put back like this is a great disappointment. Obviously things might change dramatically in 10 years, but it is a blow," she said.
Miss Mattinson however felt that the planned improvements and updating to Heatherwood Hospital, which had concerned the health council for some time, went some way to easing the problems in that area.
Mr John Stevens, the secretary of West Berkshire's community health council also welcomed the proposals for additional beds at Wokingham hospital.
The plan now goes before health secretary Mr Norman Fowler for final approval.
Extract Crowthorne & Wokingham Times 04/10/1984

 

Cash Appeal

Cash, the Charitable Association Supplying Hospitals, is to launch a new appeal to raise £50,000 for a new surgical laser at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot.
Extract Evening Post 05/10/1984

 

It's your Health Service

East Berkshire Community Health Council
Public meeting
Wednesday, October 17, 8.00pm Recreation Hall, Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot
Inquiries: CHC Secretary. Slough 20357
Extract Evening Post 10/10/1984

 

Marathon hospital cash bid

Bracknell Round Tablers will be putting their best feet forward soon in a marathon bid to raise money for Heatherwood Hospital.
Intrepid Tablers plan a 24 hour non-stop cycle marathon in the town centre between Saturday, December 7, and Sunday, December 8.
They are hoping Bracknell District Council chairman, Coun Tom Ainscough, will start the pedals rolling at 4pm and for the next 24 hours, Tablers will take it in turn to keep the wheels turning.
Members of the public are being asked to guess (at 50p a go) how many miles they will record on a mileometer.
And for those who come close, prizes include a home computer and a racing bike. The cycle marathon has been held three times by the Round Table and has become its biggest fundraising activity.
Proceeds this year will go towards oxygen monitoring equipment to prevent brain damage in new born babies at Heatherwood Hospital.
Extract Evening Post 06/11/1984

 

Drug Unit Not High Priority Yet Says Doctor

Drug abuse problems are under the spotlight in East Berkshire but a special treatment unit is not a high priority yet.
A joint meeting of East Berkshire District Health Authority and East Berkshire's Community Health Council was told by the authority's medical officer Dr Jeremy Cobb: "The district has not felt it necessary to set up a particular unit because we do not detect an important need at present."
But he said at the meeting the situation was under review.
Review
  Dr Cobb said: "We are looking at the situation to see whether the increases that have been identified nationally have been making themselves seen in the district." And he added the review of the district was being made in conjunction with the police to see if there was a need for a treatment base in any particular area. But Dr Cobb did stress that one of the dangers of establishing a drug treatment centre was it tended to attract drug abusers from outside the area who think they might get hold of drugs.
Liaison
  Community Health Council member Monica Sidebottom told the meeting at Heatherwood Hospital. Ascot, preventive drug education was essential.
She welcomed the liaison with the police and suggested this should be extended to other bodies." Dr Cobb said the district worked with schools in distributing anti-drug literature compiled by the Health Education Council but he added more could probably be done in high lighting the dangers of drug abuse to children.
Extract Evening Post 09/11/1984

 

Parsons Knows How It Feels

Wokingham Town goalkeeper Frank Parsons has offered a helping hand to Alan Cosby the Hitchin player who broke his right leg in a collision with Frank in last week's match at Finchampstead Road. Parsons, along with Town coach Ernie Howe, visited Cosby in Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot "We have both had broken legs and know what Alan is going through," said Frank. "We told him what he could expect and about rehabilitation." Cosby exonerated the Town keeper for the accident accepting it was an occupational hazard.
Extract Evening Post 17/11/1984

 

Cycling to Help New Born Babies

A charity cycling marathon will raise money to buy life-saving equipment for a Berkshire hospital. Bracknell Round Tablers will use pedal power to raise thousands of pounds to buy a special machine to prevent brain damage in new born babies.
The 24 hour cycling marathon will be staged at Bracknell's Princess Square complex on December 7 and 8. Christmas shoppers will be invited to help the fund-raisers by entering a competition to guess the total mileage clocked up by the cyclists over the weekend.
A 28-strong team of Tablers, cheered on by their families and friends, will take it in turns to pedal on the spot on a specially adapted bicycle.
The marathon starts at 4pm on December 7 and the energetic Tablers will pedal through the night and for most of the following day.
Round Table chairman Robin Jeans said they aimed to raise up to £4,000 as part of a project with Windsor Round Table.
The eventual £8,000 target will buy a brain monitor for the special care baby unit at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital.
Extract Evening Post 21/11/1984 & 30/11/1984

 

Gifts Collectors

Staff at Crowthorne's Transport and Road Research Laboratory (pictured) have collected 200 Christmas gifts for children in hospital and homes.
Director of the laboratory Geoff Margason handed over the gifts to Mr Reg Wood, chief welfare officer of the Department of Transport.
The knitted toys, games, dolls and garments will be distributed to the Larchwood Home. Bracknell: Heatherwood Hospital. Ascot: Berkshire County Council in-care homes and Dr Barnado's.
Extract Evening Post 05/12/1984

Comment:- The above article was accompanied by a photo.
Copyright prevents us from displaying the photo here.

 

Grieving Parents Tell of Baby's Death

A four-month-old Berkshire baby who died last week from a rare and virtually incurable disease was being buried today.
And as her grieving parents prepared for the Funeral, they told how she was transformed in 48 hours from a healthy, happy child, into a vegetable.
John and Maura McCoy, of Ullswater, Bracknell, spoke out to highlight the urgent need for research into the illness which killed little Carrie-Ann, haemorrhagic encephalopathy.
They had agreed to delay the burial of their only child at St Margaret Clitherow, Hanworth, so that an autopsy could be carried out which may tell baffled doctors more about it.
Wrong
Mr McCoy, aged 27, who works at Bracknell's Met Office said: "The first we knew anything was wrong was on the Saturday morning when she seemed a bit slow and listless.
"In the evening, she started not taking fluid and started being sick. We called the GP out and he thought it might be meningitis.
He told us to call an ambulance immediately." Carrie was rushed to Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, and throughout Sunday doctors battled to find out what was wrong with her by trying and eliminating different treatments.
But by Monday morning, Carrie appeared to have suffered brain death.
And her desolated parents faced the traumatic news that her chances of survival were virtually nil.
If she lived, they heard, she would be severely mentally handicapped.
Last Thursday, her ventilator was switched off to see whether she was still capable of breathing. She was not.
Haemorrhagic encephalopathy, which was only recently discovered, has claimed just over 20 known victims in the South of England.
Mrs McCoy, aged 30, said: "It's very important some research is done now.
I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we've gone through.
The more research is done the less chance there is of that."
Extract Evening Post 06/12/1984

 

Pensioner Rescued from Blaze

Bracknell pensioner Lily Childs cheated death on Tuesday when her stove caught fire, filling her little bungalow with dense choking smoke.
And the 83-yearold's escape was thanks to her quick thinking son in law, who rushed into action when he saw smoke coming from her bungalow.
Dennis Coite raised the alarm at 5pm on Tuesday when he saw that something was wrong. He called the fire brigade and ambulance to the scene, then rushed off to find a spare key to the house.
"I don't want to appear a hero, but I think that if I hadn't arrived when I did she would have died in there. The smoke was that bad," he said.
"When I opened the door I couldn't see for smoke. So I called out Lily's name and got a feeble reply that she was all right."
"When I made sure there was no fire still going I opened all the doors and windows to let the smoke out, and eventually found her a bit dazed in the loo."
Filth
The accident happened at Mrs Childs bungalow in Bracknell's South Lynn Crescent. By the time the fire brigade arrived the fire was out, but Mrs Childs was taken by ambulance to Heatherwood Hospital for a check up and a clean up. Now Mrs Child's is recovering from her ordeal in a Maidenhead rest home while her family begin the long task of clearing up the house.
"Now that it's over I can see the lighter side of it all," said Mr Coite. When I found Lily she was black with soot all over, just like one of those explosion victims you see on TV comedy shows," he said.
Mrs Childs' son Ron was also making light of the episode after the danger was over. He said: "The walls of this place are absolutely covered in filth. My mum was covered in the stuff and looked like the black witch in Snow White."
"It is very lucky that Dennis arrived when he did, otherwise it might have been a case of goodbye to mum for Christmas," he said.
Extract Ascot Times 27/12/1984