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Transcription

Caroline Anderson
Nicholas Foster
Nigel Cartwright
Helen Eglitis
Clare Pollock
Orchard Surgery
The Dragwell
Kegworth
Derby
DE74 2EL
Tel Enquiries: 01509 672419
Tel Appointments: 01509 674919
Fax: 01509 674196
An Apple a Day
Part One
A History of the
Kegworth & Gotham
Medical Practices
1
An Apple a Day
A History of the Kegworth
& Gotham Medical Practices
Contents
Part One
Chapter 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Part Two
Chapter 16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
2
Page
Doctors’ Timeline
Dedication to Dr. D. A. N. Hoyte
Introduction
Early Care of the Sick & Needy
The First Doctors
Kegworth Nursing Association
Dr. Robert Bedford & Dr. Douglas Bedford
Dr. James Jeffares
Nurse Flora Harpin
The Practice at Gotham –
Daisy May Bailey nee Gibson
Dr. Maynard Gerrard
Dr. Mary Wood
Dr. Brian Howard
Joan Smith - Practice Nurse
Dr. David Hoyte - Part One
Dr. David Hoyte - Part Two
The Doctor’s Wife – Vera Hoyte
Dr. Doreen Stein
The Practice Manager – Isobel Beynon
The Nurse Practitioner – Sister Rosie Peters
The Kegworth Air Disaster
The New Premises Orchard Surgery
The Partners (1992–2014):
Drs. Caroline Anderson, Nicholas Foster, Nigel
Cartwright, Helen Eglitis, Clare Pollock,
Kegworth & Gotham Medical Practice Team 2013
Acknowledgements
Conclusion
Epilogue
The last 25 years –
Continuity of Care & Continual Change
Appendices
1. Orchard Surgery Website
2. Patient Participation Group Newsletter
Summer 2014
3. Med Chi Society Presidents
Dr. Caroline Anderson 2010/2011
Dr David Hoyte (1998/1999)
4. Finale
3
4
5
6
8
13
15
21
26
29
36
41
44
47
50
53
54
62
64
69
72
77
81
86
91
92
93
94
97
99
100
103
104
An electronic version of this publication is available on the surgery website:
www.kegworth.net
Doctors’ Timeline
19th – 21st Century
1835
1835
1846
1846
1854
1863
1876
1876
1876
– 1849
– 1854
– 1876
- 1876
– 1876
– 1908
-?
-?
1898 – 1939
1899
1904
1936
1939
1948
1961
1974
1961
1975
1985
1986
1989
1993
1994
2011
2014
-?
– 1948
-?
– 1958
– 1973
-?
– 1993
– 1984
– 1993
– 1992
– 2014
– present
– present
– present
– present
– present
Practice Location
Dr. John Orton
Dr. Nicholas Mason Day
Dr. Thomas Edward Rawson
Dr. William Helmsley
Dr. Alfred Horatio Daniels
Dr. John Barrow
Dr. Robert James Bedford
Dr. Charles Carruthers
Dr. George William Smith
The Lodge London Road
London Road
Kegworth House High Street
London Road
Kegworth House
The Hermitage London Road
Kegworth House
Kegworth House (also listed as
the proprietor of a pony &
trap business)
Dr. James Jeffares
Dragwell House & Kegworth
House
Dr. G Dooley
London Road
Dr. Douglas James Bedford
The Hermitage London Road.
Dr. Albert Gladstone
Kegworth House
Dr. Maynard Atkinson Gerrard Kegworth House
Dr. Mary Wood
Kegworth House & Mill Lane
Dr. Hollingworth
Mill Lane
Dr. David Hoyte
Nottingham Road & Dragwell
Dr. Brian Howard
Mill Lane & Nottingham Road
Dr. Doreen Stein
Dr. Philip James
Dr. Caroline Anderson
Dr. Nicholas Foster
Dr. Nigel Cartwright
Orchard Surgery Dragwell
Dr. Helen Eglitis
Dr. Clare Pollock
Dr Omar Khalique
3
In memory of Dr. David Augustus Noel Hoyte
29th March 1923 – 23rd August 2004
David Hoyte had a profound effect on all those he came into contact
with and was regarded as a man of the highest integrity. He retired as a
general practice partner in 1993 but continued in his role as a Senior
Lecturer and Reader in the Human Morphology department at
Nottingham University until 2003.
This book is a tribute to him and is dedicated to the legacy of his
unfailing wisdom and inspiration as the father of modern
General Practice at the Kegworth & Gotham surgeries.
4
Introduction
‘An Apple a Day’ is an informal chronicle of healthcare in Kegworth & Gotham
from the beginning of the 17th century up to the 2nd decade of the 2nd
millennium. Each chapter provides an individual profile of the remarkable men
and women who have cared for the people of our community; reflecting the
unique contribution they have made to the health and welfare of the district
over a period of five centuries and each part is a tribute to their dedication and
inspiration.
Our knowledge of medical services in Kegworth before the latter part of the 19th
century is scarce but we can guess that it was similar to that of other
English villages.
General Practitioners were to be found in towns and cities, but the countryside
was mostly served by apothecaries. The apothecary in his druggist’s store later
had professional training but did not have a university degree; he was trained
in pharmacy and could advise on peoples’ ailments but could not carry out any
surgical procedures.
Doctors worked single handed and were on call seven days a week, night and
day. The surgery would be held in the front room of his home and the
receptionist would be his wife. Home visits were a large part of the doctor’s
work, messengers came on foot and the doctor walked or travelled on
horseback or by pony and trap.
Hospitals were a long distance away by horse transport and telephones had not
been invented. The doctor’s work involved surgical techniques, often removing
an appendix, abscess, or a gangrenous leg on the kitchen table with a minimal
level of trained help. At a later period some doctors worked part time as
surgeons in a local hospital doing routine operations such as taking out
children’s enlarged tonsils.
The first woman doctor qualified in the 1890’s, but few were in practice until
the Second World War. Mary Wood was Kegworth’s first woman doctor, in
partnership with Dr. Gerrard, from 1948 until 1963.
It was after World War Two that the Government encouraged the building of
Health Centres and discouraged doctors from working single-handed, as had
been the case in Kegworth until that time. Kegworth Parish Council made
strenuous efforts to buy land on Dragwell for this purpose. The 17th century
cottage and orchard, once owned by Christ’s College in Cambridge, eventually
became the site of Orchard Surgery.
Kegworth is classified as a village, but its medical practice is much more than a
mere village practice. There are three motorways, an international airport and
a main railway line nearby, all within a radius of two miles, with all the
inherent problems associated with these hubs which have to be factored in.
5
Early Care of the Sick and Needy
Archive reports show that as far back as 1601, the sick and needy of
Kegworth were cared for by the ‘Overseers of the Poor’. Funds were raised
from a tax on parishioners and distributed to those in need. This early
equivalent of a poll tax was unpopular and by 1662 it was felt that ‘charity
begins at home’ and should only benefit those people born in the parish or
who were legally entitled to live there.
We can only surmise what medical care was available in the 1600/1700s. It
is known that doctors were practicing in towns and cities but rural
communities like Kegworth were mostly dependent on the skills and
knowledge of apothecaries.
The cost of sickness and medical treatment was very high at this time. In
1706 the cost of a woman ‘lying in’ at childbirth was three shillings.
However if medical treatment failed the price of dying was much more; a
charge of twelve shillings was made to bury two children and an adult. By
the end of the century that figure had risen considerably.
Records show that there were two doctors and two chemists in Kegworth in
the 1840s. The chemist’s patent medicine and old wives remedies served
the ordinary medical needs of many people, who would call a doctor only in
a serious medical emergency. According to the Leicestershire Historian
there was such an emergency in January 1849, when a woman who had
attempted suicide in consequence of religious scruples was saved partly by
prompt medical aid.
We have further archive information from Wright’s Directory of
Leicestershire 1894, reporting outbreaks of measles, diphtheria,
scarlatina and typhoid which swept through Kegworth School, sometimes
causing it to be closed. In November and December 1886 there were 200
cases of illness and 10 deaths reported in one week and the school was
closed for 5 weeks. The severity of these epidemics was due mostly to
insanitary living conditions, low standards of diet and a lack of preventive
measures such as vaccination and inoculation.
The Poor Law Act of 1834 introduced the Workhouse system and Kegworth
people suffering hardship were put into the care of the Shardlow Union.
6
In the early 1800’s the people of Kegworth had decided to look after their
own; the poor of neighbouring parishes were expelled and Sick Clubs and
Friendly Societies were created – usually in a public house – where
members met to pay a weekly fee. These were voluntary self-help
organisations which provided insurance against sickness and death,
payable from central funds.
In 1810, the Independent Order of Oddfellows was formed and the benefits
for members included travelling expenses when seeking work. By 1813
Kegworth had two Lodges (or branches): Lodge 28 met in The Red Lion on
High Street, Lodge 1155 was based at the Oddfellows Arms on Packington
Hill (now demolished). The Society’s coat-of-arms was painted on the gable
end of the building.
In 1868 the National Deposit Friendly Society was formed and a branch
opened in Kegworth in 1908. In return for a monthly subscription
members were able to claim benefits. The Friendly Societies eventually
became agents for the Government after the formation of the Health Act of
1912, collecting the Health & Pension stamp cards. Employees were
required to put on a stamp each and a minimum of 48 stamps was required
to qualify for a full pension of ten shillings.
Records show that in later times, Branch 28 at the Red Lion was run by:
Mr. H. Noble
Mr. W. Brooks
Mr. A. Hickling
Secretary
Grand Imperial (chairman)
Door-keeper
After the death of Mr. Brooks, the post of Chairman was held by
Mr. G. Oliver.
Branch 1155 at the ‘Oddfellows Arms’ was run by Mr. F. Branson and
Mr. A. Hudson.
The National Deposit Branch’s Secretary was Mr. W. Large, he was
succeeded by Mrs. F. Middleton. Following the introduction of the National
Health Act in 1948 the membership of these branches declined, resulting in
their closure and the business transferred to Head Office.
7
The First Doctors (1830 – 1900)
The earliest records of doctors living and practicing in Kegworth are to be
found in the old Trade directories such as Kelly’s and Wright’s. From the
early 1830’s there were four doctors living in the village:
Dr. McDivett, Dr. Thomas Edward Rawson, Dr. Nicholas Mason Day & Dr.
John Orton (no information is available on Dr. Orton, maybe he lived in
Kegworth but practiced elsewhere – possibly in a hospital.
Dr. Day is recorded as living at The Lodge in Kegworth and was still
practicing in 1849. Dr. McDivett’s address is unknown but we know that
Dr. Rawson practiced at Rose Bank.
Kegworth has a remarkable history of pioneering doctors.
When Cholera Came to Leicestershire Kegworth Doctor Claims A Cure:
There were widespread outbreaks of typhoid and cholera in England in the
19th century. Kegworth and district was quite badly affected and it was
suspected that the disease had been introduced by bargees, mooring at the
wharfs in Kings Mills and Shardlow. Dr. Day and Dr. McDivett found fame
when, in 1832 in a report to Whitehall, they claimed to have found a cure
for cholera. There were a number of cases at Barton–in–Fabis where Dr.
McDivett and Dr. Day had been in attendance.
Dr. McDivett describes the rapid progress of the illness and minutely
details the remedies used to treat a young child aged seven. His treatment
included using ‘the most powerful purgatives’ in the early stage of the
disease instead of the usual method of restraining the action of the bowels.
The little girl’s father, mother and sister had all died in the space of four
days. She had already been give emetics before the doctor came and was
rapidly going into a coma.
She was then given intensive doses of opium, calomel, then more calomel,
then drops of croton oil and calomel, a drachm of tartarised soda in an
effervescent draught every 30 minutes, teaspoonfuls of arrowroot with
brandy and gruel. The report continues that the little girl collapsed and
appeared moribund but, surprisingly, after many treatments she was
cured. Dr. McDivett wrote however that the little girl caught typhus fever
on the same day that he had cured her cholera and she was still suffering
from the fever at the time of writing. (We hope that she recovered from this
as well).
8
The treatment of cholera was thought to be worse than the disease itself. In
his notes, the doctor wrote in detail about the violent treatment with
purgatives and opiate drugs but that it was too early to be confident of a
cure. Whitehall did acknowledge the report but asked the doctor to address
future letters to the proper address. It is not known whether the report
remains a part of their archive in the heart of London.
Dr T.E. Rawson, at the age of 27, was
equally distinguished and contributed five
articles to The Lancet between 1837 and
1843.
In a letter to the editor on July 4th 1837 he
wrote:
‘Sir, I shall feel obliged by the insertion of
the following case in your valuable
periodical. I am, Sir, your obedient
servant.’
T.E.RAWSON Kegworth, Leicestershire.
INGUINAL HERNIA SUCCESSFULLY OPERATED ON, AFTER BEING
STRANGULATED SEVEN DAYS
About twelve months ago, Elizabeth Baguley, 45, after lifting a heavy weight,
complained of symptoms resembling those arising from strangulated hernia,
but as she denied having any tumour in the ordinary situations of hernia, and
positively refused to be examined, it was treated as a case of introsusception
by: bleeding, the warm bath, purgatives, calomel, &c., but without effect.
On the fifth day, stercoraceous vomiting took place, and on the eighth day,
there were hiccoughs, the pulse scarcely perceptible but intermittent, cold
extremities, and great distension of the abdomen. She now submitted to an
examination, when a small tumour was detected in the left groin. I
immediately proceeded to operate; the peritoneal sac was highly distended
with gas, and also contained a considerable quantity of serum; the small
knuckle of intestine was pretty strongly adherent to the ring, and of a deep
purple hue; the adhesions were carefully separated, the opening was enlarged,
and the intestine returned. The patient rapidly recovered, and is still living.
The success of this case appears to me an encouragement to operate, even
under the most unfavourable circumstances.
It is believed that this operation was done without anaesthetic
Dr. Rawson, in partnership with Dr. William Helmsley, continued his
practice at Kegworth House in the High Street until the mid-1800s.
9
Dr. G.W. Smith who practiced at Kegworth House from 1876 until the late
1890’s was a typical, if slightly eccentric, example of a country doctor and
surgeon.
His credentials were listed as: ‘Surgeon and Medical Officer, Public
Vaccinator Kegworth & district, Gotham district, Shardlow Union & Basford
Union,’ caring for the sick and poor residents of the Workhouse on a
retainer fee from the Guardians. He was also the proprietor of a horse &
trap business.’
Dr. Smith had a pony and trap which he used when visiting his patients,
many of whom lived outside Kegworth. The pony knew every public house; so
every pub that they came to outside the village, the pony would stop and the
doctor would pay a visit to the bar. He had a young boy who lived in to look
after the pony and to act as a general helper. Often when Dr. Smith came in
at night he was quite helpless so the young lad had to help him into the
house. The doctor dared not go upstairs to his wife so the boy would put him
to bed on the couch before going to rub the pony down.
Operations were performed on the kitchen table and on one occasion, a limb,
it is not known if it was a leg or an arm, had to be amputated. The limb was
put into a basin and covered and the boy was sent to bury it in the garden.
The doctor also employed a young maid; she was very inquisitive and asked
the boy what he had in the basin.
When he eventually told her she fainted. (The bones were never discovered).
10
Kegworth was served by a doctor and chemist from the mid 1800’s. The
doctor would write a list of ingredients that he wished to go into the
patient’s medicine or ointment and the pharmacist weighed them out in
grains, drachms and scruples, (troy weights). These were mixed by hand
and bottled up in a recycled bottle. The museum in Kegworth has the
chemists’ records of prescriptions sold from 1896 until the Second World
War. This invoice is one sent to Dr. D. Bedford at the Hermitage in 1909.
Before the N.H.S. a doctor’s income was irregular and unpredictable. He
treated a wide variety of patients but as far as we can tell, he charged no
more to the richer people in his care than those who had a moderate
income. There were many instances where, if the family was very poor, he
did not get paid at all or he accepted payment in kind: garden produce, a
chicken or game - a rabbit or pheasant. After a consultation an itemised
bill would be sent the following month: a visit or bottle of medicine was
listed at two or three shillings and would often be paid promptly, but on
average it took three bills to receive payment.
11
Some patients had difficulty in paying and despite reminders, bills
remained unpaid. In 1907, a bill for three items came to ten shillings but
in January 1908 it had not been paid. Further items in the next 6 months
raised the bill to 15s.6d. In May 1909 a final demand was sent to the
patient resulting in three weekly instalments of: five shillings, four shillings
and three shillings, leaving a balance of three shillings and sixpence owing.
It had taken the doctor almost two years and six letters to get an income of
twelve shillings. It is to his credit that despite this and many similar cases,
he continued to treat his patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
The more wily patients would ‘try it on’, willing to pay if the bill was
reduced; however most non-payments were due to poverty. As mentioned
in the last chapter, people with foresight could join a club and be protected
against medical charges. The doctor also ran a private club, based in
public houses, with an annual fee of five shillings (25p) which could be paid
in two instalments.
In 1901 The Flying Horse Club paid the doctor £11.15s. This rose to
£26.8s.in 1908. The Red Lion paid every six months: £6.17s.in 1901,
increasing to £9.15s.in1904. Another source of income was from the
Guardians of the Shardlow Workhouse who paid £7.16s 10d every three
months.
The following are typical examples of costs for treatment:
Strapping ribs:
Strapping a shoulder with six
follow up treatments:
Lancing a boil:
Lancing an abscess:
Four leeches cost two shillings.
12
2s.6d
17s.6d
2s.6d
5s.0d
The Kegworth Nursing Association (1908 – 1948)
Many larger towns had Cottage Hospitals or, as in Loughborough, the
General Hospital, to care for the sick. The hospitals were built either by a
wealthy benefactor or by subscriptions from the public. Many people paid
subs to the Nursing Association as a form of insurance so that the cost of
care would be less. Those who could not afford to pay had to ask the
Guardians for a grant from Parish Funds. In one of the Association’s
minute books, (which are in the archive of Kegworth Museum), it records
that on the 18th February 1908:
The Town Crier will be engaged to inform the village that Nurse Hill
would commence her duties on the 1st March and that all quarterly
subscriptions were due and would be collected at once.
In October 1911 there was an outbreak of scarlet fever and the committee
decided it was necessary to employ another trained nurse to attend to the
fever cases with one guinea a week to be paid for her board and lodging.
By the end of the year the epidemic had eased and the Council of the
Nursing Association agreed to a grant of £16 towards expenses incurred
during the outbreak.
At a subsequent meeting it was agreed that the nurse would not be allowed
to attend the sick unless they had paid their previous account. The
account collected in the form of subscriptions was not sufficient on its own
to keep the Association running and the churches were asked to take up a
collection on its behalf.
In the minutes of 1913 it was proposed that a whist drive be held, the
proceeds of which would go towards a holiday for the nurse. £8.12.6d was
raised and it was reported that ‘our nurse be given two weeks holiday’.
Unfortunately this was not going to ‘our nurse’; this was to pay for a relief
nurse and ‘the remainder to be given to Nurse Hill to defray the cost of her
holiday’. In the same year a bath chair was presented to the Association by
the Women’s Sunday School. This was to be:
‘Let out for a fee of one penny per time, not to exceed three hours and
be returned on the same day and in the same condition. This offer is
for members of the Association only.’
Due to illness in 1914, Nurse Hill was given eight weeks holiday to recover
and was paid 17s.6d a week. Regrettably the Association Committee did
not meet regularly and records do not show what exactly happened during
this period. However, we do know that Nurse Hill handed in her
resignation, to take effect from April 22nd 1915.
Nurse Shelton was subsequently engaged as Nurse Hill’s replacement at a
salary of £70 per annum.
13
In February 1920 there was a proposal to wind up the Association but in
late March, a new committee was formed to save it. Various fundraising
events were arranged: sales of work, whist drives and concerts. In addition,
all subscriptions were to be increased, to augment funds. There were
numerous meetings throughout the year but the threat of winding up the
Association didn’t materialise.
At the A.G.M. of the Kegworth Nursing Association in November 1921 it was
reported that Nurse Harpin had attended 116 cases: 23 maternity, 6
midwifery and 87 general. She also made 3001 home visits during the
year, including night time calls.
KEGWORTH NURSING ASSOCIATION
(Affiliated to Leicestershire County Nursing Association)
Committee
President – Mrs. S. Wilson
Hon. Treasurer – Mr. F Harrison
Hon Secretary – Miss H. Pepper
Dr. Bedford
Mrs. W.Pepper
Dr. J. Jeffares
Mrs. H. Rowbotham
Nurse – Mrs. Harpin
Report of Work – November 1st 1927 to October 31st 1928:
Visits
Cases
5,231
164 General & Surgical
28 nights on duty at cases
42 Maternity
Nurse Harpin has done excellent work and is always bright and cheerful
This completes her eighth year in Kegworth
There are 366 members
The Minutes of the Kegworth Nursing Association 1928
Further extracts from the minutes show that in 1938, the committee put
forward a proposal that a telephone be installed in Nurse Harpin’s home.
In 1944 the committee decided that she needed a car, particularly in the
winter months and a fund was set up. It was also proposed to give her an
annual allowance of £35 towards running costs. At the end of 1945, a
letter was sent to Dr. Mont Follick M.P. and to the Minister of Transport as
the application by the nurse to buy a re-conditioned army car had been
refused. A reply was received but here are no records of the outcome.
On 19th July 1948 the final minutes were recorded and the Association was
wound up, possibly due to the introduction of the National Health Service.
However, a new committee was formed later that year and it’s possible that
this was for social and fund raising purposes. Whist drives continued to be
held with proceeds going to the British Cancer Campaign. The last entry in
the accounts book was in October 1961.
14
Drs R.J. & D.J. Bedford
- General Practitioners 1876 - 1948
Dr. Robert James Bedford was a
general practitioner in Kegworth
between 1876 and 1908.
Dr. Bedford’s Surgery
There is sparse
documentation of Dr.
Bedford and his practice
in the latter part of the
19th century but we do
know that his wife was a
compassionate and
altruistic woman. There
was no National Insurance
in those days and when
times were bad, she
would, with the assistance
of her friend Mrs. Winser,
run a soup kitchen and
domestic club.
He lived at The Hermitage on London
Road and held his surgery at the Old
Manor House. His family also owned
The Wymeshead, next door to The
Hermitage which, at the turn of the
century, was run by them as a home
for wealthy eccentrics. It is recorded
that Dr. Robert Bedford had a
particular gift for curing patients with
heart and nerve conditions; a quality
that was inherited by his younger son
Douglas.
Dr. Bedford’s Brass Plate
Their eldest son Percy contracted scarlet fever as a child which
unfortunately resulted in him becoming deaf and dumb. He never married
but continued to live in Kegworth in a house on the High Street that
belonged to his family. He was very well known as an excellent
photographer and painter.
15
Dr Robert Bedford & Jack Malthouse in a pony & trap on Kegworth Bridge
When Dr. Bedford senior retired in 1908 he handed the practice over to his
younger son Douglas and moved next door to the Wymeshead.
Dr. Douglas James Bedford was one of Kegworth’s more colourful
physicians. He grew up in Kegworth and began his education under the
tuition of George Thomas, who was the headmaster of Kegworth Primary
School from 1876 to1919.
At the age of 13, Douglas was sent to Bilton Grange Preparatory School,
then on to Oakham School. He continued his studies at Trinity College
Cambridge where he rowed for his college in the fours and eights.
It was during his time at Cambridge that he came to know the Honourable
S.C. Rolls of Rolls-Royce fame. Douglas had always been interested in
engineering and his ambition was to pursue this as a career; but six
generations of the Bedford family had been members of the medical
profession and it was his father’s wish that he continued the tradition.
On graduating from Cambridge, Douglas went to train at St. Thomas’s
Hospital in London. It is recorded that while he was studying there, bodies
for dissection were kept in tanks of alcohol and the old man in charge of
them used a boathook to fish out the bodies the students had requested.
He was notorious as a dipsomaniac and finally drank too much of the spirit
in which the bodies were kept; he fell in and became one of his own
corpses, the exception being that his was the only one with clothes on.
16
After qualifying, Douglas Bedford spent a period working at a Birmingham
hospital. During this time he lived with his parents at The Hermitage and
walked to and from Castle Donington to catch the Birmingham train.
He took over as family doctor from his father in 1908, continuing to hold
his surgery at The Old Manor House on London Road.
In July 1913 one of his patients had an eye problem and Dr. Bedford wrote
to a medical colleague in Derby requesting advice for a suitable treatment.
The doctor replied enclosing three separate prescriptions for eye drops.
Dr. Bedford’s practice in the village was
interrupted by World War 1 when he served
as a member of the Royal Army Medical
Corps. He spoke French and German in
varying degrees of fluency; from speaking
‘like a native’ to ‘having a Churchillian
accent.’
His war service is said to have included a
number of unsung and probably unrecorded
missions for the Diplomatic Corps.
It is reported that his German was so good
that after the war, he was designated Medical
Officer in charge of the German Officer
Prisoner of War Camp at Castle Donington
Hall and remembered the famous escape
plans there.
17
Dr. Bedford and his wife Margaret were a compatible couple, but there were
two causes for sadness in their marriage: Margaret soon became deaf, (her
sisters were also deaf), and they were unable to have children. She did
however share his interest in mechanics. Both had a love of motorcycles
and Margaret rode a 1200 cc. Harley-Davidson for which she wore riding
breeches. This was a necessity as the bike had to be pushed to get it
rolling before she could leap into the saddle.
Douglas soon graduated from motor cycles to a three wheeled car that he
had built himself and which is now thought to be in the Leicester Museum.
He and his wife toured Europe in this, travelling as far as Yugoslavia, a
place generally thought to be inaccessible in the early days of the 20th
century. Both had studied on the Continent in their youth and like her
husband, Margaret spoke French and German fluently.
He was a familiar sight striding around the village. He visited his patients
every day on foot after his twice daily surgery. He always carried the badge
of his profession - his stethoscope - and was dressed in the trench coat he
had worn as an army doctor. This was an extremely shabby garment which
his wife donated to the jumble sale, along with several of his favourite and
equally well-worn suits. This happened at every rummage sale in the
village and it was common knowledge that the doctor would always turn up
and buy them back.
Douglas was quite a sentimental man and if he heard a sad story was
visibly moved, but he could never be considered a soft touch. He was kind
to the people that he liked but could be frosty towards those to whom he
took a dislike.
“There were many times when I was in a state of collapse at the Rectory,
living too hectic a life in the ever gay and busy Kegworth and district
and Dr. Bedford had to come and visit me professionally. His usual cure
was to bring me a large medicine bottle containing his best port with a
label on it that it was to be taken with meals three times a day. He
would whisper in confidence that I would be wise not to let my teetotal
father have a sniff of my precious medicine.”
“I shall never forget how he sat through several nights at my father’s
bedside, saving his life when he appeared to be dying with a coronary
thrombosis, and how wonderful he was with our family and many
others.”
Margaret was a very generous and sympathetic lady. At the time, every
child attending Kegworth School received, on each school day, a half pint of
milk which she financed. In addition she paid for shoes for all the local
children who needed them. This was provided anonymously through the
School Head, the District Nurse or the Rector; she also provided financial
backing to young people starting up in business.
18
Dr. Bedford’s passion for engineering brought him into contact with Mr
Slack who had been repairing cars in Kegworth since 1910. When the
engineering firm Slack & Parr was formed in 1917, Douglas put up some of
the capital and became chairman. This was a boyhood dream realised and
a position that he retained for 51 years. He also started a company in West
Bromwich with Mr Athey; their names were combined to create The Fordath
Engineering Company.
Margaret and Douglas Bedford were very fond of entertaining and employed
many staff. Douglas was both bon viveur and raconteur and would amuse
their guests with tales of his student days in London: how he won a bet by
driving a coach and horses across Piccadilly Circus and the occasion when
he took the actress Lily Langtry to dinner. His wife would, with a twinkle in
her eye, urge their guests to take these stories with a pinch of salt. He
owned a boat which he called the ‘White Lady,’ named after the ghost of a
nun clothed in white, who haunted his house by the river. Legend says
that she had been murdered after visiting a monk at the Hermitage and had
haunted the property ever since.
The couple had a white terrier which would often escape. Anyone finding
the dog and returning it to the Hermitage was rewarded with a ten shilling
note.
Douglas did nothing by halves. He was very fond of walking and undertook
a Scottish trek with a friend. They walked the East Coast in a direct line by
compass, climbing mountains and swimming rivers when necessary. His
enthusiasm lasted as long as his life and his friends remember him as a
gourmet and generous host.
19
He continued with his medical work in Kegworth until the introduction of
the National Health Service but by this time he was in his mid-seventies
and resistant to change. He literally cut his telephone wires to prevent him
being bothered and retired from practice.
The late Doctor Howard wrote:
“Dr. Douglas Bedford was in practice in the early part
of the century right up to the 1940’s. He was the
chief director of Slack & Parr and concentrated his
work on that afterwards. I attended him and found
him a very nice, kind old man. He was a chain
smoker, loved good wine & good food and in spite of
this lived till the age of 98.”
Line drawings of Douglas Bedford in uniform, from the
Kegworth Village Association magazine ‘Cogwords’
20
Dr. James Jeffares
– General Practitioner 1898 - 1939
Dr. Jeffares is remembered as one of the best liked medical doctors in
Kegworth, Gotham and surrounding villages and was highly respected by
his patients.
Born in Wexford in Ireland in 1873, Dr. Jeffares was educated at the
Academical Institute in Londonderry and afterwards studied at the Royal
College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. He arrived in Kegworth in 1898 and
lived and practiced at Dragwell House. This building, now demolished was
diagonally opposite to the Flying Horse Public House.
Like many of his distinguished predecessors, Dr. Jeffares contributed
pieces for the medical press:
Published in the British Medical Journal - October 4th 1902
Dr. James Jeffares (Kegworth) writes: A few notes on the following case of
Urticaria Oedematosa caused by eating mushrooms may be of interest,
especially as the exciting cause is unusually plentiful this season, and no
doubt similar cases have been noted.
* H.S.S. consulted me on September 22nd at 9.15pm. He complained of
intolerable itching and stiffness, which was first felt under the jaws and in
the hands, and which afterwards spread all over his face, chest and the
inside of the thighs; he also complained of his tongue being swollen and of a
general feeling of discomfort. He said he had been perfectly well up to 9pm.
I ascertained that he had eaten heartily of fried mushrooms at dinner an
hour previously.
His general appearance was alarming, his face being livid and swollen out
of recognition, especially the lips; the conjunctivae were injected and the
swelling extended all over the chest and back and in patches on the legs.
His tongue was very much swollen as were his hands. The skin was of a
bright red colour. The heart and breathing were normal and there were no
gastric or internal symptoms. The temperature was normal.
I prescribed 20g of zinc sulphate followed in ten minutes by two tumblers
full of tepid water, which produced emesis, after which all the symptoms
subsided and the patient was well and about the next day.
Two other members of the family partook of the same dish of mushrooms
without suffering any inconvenience. I presume either my patient is
especially intolerant to mushrooms or only some of them were poisonous.
*(It is possible that H.S.S. was Harold Shepherd, the butcher on the High Street)
21
In 1921 he moved from
the Dragwell to Kegworth
House on the High Street.
It is affectionately
recorded that he and the
butcher, his great friend
Mr. Shepherd, split a
ticket for the Grand
National. The horse won,
they shared the winnings
and that was how he was
able to purchase
Kegworth House.
Dragwell House
He had two boys who helped him to move from Dragwell House. They used
a hand barrow and when they brought the last lot, they lined up a row of
chamber pots along the top of the cart.
Dr. Jeffares had a close professional relationship with Nurse Flora Harpin
and he was a great help to her with midwifery.
The doctor was an excellent accoucher and had an instinct for predicting
when a woman was ready to deliver. If he was off to the races for a few
days, Flora would remind him that a certain lady’s baby was due the next
day and he would say:
“She’ll not have that baby for another five days, mark my words.” and
he’d be right.
If the family was really poor there was more likely to be a two shilling piece
on the bedside table than a bill. He also worried about the children coming
home from school and
asked Nurse Harpin
where they were going to
get nourishment while
their mothers were
confined to bed. When
she promised to see
what she could do he
told her to go to
Kegworth House and see
his cook, knowing there
would be some soup left.
Kegworth House
22
There was always something available for those who came to the house for
help. He was very kind to elderly people and if their circumstances were
poor he would again substitute his bill for a florin. His compassionate
nature shone through on many occasions. One example of his
understanding was when he approached Nurse Harpin, asking what they
could do to assist an elderly lady who had become increasingly frail and
faced being put into a home against her will. He asked if she knew someone
who could help look after her in those final months. They both knew that
she wouldn’t need a lot of care and they were anxious that her preferences
and her dignity should be respected.
Dr. Jeffares would arrange for young doctors to come and do relief work for
him and help out in busy periods, a forerunner of today’s locums. He lived
and held his surgeries at Kegworth House until he retired in 1939. Villagers
all spoke very highly of him and there was never a bad word or adverse
comment heard about him.
Said one Kegworth resident:
“My dad remembered Dr. Jeffares; if you saw him coming along in his
horse and trap, you stood at the side of the road and took your cap
off, I suppose you could say he was a bit like a squire. He was a well
known and respected individual, noted for his forthright manner of
speech and actions.”
Another patient recalls:
“I can dimly remember Dr. Jeffares, I had the measles and in those
days you had to pull the curtains, I was lying on the sofa with a
blanket over me and I can remember him lifting my clothes up and
saying ‘My goodness, I’ve never seen anything like this before!’ these
things stick in your mind.”
He had a wide circle of friends in Kegworth, Gotham & the surrounding
district and he was a churchwarden at St. Andrews church for ten years.
People grew to regard him as a great sportsman and he was highly
respected for his professional capabilities.
He was an excellent shot and a day with a gun was one of his chief delights;
he used to shoot at Lockington at Mrs. Curzon’s and at Belpers. It was very
much his favourite recreation; another pastime was going to the races, he
liked to go to Market Rasen, Lincoln and occasionally to Nottingham.
He was also a keen cricketer and was a member of Kegworth Cricket Club
for many years. His prowess with the bat was well known to visiting bowlers
and he used to open the innings for his side.
23
Never seen in an ordinary pair of trousers, he always wore shooting breeks,
except for the times when he put on his whites to play cricket. In latter
years he would only play special matches with the team: e.g. doctors
against farmers or doctors against butchers, when they had fundraising
matches. He liked to join in and was very interested in all aspects of the
village.
Golf and tennis were other hobbies; he excelled at both and retained a
lifelong interest in all
aspects of sport until
his death. Another of
his interests was keeping and breeding Irish
Kerry Blues; one had a
litter of six puppies and
he gave one to young
Margaret Harpin, much
to her delight. It was
her first puppy and one
that she cherished.
24
He had three
sons: the eldest,
James followed
him in to the
medical
profession.
Widely known as
‘Jimmy’ Jeffares,
he was in
practice in
Loughborough
and Kegworth
and was an
honorary
surgeon at
Loughborough
Hospital. Dr.
Jimmy was the
man who, in
1925, set little
Daisy Gibson’s
broken leg at
Gotham only to
be rewarded with
the ‘b’ word.
His other sons
were Desmond,
who became a
barrister, and
Richard who was
a tea planter in
Assam, Northern
India.
After 41 years in Kegworth, Dr. Jeffares and his wife moved to the Isle of
Man where they spent a very happy retirement.
25
Nurse Flora Harpin
– District Nurse from 1920 - 1979
Mrs Flora Harpin arrived in Kegworth in 1920 to take up the position of
District Nurse. Her husband had been fatally wounded in World War 1 and
she had a 3 year old daughter, Margaret. At first she had difficulty finding
anywhere suitable to lodge or rent, but fortunately the Parish Council came
to the rescue and offered her the first of the council houses that were being
built in Mill Lane. This was to be their home for the next 15 years until
Flora was in the position to build a house on Nottingham Road. Margaret’s
granny lived with them and looked after her while Flora was working
Nurse Harpin was a diligent and dedicated nurse. On call 24 hours a day,
she was only allowed one half day off each week - Monday afternoon - when
she could travel out of the village. In order to do this she had to arrange
cover with a nurse in Sutton Bonnington or Long Whatton. However she
would not allow anyone else do dressings etc and if there was a baby case
pending, she wouldn’t go. On her half day she would take the bus to
Loughborough to collect her war widow’s pension and do a little shopping,
but that was the absolute limit of her time off.
Flora was allocated one month’s holiday a year which had to be taken all at
once. The Nursing Association would arrange for a locum nurse to cover
the work and stay at the Harpin house. Margaret remembers that there
were some very nice nurses staying with them and one taught her to ride a
bicycle. Flora could have taken a weekend off occasionally, but only if she
could provide her own nurse to do the job, which was a tremendous
responsibility. Anyone might apply, but if anything went wrong then she
would be liable for the consequences and she could not afford to have that
happen.
It was an extremely demanding job. Margaret remembers lying in bed
listening for her mother coming home, often around midnight. There was
an entry between their house and next door and Flora would lean her
bicycle on the wall whilst opening the gate and put it back before wheeling
her bike in. She might have been to a maternity case or to tepid sponge a
patient with pneumonia or tonsillitis. There were no antibiotics in those
days and it was only her efforts that could reduce a temperature.
As set out in the previous chapter, Flora Harpin had a very strong working
relationship with Dr. Jeffares. Both had a strong vocation and the
determination to care for their patients. In those early days of the 20th
century, there was no National Health Service and there were none of the
infection fighting drugs that have transformed the treatment of illness in
the last 60 years; but they cared for their patients cheerfully and
reassuringly.
26
Dr. Jeffares was a very jolly person. On one particular day in Kegworth
there were three senior nurses going round the village: the school nurse,
the inspector of midwives and the health visitor. They were all in turned
down felt hats and had briefcases with gold letters on them. All three were
looking very smart and superior and Nurse Harpin was, as usual, racing
about on her bicycle and looking quite different. Dr. Jeffares pulled up his
car and encountered all of them.
Calling across to his assistant he said:
“Nurse, who are these damned women looking for, is it you they are
after or me?”
It should be emphasised that on the rare occasions when he did swear it
was usually just ‘damn’ or something similar, more as a piece of emphasis
than a true expletive and he could not bear pomposity of any sort. His
question amused Flora and she replied:
“I think it’s me they are after but they won’t catch me on my bike.”
Following Dr. Jeffare’s departure to the Isle of Man, Flora continued her
work with Dr. Gerrard. She retired as a district nurse at the end of the
war.
After her retirement, Nurse Harpin did a considerable amount of freelance
work, either relieving another district nurse or at a nursing home. The
latter was preferable as it meant she hadn’t any cycling to do; being based
at the home meant she had much more opportunity to rest.
She was also approached by the Poor Law Institution at Shardlow. They
had six midwifery beds and often took in cases; they also took cases if there
was an overflow from the local Maternity Hospital. Both the Matron and
Sister were qualified midwives and Matron was supposed to do the relief at
busy times; however it was not a branch of nursing that she enjoyed. Flora
attended on one occasion and proved to be a valuable asset to the
institution.
With the approval of the Guardians, Matron offered her a semi-permanent
job, with the option of being on day or night duty. This was a position that
she enjoyed immensely. She got on very well with the other nurses, the
Sister and also with the local people. Nurse Harpin had a similarly happy
relationship with the Matron and her husband, who had the title, Master of
the hospital.
Travelling between Kegworth and Shardlow was rather awkward as she had
to change buses at Sawley but she found it much better than cycling. In
addition to her spells at the Grove Hospital she did holiday relief in the
27
midwifery department at Loughborough General Hospital. Her skills as a
midwife were outstanding and she had a good rapport with mothers and
babies alike; she also had the enviable ability of being able to take any
crying baby, place it on her knee and it would stop crying instantly.
When Dr. Jeffares retired there was a sale of his house contents and Flora
announced that she would attend the sale as she particularly wanted to
buy one of the tureens. She had, so many times, seen the cook bring the
tureens from the dining room and decant the soup into a flask for the
needy. Unfortunately the service had been made up into lots of eight or
less pieces with the tureens included in those. She did however manage to
purchase two plates from the service which she displayed on a rack in her
hall.
Many years later the doctor’s grandson, who lived in Australia, visited
Flora’s daughter Margaret. He was anxious for stories of his grandfather
and Margaret told him about the plates. When he saw them he was moved
to tears knowing they had been used by the doctor and his family and she
gave them to him to take back to Australia.
The following year, he visited again and informed Margaret that his sons
had refused to let him take the plates out of the country in case of damage
and that they were in the safe keeping of Dr. Jeffares’ great grandsons.
Flora had an enormous amount of
respect for Dr. Jeffares and admired
his altruism. She once commented
that he would not die a rich man.
Never a spendthrift, his money went
on educating his three sons and the
selfless care of his patients.
She finally retired at the age of 72.
On her 90th birthday Flora was
interviewed by a reporter from the
Nottingham Evening Post and asked
about her life as a district nurse. One
of her replies: “I did it all on a bicycle
you know. If they’d let me have a car
I’d be doing it now.”
A remarkable and inspirational lady,
she lived to be 100.
Nurse Flora Harpin, Dr. James Jeffares and Dr. Douglas Bedford
were immortalised in this cartoon first displayed at the Kegworth Carnival.
The caption: Our First Line of Defence
28
The Practice at Gotham
The earliest healthcare connection between Kegworth and Gotham was
possibly in 1876 when Dr. George William Smith, then practising at
Kegworth House, was registered as treating the people of Gotham and
Sutton Bonnington and would do his visits in a pony and trap. In 1891 a
Dr. Beattie was registered as the doctor in Kegworth Lane Gotham and in
1900 Dr. Robert Plenderleith Shearer was recorded as the Public
Vaccinator and Medical Officer in the Gotham district. Further medical
care was later provided by Dr. Hunter from Ruddington who had a surgery
at Robbie Holland’s house next door to The Star. A dentist came once a
week to one of the houses facing The Cuckoo.
An extract from the Nottinghamshire Deanery magazine in October 1895
reports on the retirement of Dr. Garland. We do not have any record of his
medical practice in the village but he was plainly held in very high regard
by the people of Gotham:
On September 25th 1895, a presentation was made to Dr. Garland. On the
eve of his departure from Gotham he was presented, in common with Mrs
Garland, with a small token of esteem and regard from friends at Gotham.
The Reverend Frances Amine Wodehouse** said it was salutary to consider
not only what they thought of Dr. Garland but what he thought of them. All
friends of Gotham desired that the village should deserve a good name from
those who had left them for distant parts.
Mrs Wodehouse, in making the presentation, said it was a mark of their
appreciation of Dr. Garland’s unsparing painstaking on their behalf, of his
patient and unostentatious continuance in well-doing and as Dr. Garland
would not blow his own trumpet she felt bound to give it a good blow for him.
Dr. Garland, in acknowledging the same, thanked them for the consideration
they had constantly shown him in his work; perhaps no profession had more
bright or more cloudy days than his own; this occasion was both cloudy,
because of the pain that was inseparable from the word goodbye, yet bright
at discovering how many more friends he had than he could have hoped at
Gotham.
Mrs Garland disclaimed any justification for her present, but was assured
that her readiness in accompanying her husband on walks to Barton,
Thrumpton etc., often cold dark and stormy, had not escaped appreciation.
We may add that the funds were collected by Mrs Thomas and Mrs Elijah
Gregg; that the presents were an ormolu clock and electro-plated tea service,
and were chosen by the above, with Mrs Wodehouse, from the stock of Mrs
Pearce, silversmith and jeweller, Long Row Nottingham.
29
The clock being decidedly pretty, Dr. Garland seemed inclined to designate it
for the consulting room at Clifton, Mrs Garland for the drawing room, but the
latter, remembering that they were candidates for the flitch of bacon at once
gave way, when Dr. Garland at the same moment discovered by some mark
hitherto unnoticed that it could only be a drawing room clock.
We have since heard from Dr. Garland, at Clifton, near Bristol. He speaks of
the final scene on the Kegworth Road; believes that there is a happy life for
them at Clifton, but doubts if he shall be able to gain so many warm hearted
friends as at Gotham.
**
A relative of the author P.G. Wodehouse
A Personal Reminiscence of the Gotham Practice
Daisy May Bailey nee Gibson has the earliest recollections of medicine in
Gotham. Daisy was born on the 31st July 1921 at 19 Meadow End, one of
the Sheppard houses in the village. Mr Sheppard was regarded as the Lord
of the Manor and he owned all the land around Gotham, including two pits,
as well as most of the properties within the village. He also owned all of the
houses on Nottingham Road at that time.
Daisy’s mother was Alice Harriet Gibson nee Chamberlain and her father
was George William Gibson who worked as a miller at the Gypsum mines.
In 1922 Daisy’s family moved to 14 Nottingham Road, which was to be the
site of medical care in Gotham for the next 50 years. Daisy recalled that
Dr. James Jeffares was one of the first doctors to come over to Gotham
from Kegworth. At first he went to a house on Kegworth Road where the
front room was his consulting room but later transferred to 14 Nottingham
Road; henceforth called ‘Gibsons’.
Dr. Jeffares was highly respected for his gentle and generous treatment of
his patients. He owned a car and was regarded almost as a squire; men
would touch their caps when he passed. There were no fixed times for his
surgeries, but word soon got round that ‘the doctor was there’ with a
constant stream of visitors calling at the Gibson’s house, collecting
medicines, making appointments and leaving messages. There were no
telephones in those early days so the family rarely got a full night’s sleep.
Alice Gibson loved what she did and was totally selfless.
Known as Gotham’s own Florence Nightingale, she would get up in the
middle of the night to deliver a baby, sit with a sick patient or ‘lay out’ the
deceased. She was capable, eternally optimistic & cheerful and never
brought a cloud of misery home with her.
Daisy remembers her father asking one morning how a very sick lady was
doing. Her mother replied that the doctor had given her morphine and it
had done the trick; by morning she was sitting up in bed and having
30
breakfast even though she hadn’t been expected to last the night. George
often remarked that they should have a board outside the house saying:
Births Marriages & Deaths. After he retired, George Gibson became the
lollipop man at Gotham school and would often send Daisy to the shop to
buy two penn’orth of toffees for the children.
George and Alice Gibson
Daisy described the old building, which was initially used as the doctor’s
surgery, as a wash house - a horrible place at the back of the house.
Eventually a new place was built which was in an old stable. There was no
electricity or running water, (this had to be fetched from the pump at the
bottom of Kegworth Road) and because there was no waiting room, patients
had to sit in the house before seeing the doctor. Her mother was used to
having the house full at meal times.
Daisy was a frail child; she suffered with a bad chest and always had to
have flannel wrapped around her. The cost of her medicine was 3s.6d,
(17½p) a week and Doctor Jeffares offered to waive the charge in lieu of
rent and wages for Daisy’s mother; a valuable offer that she was pleased to
accept.
“I’d always got something wrong with me and when I was four I broke
my leg. I can’t remember much except that I had gone to an old lady’s
house because my mam had gone Christmas shopping. The old lady
was cleaning her spoons and I was helping her. She said: ‘come on
31
me duck, you’ve done a good job on them, let’s put them all away
now.’ It was then that I tripped over her mat and broke my leg.”
“Of course it caused a turmoil and me mam said the doctor would
have to come. I can’t remember much about it but he said ‘I’ll bring
our Jimmy’ (Dr. Jeffares’ son) and he said ‘he’ll mend it’ and it was
him who pulled my leg back into place. In those days broken bones
weren’t put into plaster, he did it with sandbags and splints. When
he pulled it I said ‘Ooh you bu**er’ and he said ‘Ah that’s relieved
you.’ Of course there were no bedpans in those days and because the
bone didn’t set properly I still have problems to this day.”
In addition to her other duties, Alice Gibson did all the dispensing. If a
patient saw the doctor and a particular medicine wasn’t in stock, they could
come back later; she would have it ready on the sideboard and the patient
would pay her. If Alice needed to go out and she knew that someone was
‘badly’ she would leave it on the front doorstep or get Daisy to deliver the
medicine. She wouldn’t just leave it, she’d say:
“They’ll want it before I get back.”
There were several large bottles of medicine on the sideboard including a
brown cough mixture and some red cherry medicine. Daisy said:
“I remember it ever so well, we’d just be having our tea and one of the
corks would blow off. It was good stuff. The doctor used to put a
measure in the bottles and me mam had to fill them up with water. It
was 3/6d a bottle and we had a sideboard full, we’d be having our tea
and some would call out, ‘Are you there Alice? I’ll come in and get
it’.”
“One poor man had to bring a sample on his way to work. He
knocked on mam’s door and said: ‘I’ve brought a sample of me water
because the doctor said he wanted one.’ It was a great big lemonade
bottle and it still had the lemonade label on it. Me mam said ‘He
won’t want all that,’ and he said: ‘Well you’ll have to empty it’.”
Dr. Jeffares was succeeded by Dr. Maynard Gerrard. Daisy remembers
him as an old fashioned doctor who came to Gotham three mornings a
week. He had three sons, John, Douglas and Patrick and would sometimes
bring them to the village. Alice Gibson would look after them while he saw
patients and Daisy recalls that they were very mischievous.
“They were little devils, they’d let the chickens out and Patrick were
a real lad, he’d have set the house on fire if you didn’t watch him.”
32
In the winter floods, Dr. Gerrard would keep a car on both sides of the
river. There was a raised pathway between Kegworth and Sutton
Bonnington which he would walk over. During the war, when petrol was
rationed, he would borrow George Gibson’s bike on a Wednesday afternoon
so that he could play golf.
Gotham resident Anita Sumner was born in February 1947 when there
were severe blizzards. Her mother had gone into labour, there were
complications during the birth and she began to haemorrhage. The
weather conditions prevented her getting to hospital so the midwife called
Dr. Gerrard and he walked through the snow from Kegworth to Gotham.
After the baby was born she was passed to her Auntie Joyce while Nurse
Green and the doctor attended to Anita’s mother. Nurse Green asked if was
a boy or girl and Joyce replied it was boy. Once they had made her mother
comfortable Nurse Green looked at the baby and remarked that that wasn’t
a boy, it was the umbilical cord. Anita chuckled that for half an hour she
was called Stuart and her aunt never lived it down. Things were very
different in those days; the midwife was puffing away on a cigarette all
through the delivery.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, Dr. Gerrard
took an assistant in Dr. Mary Wood. Daisy recalled:
“Me mam was paid two shillings a week by Dr. Gerrard and when Dr.
Wood came she had a fit and she raised it, not too much but even so
it was more. I can see her now, a little dark woman with black hair
and glasses; she was quite thin and she chain smoked, she had
brown all round her lips from smoking.”
In the old surgery there was a curtain between the doctor’s consulting room
and the waiting room and there was neither privacy nor confidentiality.
Anita remembers waiting to see Dr. Wood and hearing every word spoken
next door:
“All of a sudden Dr. Wood said: ‘Well, I can tell you Mrs. ... that you
are pregnant.’ We all knew before her husband did.”
After Dr. Gerrard retired, Dr. Brian Howard joined Dr. Wood in the
Kegworth & Gotham practice. It was an uneasy alliance and the turbulent
partnership between them was observed with amusement by the people of
Gotham. Although they were different as chalk and cheese, both had
similar stubborn personalities and they would fall out on an almost daily
basis.
Much to his annoyance, she would open all the windows to disperse her
cigarette smoke and he would complain bitterly to ‘the old so and so’ about
the cold draught. She believed that smoking was a remedy for stress. He
33
on the other hand loved his whisky and was known to prescribe a tot of the
amber nectar as a universal panacea.
“If there was anything wrong with you she’d tell you to have a ciggie
to calm you down and he used to tell you to have a whisky, he said it
would be far better for you; they just didn’t like one another and
clashed all the time.”
The terrible twosome are remembered as probably the most eccentric duo
in the history of the Gotham practice with Dr. Howard possibly having the
edge on his irascible partner. However he did not hesitate to turn out in
the middle of the night, whatever the weather, especially if a child was ill.
He was known as something of a skinflint and Daisy remembers him
wearing a very old cardigan with an enormous hole in the sleeve. Her
neighbour Ada called him a moth eaten old **** and told him to get it
mended or buy a new one. His acerbic reply was that it would let in a bit of
air thank you very much; but it was also a source of great hilarity between
doctor, patient and neighbour.
He once asked Alice Gibson where her tin opener was. She told him it was
in the drawer so he rummaged through it, opened a tin of whelks, took out
a fork and then ate the lot. Before he went into his surgery he said: “I’ll
make them smell!”
His eccentricity was observed with affection but, blunt almost to the point
of crudeness, he could easily offend the more refined of his patients.
Medication to settle an upset stomach was once described by him as
‘something to keep your guts still.’
Brian Howard was very fond of his model train set and was also fascinated
with trams. Daisy remembers that when he retired, his daughters
organised a surprise visit to the tram museum at Crich and included Daisy
and her friend Hilda in the celebrations:
“We had a lovely night. I can see him now; it was complete surprise
for him. He thought he was waiting for his girls to get off the tram
but when it arrived they all went running to him and told him he was
going to drive the tram, something he really loved to do. He put his
arms around them all, just like that film. It really touched me and I
thought, well he really loved them all.”
When Dr. Hoyte joined his old university friend at the practice in 1975, he
was welcomed by everyone in Gotham, but they were doubtful about the
role of his wife, who acted as his receptionist. Just as in Kegworth, he was
an extremely popular man and the one that patients wanted to see. They
were used to just turning up, then going in to see the doctor of their choice
34
and were now being encouraged by his wife to see someone else. This was
not popular with the patients but was, as with all change, soon accepted by
the majority.
“Dr. Hoyte was a lovely man but the trouble was, you couldn’t hear
what he said, he was so quietly spoken; he were lovely though, a
proper gentleman.”
The Women’s Institute organised a party every year to entertain the elderly
people of Gotham; this would include a stage performance with singing and
variety acts. Dr. Hoyte would don fancy dress and do a turn on the stage,
either as a solo act or with one of the Gotham ladies. He always had the
house roaring with laughter and wasn’t afraid to make a fool of himself.
Daisy reminisced:
“Dr. Hoyte did a turn at one party with Mary Hogg, they did ‘There’s
a Hole in my Bucket.’ Ooh he did, it went on and on, he was really
good, they both were, he used to love it, he made the night really.”
Dr. M.A. Gerrard’s Benevolent Fund
The Gotham Old People’s Benevolent Fund was set up by his widow.
As the name implies, it is for the benefit of the elderly people of
Gotham. The annual income from the fund is administered by a
committee consisting: The Vicar; two Churchwardens, the Chair of the
Parish Council and the Parish Clerk.
Proposals are put forward each year for consideration by the
Committee. In recent years, funds have been allocated for the Senior
Citizen’s Christmas Party, (£100); a trip on a canal barge, the cost of
hiring a coach for an outing to Skegness and for the fitting of ramps
for those residents who need wheelchair access to their houses, toilets
etc.
However the low interest rates in recent years have seen a fall in the
amount of interest paid out.
35
Dr. Gerrard – General Practitioner 1939 - 1958
Dr. Maynard Atkinson Gerrard was living and working in Leicester in 1939
when he heard that the Kegworth practice had become available. Medical
practices in those days were only available by private treaty and had to be
bought; if a doctor heard that a practice was vacant he seized the opportunity
to acquire it.
Kegworth House had been the premises of numerous physicians and
surgeons for almost a century
but its occupancy by Dr.
Gerrard, his wife Eva and their
three sons was destined to be
its final site as a medical
practice.
Throughout World War Two he
cared for the patients of
Kegworth, Gotham and
surrounding district
single-handed as well as the
evacuee maternity home at
Whatton House.
Kegworth House
Like his forebears, Dr. Gerrard did not have a receptionist and his wife
would man the telephone and deal with patients who called at the house.
The Post Office had the telephone exchange and on the occasions when she
needed to be out of the house with their three sons, she would ring the
exchange and ask them to take messages.
Several years ago, Dr. Doreen Stein spoke at length with Mrs. Gerrard and
she gave a fascinating insight into the role of a doctor’s wife during the war
and also the advent of the
National Health Service.
The following is taken
from a tape recording of
their meeting in which she
gave an interesting and
often amusing account of
her memories during this
challenging period of our
history, including the
arrival of 500 evacuees
from London in October
1940.
Whatton House
36
“Being a doctor’s wife was a job in itself. I remember the maternity
home at Whatton House. The women were brought up to
Loughborough when they were six months into the pregnancy. There
was a group of volunteers who were on call to bring them from
Southend and the East End of London. The nurses were marvellous,
lovely women; I corresponded with the Matron for many years. Then
there were the evacuees, particularly Mrs. Thompson. My boys
developed a remarkable cockney accent!”
Messages mostly came by foot in those days although the telephone was
increasingly coming into use.
“One night the telephone rang and my husband answered it. He was
saying: ‘Yes, yes, hmm, I see, well it sounds as though you need the
fire brigade, not a doctor.’ The woman said that she had taken her
child’s temperature and it was 110 degrees. He told her to put the
child in a cool bath and sponge him down and he would come
straight away. On another night a man rang from Shepshed and
said “I’m here and the buses have stopped running. Can you come
and fetch me?” He was very drunk and got short shrift.”
Dr. Gerrard’s surgery was situated at the rear of Kegworth House at the top
of the yard. The large waiting room was panelled and there were hard
benches lining the walls which were extremely uncomfortable. There was a
very large oak door leading to the consulting room which was entered down
two steep steps. Unfortunately the room was not soundproof and people
waiting to see the doctor would shuffle their feet awkwardly as they could
hear every word spoken between doctor and patient.
There was no bell to summon the next patient and if the waiting room was
empty, you would knock on the door. One lady remembers doing just that;
the door opened and she fell down the steps straight into the arms of the
locum. Both saw the amusing side and mutual dignity was swiftly
regained.
Mrs Gerrard continued with her reminiscences:
“There were three rooms at the top of the yard: the waiting room, the
consulting room and the dispensary. The dispenser would come and
dispense to everyone except the panel patients; they got theirs from
the panel. The club patients’ bottles were put out with a label with
all the details on and the private patients’ bottles were wrapped up.
These were put out in the shelter by the side door at the back.”
“Everyone was a private patient at that time. Only the workers
themselves were insured, their families were not so there was a club,
37
they paid for the wives and children. It was something like 2d for a
wife and one penny for each child every week.”
“The collector was Les Mills. He wasn’t an accountant but he worked
in figures and did the collecting in Kegworth and district and
possibly in Gotham. He did all the book-keeping he probably also
sent out the accounts for the private patients.”
“Being a doctor’s wife was certainly a full time job and there were
one or two hairy moments. There was a woman who lived up by the
bus station in Gotham and she had a very large family. She brought
the youngest child who was about two years old and she’d got her
hand trapped in the mangle. It was the worst thing! There were some
humorous incidents as well, there was a caller who was always
fighting and Mrs Gibson had to confront him on the doorstep.”
Like his predecessor, Dr. Gerrard held surgeries three times a week at
Gotham.
“The surgery was in that little house - Gibson’s Cottage – Mrs. Gibson
was wonderful. My husband sometimes took the boys, John, Patrick &
Douglas, to Gotham and Mrs. Gibson would look after them while he
did his surgery.”
Travelling between Kegworth and Gotham was sometimes problematic. The
road often became impassable due to floods & the doctor had to make
contingency plans.
“He had two bags, one maternity (they were all home deliveries in
those days) and one with case notes etc. Before the weekend – as
insurance – he would park the car on the other side, unless there was
a flood warning and he had time to get across. The water came up
very quickly and it was a long way round via Zouch.”
There was a raised pathway between Kegworth and Sutton Bonnington and
Mrs Gerrard would occasionally walk across the planks with the boys. In
the exceptionally severe winter of 1947 Dr. Gerrard often had to walk
through the blizzards to Gotham if a patient was very ill or there was a
difficult birth to attend.
The people in Kegworth have many fond memories of Dr.Gerrard and his
wife.
“He was the only doctor around here and Wednesday was his half
day. My father was a farmer and one Wednesday afternoon, he
chopped his hand with a chopper. Of course you never thought of
going to Casualty as you do now; it was pouring with blood and
38
needed stitching. My mum bandaged it up because he had to go
milking at four but because it was Wednesday and the doctor’s half
day, he didn’t go till the next day. Dr. Gerrard served all round, just
like the doctors do now.”
“Dr. Gerrard advised me to have the whooping cough vaccine for my
daughter, he said: ‘If you’ve seen a child with whooping cough then
you’ll take my advice and have it.’ Five years later my second
daughter was born and she caught it when she was about 7 or 8
months old. It frightened me because she began to choke. Dr.
Gerrard said: ‘If you’ve got any concerns, send for me straight away.’
Well, one night I was worried and he sent her into hospital. He didn’t
think there was anything seriously wrong with her but he was there
on the spot straight away, it was very reassuring.”
“My Dad was very badly wounded in the 1st World War. Dr. Gerrard
remarked that if everybody was like my father, he would be out of
work, because he was as tough as old teak.”
“He was very softly spoken, and had a good bedside manner; he came
out every time and didn’t mess about. I had anaphylactic shock due
to synthetic cream. He didn’t know the cause so he gave me an
injection of adrenaline. Of course we had to find out what it was.
Then, one Sunday morning, it happened again. Being across the road
from us he came straight across. It turned out it was a Walnut
Whirl.”
July 5th 1948 saw another piece of history being made with the introduction
of the National Health Service. This was born out out of a long-held ideal
that good healthcare should be available to everyone, regardless of wealth.
It was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan. For the first time hospitals,
doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together
under one umbrella organisation where medical care was free at the point
of delivery. The central principles were clear: the health service was to be
available to all, financed entirely from taxation, which meant that people
paid into it according to their means.
The new philosophy of the N.H.S. meant that suddenly every person in the
village was entitled to medical care, regardless of their ability to pay. Dr.
Gerrard found that he had too many patients, both private and club, for
one doctor to treat on his own. He was in urgent need of an assistant and
appointed Dr. Mary Wood.
Dr. Gerrard retired in 1958 but his memory lives on. Along with two of his
distinguished forebears, his name is immortalised with a village street –
Gerrard Crescent - named after him.
39
After he died, Mrs Gerrard set up a charity for the benefit of the old people
of Kegworth and Gotham. She bequeathed £1,000 to each village, the
interest to be distributed annually.
This dividend continues to provide valuable amenities for senior members
of the Kegworth & Gotham communities. In recent years, there has not
been any call for funds from Dr. M.A.Gerrard’s Kegworth Old Peoples’
Benevolent Fund but the account remains in the safe custody of the Parish
Council.
The people of Kegworth had enormous respect for Dr. Gerrard and his wife.
These final words demonstrate the warmth and esteem in which they were
held:
“He was a brilliant
man; he and his wife
knew everybody in the
village.”
“He was quite a
character. He was a
very charming man
but you didn’t cross
him; he was Irish and
had no time for fools.”
“He was a
churchwarden and a
very keen church
member. Sometimes
we would walk down
together on a
Sunday.”
“Dr. Gerrard was a
true gentleman and
his wife was a lovely
person, a real lady.
The whole family
mixed with the
village.”
Dr. Gerrard
40
Dr. Wood – First Woman General Practitioner in
Kegworth 1948 - 1973
Doctor Mary Wood has become a legend in Kegworth and the mere
mention of her name can produce conflicting responses from those who
knew her.
Her first occupation was as a lecturer in zoology at Newcastle University,
but she later decided to switch careers and realise her ambition to become
a doctor. She worked extremely hard to study medicine, financed her own
tuition at medical school and was admired and respected for her diligence
and determination.
She joined Dr. Gerrard in 1948, just as the National Health Service was
being introduced; the practice was becoming too large for one doctor so she
was taken on as an assistant. Mary lived with Dr. & Mrs Gerrard for four
years until she was able to build a house of her own; she was aware that
when Dr. Gerrard retired she could not remain at Kegworth House and it
was vital that she had somewhere to live. As his retirement approached she
built a surgery at the top of Mill Lane. This area was known as ‘The
Doctors’ although despite popular belief, this was not a reference to medical
doctors but to the doctors of the church and the school.
“Dr. Wood came in 1948 and, I’ll never forget this, my mother was the
first of her patients to die. She had cancer and there wasn’t the
terminal care in those days that there is nowadays, but she would call
regularly and took very good care of her. On her final visit she said ‘You
know this is the end?’ and that was it; she never forgot that day. We
lived in the shop then and she would frequently come in for 200 Players.
Whenever you came into her consulting room she would be puffing away,
but those were the days when smoking was supposed to be good for you.”
When Dr. Wood joined Dr. Gerrard it soon became apparent that she did
not suffer fools gladly. It was widely accepted that he had a better bedside
manner than his assistant; but her abruptness and lack of empathy was
more than compensated by her willingness to attend her patients, whatever
the time of day or night.
“Dr. Wood was a little less patient than Dr. Gerrard but I liked her. She
was a good doctor and if you called her in the middle of the night she
always came. My first child was born in Radmore nursing home in
Loughborough; he was born at 3.45 am and she was there nearly all
night which wouldn’t happen today. By that time Dr. Gerrard had
retired and she was on her own. My second boy was born at home and
Nurse Mills was the district nurse. Dr. Wood was quite cross with her
because she hadn’t called her in, she had wanted to be there as well.”
41
“She was very good to us as a family, I had nothing but admiration for
her; she was so determined to become a doctor and had no help from
anyone and I think that made her as she was. She put a lot of backs up
and she probably fell short on the bedside manner but she was dedicated
to what she was doing and very concerned about her patients’ health;
she was a spinster fighting for herself and did remarkably well building
the surgery. Doctors are human beings after all.”
Dr. Wood’s care and concern for her patients is legendary and there is a
fine line dividing the people who liked her and those who did not. But she
had a soft side and her compassion for her younger patients is remembered
with respect:
“My daughter fell on a path made of broken bricks and cut her head. Dr.
Wood came and told me to lay her on the sofa and to bring her to the
surgery in the afternoon so that she could stitch the wound. When I got
to the surgery, rather than me go in and watch, she told me to stay in
the waiting room and she had the nurse to help her; that was very
considerate of her.”
The acrimonious partnership she had with Dr. Howard was widely known
and she would always ask a locum to stand in for her when she was away.
On one occasion she returned from holiday and discovered that a patient
had been referred to a gynaecologist; a decision that she disagreed with and
promptly cancelled. According to her successors, Mary Wood was unable to
delegate and even in retirement would visit patients and question their
diagnosis and treatment.
An independent and forthright lady, she found it difficult to co-operate with
colleagues. The fact that both she and Brian Howard were of similar minds
and temperament did not help.
She would frequently disagree about medication prescribed by her
colleague and would throw it in to the fire. It was often said that if Dr.
Howard & Dr. Wood prescribed the same medicine, patients knew that they
would be alright.
“She liked people to be straight with her and she was up front with
them. She was a very heavy smoker: you’d go into her surgery and she
would have a cigarette puffing away. Her view was that drink killed
more people than smoking without a doubt.”
Mary’s premises on Mill Lane were welcoming and ambient:
“The waiting room which was incorporated in the bungalow was large
and airy. There was a large table in the middle of the room and there
were always flowers on it. I remember particularly some winter
42
flowering cherry blossom filling the room with perfume and I planted
one of these trees in my garden.”
Unfortunately her manner was abrupt, even harsh on occasions:
“She was always very direct in her views but she wanted the best for
everybody. My son was asthmatic and when she came to visit her
advice was: no heating in the bedroom, lino on the floor instead of
carpet, keep the windows open and when the weather was cold, wear
hat, gloves and socks in bed. Every time I saw her, anywhere in the
village, she would make a comment about my weight and that I was
no thinner than the last time she had seen me.”
“Dr. Wood said to my mum, ‘you’re eating too many potatoes and too
much chocolate’ and my mum said: ‘well if you get to 83 and can’t
eat what you like it’s a poor tale’.”
Many people have fond memories of Dr. Wood, describing her as the best
doctor that had ever practised in Kegworth. She worked 24 hours a day,
365 days a year and was particularly gentle with children. Mary always
kept a box of Smarties in her drawer and when a child went for an
immunisation she would administer the injection then ask what colour
sweet they would like.
One family was particularly grateful for her sensitivity:
“One New Year’s Day our young son cut his hand badly; he was trying
to help me bring the milk in, fell and carved a huge lump from his
palm. Mary came out and sent him to the children’s hospital. They
stitched it but being a toddler the stitches soon broke and his hand
became badly infected. I will always remember her sitting him in the
high chair and saying ‘Come on mother, let’s get some Fairy Liquid
and play bubbles.’ She came every day, dressing it, keeping an eye on
it and kept his hand moving. He has a scar but he can use his hand
and it’s all because of the care she showed and her persistence in
keeping his hand moving.”
She didn’t suffer fools gladly but if a patient was in trouble and had a
problem she did everything she could to help. Mary adored her ‘babies’ as
she called them and even after her retirement would enquire about them.
She had seen them all grow up and was genuinely interested.
“She knew our son was interested in electronics and just before he
went to university, she bought a new clock and asked him to set it up
for her; it was amazing.”
Dr. Wood retired in 1973
43
Dr. J.B. Howard
– General Practitioner from 1962 - 1984
Dr. Brian Howard trained at Manchester University Medical School, where
he met and became firm friends with David Hoyte. He graduated in 1946
but we do not have any record of his medical experience during the next 16
years.
Brian Howard joined Dr. Mary Wood’s practice in 1962. Several doctors had
worked with her previously, having aspirations of a partnership, but she
had not been willing to co-operate with them. His predecessor was Dr.
Hollingsworth and following his departure, Brian became her assistant.
After six months he broached the subject of becoming a partner and was
told that if he wanted a partnership agreement he would have to pay for it;
he had no option, either that or the sack. When this became a threat to his
position, he warned that he would report her to the General Medical
Council so forcing her hand. This was the beginning of an extremely
acrimonious alliance.
It is widely known that the two doctors did not get on. There were vehement
disagreements concerning diagnosis and treatment and the atmosphere
between them was uneasy. The relationship between them was so bitter
because they were similar in temperament; both being strong minded and
stubborn. The patients of the two villages watched with amusement as the
bickering continued, but the general view was that they were only human
and as long as they were doing their jobs properly they could be tolerated.
There was a visiting book for the villages of Kegworth and Gotham and
when a home visit had been requested Mary would write down only the
surname and address.
Dr. Howard would arrive at the patient’s home not knowing which member
of the family he was to see or what the problem was. Such was the hostility
between them that she would question the medication that he had
prescribed, confiscate it from the patient and destroy it.
One night he was doing a surgery at Gotham. One of his patients was a
parish councillor and Dr. Howard had to get something from the car for
him:
“As I walked through the waiting room an old lady said to me: ‘When
can we have a decent surgery?’ I said ‘We can’t afford it’. When I
returned the councillor said to me: ‘We offered to build you a new
surgery but Dr. Wood turned it down. If you would like me to re-open
the matter I willingly do so.’ That is how the new surgery came about
in Gotham.”
44
In 1973 Mary felt that she had been in practice long enough and decided to
take early retirement, giving Brian just six months to find new premises
and a new colleague.
It was then that he approached his old friend David Hoyte, offering him a
partnership in the practice. It was a happy coincidence that the Hoytes
were contemplating a move from Jamaica back to England. In the interim,
until Dr. Hoyte was able to return to the U.K., Dr. Doreen Stein stepped in
as Dr.Howard’s assistant.
Brian Howard was renowned for his diagnostic skills, particularly in
emergencies, acute abdomens etc. On one occasion he was called out to a
baby who was very unwell. He used to say that if a baby was crying, it
wasn’t too much to worry about but this child was lying limp and quiet. He
got her into hospital immediately where she was operated on and made a
complete recovery.
His partnership with Dr. Hoyte and Dr. Stein was a happy one although he
had his moments. He preferred the traditional ways of an old country
practice whereas Dr. Hoyte was very forward thinking; this sometimes
resulted in a degree of tension between them. Unlike his old friend, Brian
could be rather intimidating towards his colleagues, especially the younger,
more inexperienced ones; he would sometimes overshadow the trainee
G.P.s instead of allowing them to find their feet and develop valuable
experience. Regrettably this resulted in a disagreement between the two
men during the final year of his practice.
Brian Howard lived on Bridgefield and loved to ride his horse in the fields
on Long Lane. He was married with four daughters and was known to be
rather frugal. He felt that his wife and daughters wasted money using the
telephone excessively so had a slot machine phone installed at his home.
However his wife Mary would get round this by reversing the charges when
she called him at the surgery.
He was very enthusiastic about steam trains and tramcars, frequently
visiting the museum at Crich where he would spend the day driving trams.
He was also very keen on model trains and had a model railway installed at
home. It was fastened to the wall and ran around the room at table height.
Being the father of four daughters it was possibly wishful thinking.
Brian Howard enjoyed a good malt whisky and had a passion for real ale.
He would often visit the Red Lion on High Street and would not hesitate to
recommend certain brews to his patients or to comment on their choice of
the amber nectar:
“I was very ill with a painful ear infection and my husband had to
call him. He came to visit in the middle of the night and gave me an
45
injection. On his follow up visit he joked about the brand of whisky
we had in the kitchen. He said ‘It’s about time you treated yourself
to decent malt!’ It was a standing joke with him and he would
suggest his favourites.”
As well as owning a horse he was the proud owner of two dogs and they
accompanied him on all his home visits, sitting up on the back seat looking
like sentries. He also owned a mynah bird which could accurately mimic
his voice. When the Howard family went on holiday it was left in the care of
one of his patients.
“I always got on with the mynah bird and we would look after it
when they were away. At night we would let it out of its cage so it
could fly around. The bird was very jealous of my husband and if it
saw him give me a kiss he would attack my husband. If the
telephone rang he would say “Hellooo” and it sounded like a one
sided conversation; it really could have been Dr. Howard. The bird
ended up in an aviary at Twycross Zoo.”
Dr. Howard retired in 1984 but continued to hold “well baby clinics”
throughout Leicestershire.
He made many friends when in practice in Kegworth & Gotham and found
the people in both villages very good-natured. After his retirement he was
stopped many times in the street with the words:
“What did you have to retire for? We could talk to you!”
46
Joan Smith – Practice Nurse 1975 - 1993
Joan Smith was a Practice Nurse for nearly 18 years, working part time
during the latter years and was one of the first people to grant me an
interview for the compilation of this history of medicine in Kegworth;
describing the facilities available in the 1970’s.
Many people will remember the old Nottingham Road surgery in the years
between 1973 and 1990. The premises, extended from one to two cottages,
consisted of one very small waiting room, two consulting rooms and a flight
of stairs leading to the flat above where G.P. trainees stayed when on night
call duty.
Dr. Howard had a filing cabinet in his room, next to his table, and he would
get the papers and notes out for Dr. Hoyte. Space was very restricted and
blood tests had to be done in the bathroom, with the patient sitting on the
edge of the bath. In later years, a small extension was added to the
building providing space for an office and reception. There was no
appointment system and patients had to queue to see the doctor. Many
would arrive long before surgery time in the hope they would be seen earlier
and by the doctor of their choice.
The district nurse would call in every day for information regarding patient
visits and if the doctor required the nurse to call. The doctors would also
liaise with the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service concerning which patients
would benefit from meals on wheels. The meals came from the Slack &
Parr canteen in the early days while the W.R.V.S. was responsible for the
service. Later, when Social Services took on the role, the meals came from
one of the local schools.
When the W.R.V.S. was handling the service, volunteers were given long
lectures on how to advise patients: to eat the meal while it was hot (but not
too hot in case the patients burned themselves) and not to let the meal cool
down because of the risk of food poisoning. There was no way a volunteer,
having taken the meal to a person, could stand over them and watch it
being eaten. The volunteers also had to be covered by insurance; for
driving their cars and in case an accident occurred in the patient’s home,
e.g. if they were to trip and spill hot food over the patient. It all became
very complicated. Joan pointed out that it is admirable when a person
volunteers to help, but that they could not be put at risk, in case they were
sued.
Joan remembered when the practice moved to its new premises in Dragwell
in 1990.
“It was a very exciting time, moving from the old premises to Orchard
Surgery. There was a bigger office and reception space. District
47
Nurses and Health Visitors had their own rooms and the consulting
rooms were larger and better equipped. The practice nurses had
their own room and there was a spare room so that if, for example, a
patient was having an asthma attack, he or she could sit and use the
nebuliser in privacy and peace. There was also the facility to hold
asthma, diabetic and smoking advice clinics.”
With the advent of computers, much more time was spent entering
information into the computer than in former days when written notes were
so much more important. In these early days of computerisation, there was
a certain degree of caution and much back up of information. For example,
where immunisation was concerned, notes would be placed in a computer
file, in the patient’s own notes and in the nurses’ filing system.
Joan went on to say that no two days were alike.
“Living in the village, there was a tendency for people to stop you in
the street with medical queries and it was a question whether you
had the knowledge to deal with these queries or whether you should
refer them to someone more competent. Dr. Howard had an ideal way
of dealing with this problem. If stopped in the street with a medical
question he would say: ‘Yes – just a minute, drop your trousers.’ He
soon put a stop to that!”
“Dr. Howard, who had lived in the village for so long, knew all the
families and their histories. Nowadays, doctors no longer have the
privilege of that information, plus they have so many more patients
and are very limited in time. In times past, doctors would hold two
surgeries a day and make home visits as well as night calls, which
was a huge workload for the partners. G.P s no longer do night
visits; these are handled by N.H.S. Direct. Doctors today spread their
workload more and all have another special interest, e.g. diabetes;
asthma; accident attendance. A lot more is expected of them. Also,
today’s patients have a lot more information at their disposal,
increasingly from the internet, so that knowledge will sometimes
prompt the patient to think that the doctor is wrong.”
Joan described the dilemmas that doctors faced in these circumstances.
“Doctors had this hanging over their heads, that they may be
required to justify a diagnosis and treatment. On the other hand,
when doctors – particularly in hospitals – explain what could go
wrong with any particular treatment, this can be alarming for the
patient. Younger patients, particularly young mothers, are more
assertive these days and are prepared to stick up for their children.
This is good to a certain extent but it can make the doctor/patient
relationship strained at times.”
48
Joan then commented about her own role within the practice in the 1980’s.
“Practice nurses have much more responsibility and will often do
tasks that the doctor would perform. Formerly, a doctor would say
to a nurse, ‘Watch me doing this.’ If the nurse was capable of the
task she would then have to go off and do it herself. Nowadays,
everyone has to go on courses to learn how to take bloods, give drugs,
and give treatment for diabetes and asthma. This widens the scope
and helps the doctor a lot. For example a person with heart disease
can now have an annual check-up with the nurse which, unless there
is anything wrong, saves the doctor’s time. With a lot of these
conditions, the nurse is more than capable of doing this and in many
cases, knows the patient better than the doctor.”
There were other issues to be addressed:
“Naturally there has to be back-up if problems are found, e.g. with
cervical smears, chest x-rays, there has to be the facility to do
something about it. The hospitals have to have the staff and
equipment to deal with these problems.”
“It’s all very well having people find out what is the matter, e.g. chest
problems, leg ulcers etc., but money has to be spent to deal with these
problems. Do you treat a bad leg ulcer; an asthmatic, a diabetic or is
it better for someone with a hernia to have an operation, or someone
with varicose veins or a person who needs bypass surgery?”
Joan reflected on her time working in the practice; that it was a very
friendly team and she enjoyed her role in that team. She also reminisced
about those early days:
“Before, it was just Dr. Hoyte, Dr. Howard and Dr. Stein and then, all
of a sudden, there were keen, newly qualified doctors coming in with
new ideas, they were a breath of fresh air.”
49
Dr. Hoyte – Part one
David Augustus Noel Hoyte was born on 29th March 1923 in the British
Caribbean island of St. Lucia; the second son of Dr. Ralph Hoyte and Alice
Hoyte. Originally from Trinidad, Dr. Hoyte senior was a medical
practitioner in Ghana, West Africa. He was a classical Greek & Latin
scholar and won a Trinidad Exhibition Scholarship to study medicine in
Edinburgh. David’s mother died when he was very young and in 1928,
aged just five, he was sent to England to live with an old friend and
colleague of his father (also a doctor) and his housekeeper. There were no
other children in the household and the housekeeper became like a second
mother to him. David and his wife remained in touch with her right up to
the time of her death.
David was educated at Farnworth Grammar School and in 1941 he went to
the Manchester University Medical School. It was here that he met Brian
Howard and they became firm friends, a friendship that lasted many years.
His greatest interest was in anatomy but he also concentrated on his junior
hospital jobs. David won many prizes while at medical school and in 1946
graduated as Batchelor of Medicine and Batchelor of Surgery (Honours).
After qualifying he became a House Surgeon at Manchester Infirmary and
then Resident Casualty Officer at Stockport Infirmary.
In 1947 he joined the British Army as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical
Corps serving in the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
and with no. 40 Commando the Royal Marines. This was followed by a
period at the British Military Hospital in Nicosia. He also spent time
serving as a medical officer in Palestine.
David left the army in 1949 and returned to Manchester Medical School
where he specialised in anatomy. It was here that he met Vera, a qualified
nurse. They married and had three children: Christine, Ralph & Frances.
He moved up through the ranks at Manchester University as Demonstrator,
Assistant Lecturer and ultimately Lecturer in Anatomy. Between 1953 and
1959 he was a Captain and later Major of Officers and Second in Command
of 126th (Lancashire) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps and then
Captain R.A.M.C. (Territorial Army) Reserve.
In 1959 he was awarded, by Manchester University Medical School, his
Doctor of Medicine and a gold medal for his thesis: Certain Aspects of the
Growth of the Skull. The Registrar asked David if he really wanted the
medal. An inherently polite man he replied that he would. As the
university did not have any medals they had to strike one specially.
In 1960 he was invited to join the University of Jamaica in Kingston where
he became Professor of Anatomy and Chair of the Anatomy Department; a
50
post that he held for fourteen years. He was a distinguished and highly
respected doctor and during his time at the University, published many
papers on numerous subjects including: anatomy; neuroanatomy and
special senses; histology, embryology and anthropology. He also
specialised in bone growth and the anatomy of the skull in small mammals.
Additionally he held the posts of Honorary Secretary & Director of the
Rotary Club of Kingston, Jamaica, and Chairman, Group Committee of
Jamaica College Boy Scouts Group. During his time at the University of
Jamaica he became Public Orator and it was in this role that he presented
honorary degrees to distinguished scholars and statesmen; these were
awarded for service to the community and for excellence in their chosen
subjects. One recipient is reputed to have been Emperor Haile Selassie of
Ethiopia.
As well his academic duties and military service he spent intervals in
Ghana, assisting his GP father in a country practice.
It is well documented that David’s tenure at the university was an
enormously rewarding one to all. Doctor Hoyte had become Professor Hoyte
and it was during this time that the university was progressing from a
College of London University to full independent status. David was ViceDean of the medical faculty and a member of numerous committees; it was
his wisdom and patience that resolved many conflicts during this transition
phase. He was a gentleman of the highest intelligence and integrity, a
diplomat and an inspiration to students and colleagues alike. Passionate
about what he did, he was admired and respected by all who came into
contact with him and his research has been recognised by his counterparts
around the world.
1973 was to be a year of change for David and Vera. Mary Wood had
retired from general practice in Kegworth and Dr Howard was faced with
the prospect of finding alternative premises and a new partner. Brian
Howard had stayed in touch with his university friend throughout David’s
time in the West Indies and approached him with the invitation to join him
in the Kegworth practice.
The Hoytes were at this time considering a return to England as their
children had moved back to the U.K. to continue their education. David
was looking for a change of direction in his medical career and they both
missed their children. The invitation from David’s old friend was to be the
springboard for that change.
And so began another chapter in the history of medicine in Kegworth.
51
52
Caroline Anderson
Nicholas Foster
Nigel Cartwright
Helen Eglitis
Clare Pollock
Orchard Surgery
The Dragwell
Kegworth
Derby
DE74 2EL
Tel Enquiries: 01509 672419
Tel Appointments: 01509 674919
Fax: 01509 674196
An Apple a Day
Part Two
A History of the
Kegworth & Gotham
Medical Practices
53
Dr. Hoyte Part Two:
- General Practitioner 1974 - 1993
Dr. Hoyte’s return to England was delayed for several months; his
students in Kingston had to complete their final exams and there was a
period of notice to be served before he could be released from his contract
as Professor at the university. During that interval, Dr. Stein returned as a
locum to work with Dr. Howard.
One of his first tasks on arrival in Kegworth was to purchase the cottage
adjacent to Dr. Howard’s surgery on Nottingham Road. These two
properties were converted into one and became the premises of the
Kegworth practice for the next 15 years; they would be witness to enormous
changes in healthcare, not only in Kegworth but throughout the country.
As he had been out of general practice for some time Dr. Hoyte worked
diligently, going through the notes of each patient registered, analysing
their records and where he was unclear about their situation; would see
them and get their health investigated.
Part of his updating of the surgery was to make it a teaching practice and
he began to take in junior doctors who wished to qualify as general
practitioners. G.P. trainees, or Registrars as they are now known, have
completed their medical degrees and are ready to undergo tuition in
specialised areas. To qualify, they must complete three years study in
hospital and one in general practice. This training period includes: learning
consultation skills; building a rapport with the patient, asking relevant
questions and importantly, how to listen to the patient. In addition there
are regular tutorials as well as attending various courses. At the end of the
four year programme the registrar is required to sit examinations and if
successful will become a member of the Royal College of General
Practitioners
As the trainer, Dr. Hoyte was responsible for the overall supervision of the
trainees, including surgery consultations and home visits. He and his wife
Vera took a great personal interest in the students, entertaining them at
their home and helping them to develop and move on. This continuous
updating of the standard of medicine in Kegworth took it from a country
practice to one with a standard of excellence.
He went on to become a Senior Lecturer in anatomy at Nottingham
University Medical School where he was immensely popular. He had
dramatic teaching skills and did not hesitate to make a fool of himself in
the process. He could act up the disorders of the skeleton, imitating the
physical characteristics of a condition: e.g. the way a person walked; if they
had suffered a stroke, had syphilis or any other condition that made a
54
difference in the way they behaved or walked. He could command the
attention of his students and his lectures were always full, such was his
influence on them that he was never forgotten.
One patient recalls:
“I had to go to Queens Medical Centre once to see a cardiologist; he
was looking through my notes and said: ‘Dr. Hoyte! How is he?’ The
consultant had been one of his students.”
Many trainees remembered Dr. Hoyte as their tutor and mentor:
“During my 6 months in Kegworth and Gotham I got to know him and
respect him as a doctor, a teacher and a warm person who I admired
greatly.”
One remembers two periods under his tuition:
“He taught me anatomy when I was an undergraduate at Nottingham
Medical School; from 1977 – 1979 and then again from 1984 – 1987
when I was on the Nottingham GP training scheme. He was an
extremely intelligent man who inspired others to work hard and
aspire to his knowledge. Such inspirational teachers are few and far
between. He linked his skills and knowledge to the traditional,
caring, loving family doctor that he helped to train for General
Practice. His skills and attitudes were qualities all doctors should
aim for.”
Another student, in the early days of his medical studies, remembers his
first encounter with Dr. Hoyte:
“Dan Hoyte was frequently heard before being seen. I heard the
mellifluous incantation: ‘levator labii superioris alaeque nasi.’ The
voice coming from behind was a combination of Paul Robeson and Sir
John Gielgud and once heard was never again ignored. The best
teachers are role models and he personified most things that one
wanted to be. He was a gentleman of the old school, a man of
enormous intelligence and integrity with a passion for what he did
best, which was to think deeply and widely and expound with delight
on the mysteries that his intellect revealed. Since that first day
when I turned around and saw him standing there, looking like the
fount of all wisdom, I have been in awe of him.”
The Elvis Muscle! The ‘levator labii superioris alaeque nasi’ is
translated from Latin: the ‘lifter of the upper lip and of the wing of the nose’
and has the longest name of any muscle in an animal. It dilates the nostril
and elevates the upper lip, enabling one to snarl. Elvis Presley was famous
55
for his use of this facial expression, earning it the nickname ‘Elvis Muscle’.
Its long name can make it hard to remember, so a useful mnemonic is:
Little Ladies Snore All Night.
David Hoyte brought out the very best in everybody: students, fellow
doctors and colleagues, encouraging them to stretch themselves and
progress to other things. Without actually suggesting it, he would generate
confidence, sow seeds in their minds and they would think: ‘I could do
this’ and go on to broaden their careers. It was an extraordinary quality to
have, he was a facilitator.
In 1975, as the practice continued to grow, Drs. Howard and Hoyte decided
that two partners were no longer sufficient to run it efficiently. Local
doctors had to do all their night calls and weekend work, in addition to the
day to day running of the surgery. A doctor on call could be called out
several times a night, but would still need to be at his desk at 8.30 the
following morning. It was then that they invited Dr. Stein to join them as a
partner.
Doctor Hoyte was meanwhile continuing his quest to modernise the surgery
and to make it a more scientific practice. Health care was slowly changing
with Preventative Medicine becoming an important part of that care. The
cervical smear test system had been introduced, more staff had been
recruited and the surgery at Gotham was expanding. Until then it had
been run separately as a small unit with the nurses doing all the
dispensing and reception work. Once staff other than nurses had been
recruited it was brought under the umbrella of the Kegworth team with
joint practice meetings and more interaction between the two practices.
He also began to gradually overhaul the clerical side of the practice. Dr.
Howard had been writing all his hospital referral letters by hand and
practice nurse Joan Smith would do all the filing in addition to her nursing
duties. Now Dr. Hoyte required secretarial staff for typing the letters,
handling the replies and co-ordinating all the correspondence; he needed
the practice to be running efficiently and professionally.
As the number of staff increased, so the space at the Nottingham Road
surgery decreased and it was imperative that alternative premises should
be acquired. The airy bungalow that Dr. Wood had built was now a private
property. Dick Sibson, the Chair of Kegworth Parish Council, had been
lobbying Leicestershire County Council and the Health authority since the
1970’s but it was to be many years before relocation would be possible.
Further changes came about in March 1985 when Dr. Hoyte invited Sister
Rosie Peters to join the practice. He saw a new and exciting role for her;
not as a district nurse but as a nurse practitioner - a position that he had
developed.
56
The management of medicine was also changing. Until then it had been the
custom for Dr. Hoyte to host a practice meeting at his home in West Leake
every Monday. This was a teaching meeting and an opportunity to review
what had happened in the previous week. It was also a time for discussion
about anything coming up in the following week that needed thought and
planning, plus any new ideas.
These meetings were extremely useful to all concerned, particularly for the
partners and the G.P. trainees but they had to be curtailed in the late
1980’s. Times were changing and the doctors were obliged to discuss the
business arrangements of the practice, including finance; so the meetings
were relocated to the surgery as the ‘Monday Business Meeting’.
Kenneth Clarke was Minister of Health from 1988 to1990. It was a time
when there were major reforms to the National Health Service. Medicine
was now a business, so the clinical and practice meetings became business
meetings. The practice of general medicine became a medical business;
money was important and the government was setting targets that had to
be achieved in order to receive funding. This meant that individual health
authorities had to manage their own budgets and buy healthcare from
hospitals and other health organisations. The authorities became NHS
Trusts, independent organisations with their own managers, making the
health service more responsive locally. Fortunately the Kegworth practice
was well along the road with these innovations.
One of the first things that the government introduced was the cervical
smear programme. The Kegworth programme was already up and running
so could now receive funding for what had been operational for many years.
The next was the immunisation and vaccination of babies, but 90 - 95% of
this target had already been achieved by practice nurse Joan Smith.
A further change affecting General Practice was the introduction of the new
G.P.Contract in 1990. This had been reviewed, negotiated, modified and
reviewed repetitively throughout the previous decade. The White Paper in
1987 had laid out ministers’ goals and the Government was becoming
convinced that firm negotiation would be necessary if they were to be
achieved. Quality was to be raised through competition and financial
incentives and patients were to be given better information about services.
Whereas previous changes had altered the structure of practice, those of
1989/90 were more concerned with the process of care.
In 1991 the government brought out a White Paper stating that all patients
over the age of 75 should be offered, in writing, an annual health check at
home. Once again Kegworth was ahead of the game. Under the guidance
and authority of Dr. Hoyte, Sister Rosie Peters and Dr. Caroline Anderson,
this had been set up in 1985; so his vision for the future had again
achieved results.
57
David Hoyte was a very patient man and formally polite, preferring to
address his staff by their status rather than by christian names. He retired
in 1993, three years after the practice’s move to Orchard Surgery on
Dragwell, but he continued to teach anatomy part time at Nottingham
University Medical School until his final illness forced him to retire.
Dr. Hoyte died on 23rd August 2004
from multiple system atrophy. He
was 81.
His life as a village GP had been
fascinating and enriching; to him and
to all he encountered. He
communicated his belief, to
generations of students, that a
thorough understanding of anatomy
was vital to the practice of medicine.
He was an inspired and inspiring
teacher; erudite, precise and not
above acting the clown to get his
point across and is remembered with
affection and respect by colleagues
and former patients. The personal
tributes to him are countless and the
following are just a few:
“He was immensely popular, loved by old
people and children alike. At Gotham they
used to queue up to see him. When one
elderly patient died, on her shelf at home
were all the medicines and tablets he had
prescribed for her. She hadn’t taken them
but had come back every two weeks to get a
fresh prescription, not because she was ill,
but to see Dr. Hoyte, and for a chat in the
waiting room, no other reason. It was a
social occasion for her, as it was for many
others.”
“We could not have had a finer quality of
care, compassion, help and support
anywhere. He listened in a patient way.”
“Everybody wanted to see him and certain
people wanted to be the last patient,
58
because they knew that if there was nobody in the queue after them they
would have the advantage of having him for half an hour or more. In fact
it was because of the uneven work load between the doctors that it was
necessary to bring in the appointments system, so that it wasn’t a case of
one doctor having a fairly light load and Dr. Hoyte having an overload.”
“Dr. Hoyte was lovely and came to visit you at the house. I had my first
heart attack when I was 54. He was always so good to me but his wife
was a bit of a dragon, she used to protect him. She meant well but it was
very difficult to get past her. I had my heart attack on a Friday night. It
was late and in those days, you never thought of ringing an ambulance
like they do now. My husband rang through and she said ‘is it urgent?’
She tried to persuade us we didn’t need a doctor but he did come and he
sent me into the Queen’s.”
“He showed such care and treated his patients extremely well. We often
discussed teaching – I remember this comment very clearly about his
advice to his students: ‘If a worried mother comes in with her sick baby –
you diagnose and treat the child. A day or so later she returns saying the
child is no better. Do not dismiss her and treat her as a fussy mother –
mothers want their babies to be well. Question your diagnosis – you are not
always right’!”
“I knew an old lady who was 94. Dr. Hoyte went to visit her and she said
to him: ‘I bet you miss all your relatives in Africa don’t you?’ and of course
he cracked up. The last time I saw him we’d gone for a walk round Leake,
up in the hills and we met him coming down. He stopped and spoke to us
and said ‘Enjoy your walk.’ That was the last time I ever saw him, he was
a true gentleman.”
“He did have a charming bedside manner, it was a big loss when he died, I
thought very highly of him.”
Many patients will remember that, without fail, he always wore a tie, no
matter what the season. It is said that he once confronted a junior doctor
in the practice who had arrived for surgery not wearing a tie and insisted
that in future one must be worn.
There is an interesting explanation: during his time at the University of
Jamaica, formal day dress was a tailored, open necked shirt. Shortly after
his appointment at the Kegworth practice he made a home visit to an
elderly patient who was hard of hearing. On opening the door she found
herself looking at a dark skinned man wearing an open necked shirt. She
assumed he was from the gas board and that he had come to read the
meter. Her deafness meant she could not understand the purpose of his
visit. Despite Dr. Hoyte’s assertion that he was her doctor she insisted on
showing him where the gas meter was.
59
David Hoyte’s Obituary.
Written by his daughter, Dr. Christine Hoyte,
And published in the British Medical Journal
60
A Memorial Service celebrating the life of David Hoyte was held in
St. Andrews Church Kegworth on19th March 2005
61
The Doctor’s Wife – Vera Hoyte
It is said that behind every successful man there is a supportive woman
who generously, if sometimes reluctantly, has to stand in the wings while
her husband takes centre stage. Vera Hoyte was at the head of that
category. Fiercely protective of her husband, she worried that patients
were taking advantage of him which, to a certain extent, they were.
He was a gentleman physician with the ultimate bedside manner and he
had the rare quality of listening, with full attention, to his patients. He was,
without doubt at that time, the doctor to see.
Patients left his consulting room clutching not just a prescription, but hope;
the assurance that whatever the problem, it would be dealt with efficiently
and to the very best of his ability. People would be queuing out of the door
to see him and it was due to this imbalance of doctor/patient ratio, that it
became vital for the introduction of an appointments system.
Many people have reflected that Mrs Hoyte was protective to the point of
rudeness; that if she decided you didn’t need to see the doctor, you didn’t
see him. The reason was simple. Vera was devoted to her husband; he was
immensely popular and she was doing her very best to protect him.
“People came and he gave them time, she didn’t see much of him. He
would be upstairs working in his study at home and she was his
protection. He could never have been so generous and kind without
her to support him. People forget that; it was through her that he
was able to be the person he was.”
“Every week at Dr. Hoyte’s house, there was a teaching meeting to
review the work of the practice; what had happened that week and if
there was anything coming up that needed to be thought about, fresh
ideas. Vera always provided lunch for us.”
One of the G.P. registrars said:
“I really enjoyed being a trainee at Kegworth, particularly the Friday
morning tutorials at his house and Vera’s tea and cakes. That’s just
what being a trainee should be about.”
A former member of the practice team remembers the social occasions
when David and Vera entertained their colleagues at home.
“The Hoytes invited the whole practice to a Christmas party at their
home every year; the staff had the most unusual and ingenious fancy
dress outfits. There was always a summer gathering in their garden
as well.”
62
Perhaps the most appropriate accolade to the wife of this successful
professor and physician comes from a former colleague at the University of
West Indies:
“Overlooked by the Blue Mountains, David and Vera’s house on the
campus was a place of welcome, always full of children, friends, dogs
and books. It was a place of laughter, comfort and welcome; big cool
verandas where more books and paintings overflowed from the house
and a garden full of shrubs and flowers. It was that sort of house,
with dignified David, efficient Vera and their family and always that
welcome with open arms.”
Dr. Hoyte with his family in the West Indies
63
Dr. D.W. Stein - General Practitioner 1973 - 1993
While researching the history of the practice I was fortunate to talk several
times and at length, with Dr. Doreen Stein. She was able to give me a very
personal memoir of her twenty years as a general practitioner in Kegworth:
the changes in medicine and technology and also the increasing
intervention of the government in the day to day running of a medical
practice.
When Dr. Stein and her husband moved to Kegworth, they had a young
family and she made a conscious decision not to continue in practice while
they were growing up. Her life however, was not to be restricted to all
things domestic. A doctor who was living at the Wymeshead was known to
Dr. Stein through her lecture tours. Dr. Powell-Heath, although a doctor of
medicine, did not work in general practice but was involved with children’s
work for the local authority.
She contacted Doreen as soon as she arrived in the village, and handed
over the role of District Commissioner for the Girl Guides. Dr. Stein’s
connection with the Guiding Association was to continue for many years.
Another of Dr. Stein’s interests was to be part of an adult education group
project on the history of Kegworth. One of her assignments was to contact
Dr. Douglas Bedford. She remembers visiting him at The Hermitage and
described him as a grand old man, very stout and sitting in a large
armchair.
He regaled her with fascinating accounts of the history of his house and of
other houses in the village associated with medicine. In Norman times, The
Hermitage was known to be resting place for pilgrims. There was a Saxon
burial mound in the field next to the Hermitage and many old stones were
to be found in the grounds. The house itself dates back to Henry VIII with
oak beams, panelling and large original fireplaces.
He told her that there was a large malt house on the High Street opposite
Kegworth House; there were seven public houses in the village and an
abundance of drunken behaviour. He had another story relating to
Kegworth House, which had been the surgery and home of many village
doctors for several generations. A former resident had been a peer of the
realm and was said to have kept a harem of slaves in the cellar of the
house. He was the last member of the peerage to be judicially executed.
Dr. Stein’s first re-introduction to general practice was as a locum for Dr.
Wood.
“Opinion is split about Dr. Wood. Most thought she was absolutely
wonderful and others couldn’t stand her. She didn’t suffer fools
64
gladly but it wasn’t just that, I think she saw herself as the Queen of
Kegworth; she was very possessive about her patients. Shortly after
Dr. Howard was first appointed, she went on holiday and she thought
that he was too new to leave in sole charge of the practice so she
asked me to do a locum.”
“She couldn’t delegate and she couldn’t retire either. She always
had a cigarette burning, this was in spite of the fact that a great big
research programme was going on about doctors and smoking, which
really proved that smoking was the cause of lung cancer. She didn’t
take part in that, or if she did, she took part as one of the doctors
who continued to smoke, her own bit of research.”
Following Mary Wood’s retirement, Dr. Stein returned to the practice as
locum to fill the gap between Mary leaving and Dr. Hoyte becoming free
from his post in Jamaica, which was around ten months later. Eventually,
both Dr. Howard and Dr. Hoyte decided that the practice had expanded
sufficiently that two doctors were no longer enough to keep the surgery
running efficiently. The situation demanded another doctor in the practice
and they had no hesitation in offering her a partnership.
This came as a very pleasant surprise to her and she was astonished that
they had decided to have someone of their own generation as the third
doctor, rather than a younger person, and she was delighted to accept.
Brian Howard had had a very bad experience with Mary Wood but both
partners wanted to have a woman doctor again. Brian had worked well
with Doreen before and was confident that he could work with her again.
At the time she was working in Leicester General Hospital and it was really
not satisfactory for her to continue there. Dr. Howard was very fair to her
and when he offered the partnership, it was as an equal partner, rather
than a junior. This is not something that happens in all practices.
“He was very generous in that way. I loved the work and I loved the
partnership as well, it was a very happy practice most of the time.
We had lovely receptionists and they were expected to treat patients
with respect and to do their best for them. In some practices,
receptionists were known to enquire about the patient’s condition,
ask why they had to see the doctor and then tell them that their
symptoms didn’t merit seeing the doctor. Of course they had no right
to say that and it didn’t happen at Kegworth.”
There are fond memories of those early days when it became a teaching
practice. One or two of the trainee doctors lived in the flat upstairs. The
bath downstairs was retained for that purpose; it came in useful when
there were electricity problems in West Leake. Dr. Hoyte came over to have
a bath if there was no hot water at home.
65
Dr. Stein remembers the introduction of new protocols in the 1970’s to
improve the practice of medicine; preventative programmes such as cervical
smear tests, breast examination and blood pressure checks.
“These were not part of the work at all before, we did a lot of home
visits and treatment has advanced enormously since then; treatment
for high blood pressure was mercury injections which are quite toxic
but they do work as a diuretic. They were the only treatment we had
available. We also had to do injections for pernicious anaemia, liver
injections, awful, really thick painful injections in peoples’ bottoms.
This was before they had discovered how to purify and manufacture
vitamin B 12.”
“Things are very different today, I’m not sure whether I like it or not;
it’s much fairer to the doctors in a way because it was very long
hours of work and sometimes 70 or 80 hours during the busy periods;
we didn’t have hours, we worked until the work was done.”
There was one particularly difficult time during a flu epidemic. It was early
spring, Dr. Howard was on holiday and Dr. Stein had the whole practice,
Kegworth and Gotham to look after. She remembers that at 10pm one
night she had to give up, she just couldn’t go on visiting any longer even
though she had not finished all the visits for the day.
“I just hoped that the ones I hadn’t done were not urgent; it was very
difficult, you couldn’t do the job properly under those circumstances,
and if you did have an emergency call, we just couldn’t do the
surgery. In those days, people were considerate in Kegworth because
they knew us as people and they knew that we had to work the next
day, so they didn’t call us out unless they were really desperate,
except the occasional drunk.”
“In those days, older people especially associated hospitals as the
place where people died so they were frightened to go to hospital.
There was so little effective treatment available in their lifetime. We
didn’t all live to the great old age that we do nowadays, but we live
now to get all the disabilities of old age, Alzheimer’s disease,
fractures and osteoporosis.”
Dr. Stein commented on the strict guidelines issued by the government;
that consultation times should be limited to 15 minutes. However she
emphasised that no two patients were alike and that flexibility and
discretion was paramount.
“We worked sometimes as counsellors, I’ve had people who’ve come to
see me in tears because a marriage was breaking down and it would
be quite wrong to exclude that person because she wasn’t physically
66
ill but was just in distress. After all, distress can lead to illness and
that was part of our remit, not just to cure them but to comfort them
as well.”
“I don’t think that 10 – 15 minutes for a consultation is long enough,
it’s not one rule for everybody, some people need to have a full
examination, or they need you to spend time getting the story,
finding out, because listening to what the patient says is half the
business of getting a diagnosis and you may have to tease it out of
the person. I’m afraid some of my patients had to wait occasionally
because I took as long as was necessary.”
“I remember that in the practice I was in before I came to Kegworth,
there was some sort of dispute and my partner asked: ‘What do you
expect of a doctor?’ The grandmother of the family said:
‘Satisfaction, we expect to be satisfied,’ and that was always my
principle; that I wanted to leave the patient feeling they’d got what
they needed, what they wanted.”
When St. Lucia became independent in 1979, Dr. Hoyte lost his British
citizenship. He was due to chair an international conference on anatomy in
Rome and realised he had lost his British status and had no passport. Dr.
Stein wrote to the Home Office on his behalf to get his citizenship reinstated. She remembers that he got up at 4am; drove to London and
joined a very long queue outside the passport office. However, when the
office opened at 9am he was told that he had gone to the wrong place.
“In the end it was Ken Clarke who helped him out, I think he had a
temporary passport. It was a time when the state of the passport
office came up in parliament. Questions were asked in the House of
Commons, it was disgraceful and part of the xenophobia of this
country. He had a real struggle to get to Rome.”
At one time, all the doctors lived in the village but none of them lives in
Kegworth now. In those days, if people had an emergency they would arrive
at the doctor’s house for help. All three partners used to see patients at
their home. Dr. Stein remembers one weekend when a lad who was
working on a farm had been bitten by a boar. He came to her house and
she stitched his wound on the kitchen table. People would often go to her
house in the evenings when she wasn’t on duty.
Dr. Stein, along with colleagues and members of the public, gave valuable
assistance at the scene of the air accident in Kegworth in 1989. Her
presence was also requested at two further plane incidents:
“I was called to another crash. It happened at one of the closed coal
mines in the Coalville area, it was a mail plane from Northern
67
Ireland. I don’t know what had happened to it but it had just fallen
out of the sky and they needed a doctor to certify death. The local
police doctor wasn’t available so I drove out there.
“It was a long way and I was driving with a map in my hand to find
where this former coal mine was but they had died, all three were
dead in their seats. I don’t think that one got so much publicity
because it wasn’t on the scale of the Kegworth crash.
“I was called out another time but I wasn’t needed, it was at the
airport, a plane had come down in one of the fields.”
Dr Stein retired in 1993 and was succeeded by Dr Helen Eglitis. She
continued to live on Whatton Road, Kegworth for many years and was
active, particularly with the Quaker Community. Sadly she died in
December 2013 aged 91, but her medical legacy continues with a son and
grandson who are doctors.
October 1990 Doctors Caroline Anderson, Phil James, David Hoyte,
Nicholas Foster and Doreen Stein
68
The Practice Manager from 1978 - 2000
Isobel Beynon began work at the Kegworth surgery in 1978. Prior to that,
the roles of receptionist, nurse and secretary had been very much
intertwined. There had been a part time receptionist before Isobel, a lady
who lived in the flat upstairs, but she only did morning surgeries. If she
was away there was no one. It was a totally inadequate situation. Dr. Hoyte
initiated the change. He wanted secretaries and more clerical staff. He was
a professional with a vision to modernise the surgery, which until then had
been a country practice with only one or two doctors.
There was no formal training, staff had to learn on the job and just get on
with it. It was a case of: answering the phone; greeting patients, taking
their names and getting the notes out for the doctor; typing letters and
having the initiative and common sense to deal with any situation.
“I remember someone coming in one afternoon, he knocked on the side
door and came in and said someone was having an asthma attack. We
got him into the little side room with a couch in it and I rang Dr.
Howard; he lived just round the corner and he just came immediately,
he was marvellous in an emergency.”
Until the late 1980’s, there was no appointment system; morning and
evening surgeries were just ‘turn up and wait’ as most people will
remember. Some nights there could be as many as thirty people waiting to
see the doctor and on others there would only be ten or fifteen. It would
often be between 8 and 9pm before Isobel could get away.
Occasionally Dr. Howard would go through to reception to say that he was
seeing the last patient and that she could leave. However, in all conscience,
Isobel felt she could not leave until he had closed the door and everything
had been filed away. On the days when Dr. Hoyte was on duty then Mrs.
Hoyte would be his receptionist and deal with the patients as well as the
administration.
Isobel became increasingly involved with the administration side and was
soon appointed Practice Manager. One of her first tasks was to embrace
the Gotham practice, visit there once a week and gradually introduce the
systems operational in Kegworth.
At one time, anyone who phoned the surgery and asked for a home visit
would get one, emergency or not. Home visits today are still possible for
housebound patients, although attendance at the surgery is much more
efficient. Information held on computers is much more comprehensive
than in written notes but for security reasons, laptop computers can not be
taken out of the surgery by a doctor.
69
Isobel remembered that it was Dr. Hoyte who set a pattern of being friendly
and approachable to patients, creating a good atmosphere. He used to say
that everyone in the practice was important; that doctors were no more
important than the cleaner or the caretaker. His philosophy was that
everyone had a role and that each was part of the whole.
“We felt that the practice was ours; that we owned a part of it and it
was up to us to make it a good practice. We were all there for the
same purpose and we all had our own views and ideas about the
practice. I suppose I sometimes look back with rose coloured
spectacles, but all the time I worked there, it was the best time. I loved
my job. I was interested in it and I wanted us to be the best practice;
that we should be giving the patients a good service; that they were
customers and we were serving them.”
“I remember once Dr. Hoyte told me that sometimes it’s the patient just
walking out of the door and saying ‘Oh, by the way doctor.’ That would
alert him. He said he always got that person back in, because that’s
what they had really come about, that was their worry.”
As day follows night, so progress marches on, but one innovation was to
evoke a mix of emotions: confidence for the competent but dismay in the
diffident. Whatever the feelings, the inevitable had to be faced; from 1990
computers were here to stay. The introduction of this new technology
proved to be a stressful time for members of staff. Suddenly, appointment
books became obsolete and patient records had to be uploaded to the
computer system. Dr. Foster, who had been pushing for the introduction of
computerisation (he was the computer king), gave one to one tuition to
members of staff and arranged for doctors and senior members of the
practice team to attend I.T. courses. Isobel remembered how little training
she had received before she in turn had to train the staff:
“Nick Foster would say ‘Isobel, come on and sit down’ and I would get
half an hour’s lesson. You wouldn’t do it nowadays; I had a book and
that was the training: ‘This is how you do it, put the patients name on
there, get the name up on the screen and update the information.’ It
was really daunting, none of us were sent on proper computer courses,
it was all ad hoc, you learned as you went along.”
Another member of the team recalls that the process was a daunting one.
“I didn’t understand the terminology; it was very difficult, Dr. Foster
would say: ‘Do this, this and this’, then he would click a button and I
would think; how did that happen? It was very stressful but we all
coped.”
Despite Dr. Foster’s excellent tuition, it inevitably took time for some staff
to become familiar with the new technology but, as with all things new, they
soon became confident. Even so, the fear of files disappearing into the
70
ether, never to be seen again, resulted in information being cautiously
backed up on paper as well as on the screen.
Gradually, more and more records were transferred to the computer. The
appointments system was another challenge as the Government had issued
new guidelines on the length of time that a patient could be allocated with
the doctor.
“We were told that it was 10 minutes at first; then it was increased to
12 ½ minutes. I remember that one afternoon, somebody came in for
half an hour to teach us how to do the appointments system on the
computer. There were a couple of receptionists who wanted to keep the
appointments book. You could see everything and I can understand
that in a way. If it’s in a big appointments book it’s all visual, it’s in
front of you and you could rub information out and you could change
details, but this was totally different because you had only a little bit
on the screen. That was another little hill we had to climb and you
had to bring people along with you; that was the big thing.”
Progress was relentless. The Family Health Authority (F.H.A.) needed
access to the patient lists; then prescription records had to be transferred
to the computer. This was a massive task which had to be completed by
the doctors as nurses and receptionists were not qualified to transfer such
crucial data. Once completed however, the task of issuing repeat
prescriptions was much simpler for the receptionists; no more copying out
by hand or struggling to decipher the doctors’ handwriting.
Denise Greenwood succeeded Isobel from (2000 – 2008) with Barbara Ferey
as her deputy. Denise was calm, very confident and experienced. Her
previous practice was next door to Harrods and she thought that she was
coming to a sleepy country practice. How wrong she was. She particularly
recollects an afternoon when the police had evacuated part of the village
due to a bomb scare and gentleman who was accompanying his wife had a
sudden and catastrophic cardiac arrest in the waiting room.
Twenty years on, in the second decade of the 21st century, the system has
advanced a step further with patients able to apply for prescriptions on line
through the surgery website. In 2014 the role is even more intricate. The
current Practice Manager, Sue Sharpe (previously Jill Tomlinson) shares
the workload with her deputy, Julie Foster. Robert Barrass has recently
joined the team as the Business Manager.
That first White Paper in 1991, introduced by Health Secretary Ken Clarke
saw an irrevocable change, when medicine became a business and
individual practices had to account for absolutely everything; those changes
will continue.
71
The Nurse Practitioner 1985 - 2007
Sister Rosie Peters joined the practice in March 1985 at the invitation of
Dr. Hoyte.
He saw a new and exciting role for her, someone to go out to the patients’
homes, not as a district nurse, but in a position that he had developed. He
felt that there were many elderly patients who were unable to travel to the
surgery for routine things that would normally be done by the nurse but
did not come into the remit of the district nurse.
“When I first started I was mostly visiting the elderly: blood tests,
blood pressure checks, little things that would be done at the surgery
if they were able to get there. When I visited patients to check their
blood pressure and check that their legs were not swollen, I would
find symptoms they had not told the doctor about; so I would do
urine tests – which led to blood tests – which could lead to the early
diagnosis of complaints such as adult onset diabetes.”
As Rosie’s role progressed she began an over 75’s health check, to be
carried out at the patients’ home by a nurse. This was offered annually and
proved to be very useful. The check often revealed other things that had
not been mentioned to the doctor and also where patients were experiencing
difficulties at home. Social services had to be called in on occasions; there
were many cases where help was needed in the home and this was duly
arranged. It was not something that had been done in the past and the
patients were now being seen from a different perspective from that of the
doctors.
In 1985 she went, on with the help of Dr. Caroline Anderson, to develop a
card which was placed on the front of the notes of all patients aged over 75.
The handwritten card would contain information such as: who had a key to
the house and who was the next of kin. Other information included:
mobility details, if patients were able to get into the bath, use the stairs and
cook a meal; if their eyesight was good and if they could thread a needle, a
whole range of things. As Kegworth is a training practice, if a doctor was
called to the home and did not know the patient – and vice versa – this
extra information was invaluable. Sister Peters and Dr. Anderson also
introduced an appointments system, ensuring that there would be
sufficient ‘in the day’ slots available to cope with emergencies.
Around 1991 the government brought out a White Paper stating that all
patients over 75 should be offered, in writing, a home health check. Once
again the Kegworth practice was one step ahead as this had been done
since the 1980’s. In fact Sister Peters and Dr, Anderson had a letter about
it published in the British Medical Journal.
72
At that stage, Sister Peters decided to replace the small information cards
in the patients’ notes with bigger ones printed by a stationer which was
much more efficient. By the time she retired this system was restricted to
the more vulnerable patients when among other things, alcohol and
cigarettes were discussed as a priority. There were some patients who were
very hazardous with their smoking habits and were at potential risk from
fire.
“I remember that one day I visited a patient and there was a terrible
smell of gas in the house. I called the gas board and they discovered
a leak in a gas pipe. Coincidentally, the lady living next door had a
house fire sometime later and she suffered burns. Thankfully the gas
leak next door had been fixed.”
In his continuing quest to update and expand the practice, Dr. Hoyte had
envisaged that Rosie’s role would be different and she would become a
nurse practitioner. At that time there were nurse practitioners in America
where nurses had a much wider, expanded role. Rosie did not relish the
implications of the title, especially being a nurse brought in to this new
role, but she was assured that this was a position to complement rather
than threaten the status of the other practice nurses.
“I had a very good position, particularly in Gotham which is a
relatively small area with many old peoples’ flats and bungalows. I
would frequently call at many of these homes to carry out various
checks that Dr. Hoyte had requested. It was often the case that one
of the home helps would see my car parked outside and be waiting
for my return and ask me to go and see the person they were
attending to. I would sort out those particular problems and get in
touch with the appropriate people.
“I was a liaison between different agencies and had a very good
rapport with the person in charge of the Gotham area home help
service. It was not difficult to arrange the help I felt was necessary
and it was very speedily done. I would also see patients in Kegworth
but it was a much bigger area. I did get to know the home helps here
though not as much as in Gotham, but I was still able to liaise with
the various authorities.”
Dr. Hoyte was pleased with the way things were going, especially as the
co-ordination between patient and practice staff had cut down on
unnecessary visits by the doctors. In addition, patients would often reveal
problems to Rosie that they did not want to trouble the doctor with, or
waste his or her time with something they thought trivial. Either she or one
of the nurses could help the patient, but there were also times when they
could hurry things along and arrange for a doctor to see the patient
immediately. It worked very efficiently.
73
One particular memory that stays with Rosie is calling
on an elderly gentleman early one morning to do a
fasting blood test. He was living with a relative who let
her in when she arrived at 8.30 am. The relative said
that he was going blind and was very worried. Rosie
drew the curtains and got ready to do the blood test.
He sat up in bed and put on a filthy pair of spectacles.
She quickly realised that he put on these very dirty
glasses first thing in the morning and took them off last
thing as it got dark.
She washed his glasses and he was stunned; a huge
smile spread over his face as he looked through the
clean lenses and realised that he wasn’t going blind.
His vision had been impaired by the grubby glasses;
yet another example of sharp observation by a nurse
and the small, practical things that could bring
rewards on both sides.
Other features of Rosie’s position included: the setting up of clinics and
holding teaching sessions for the medical students, assisting with minor
surgery and the writing of protocols – the strict guidelines that the nurses
had to follow when carrying out various procedures and the writing of
patient information leaflets.
Before she started the first asthma clinic Rosie went on several training
courses including an adult teaching course at Loughborough College and
gained a specialist qualification.
Generally, patients with a moderate degree of asthma need two inhalers:
one to open the airways, (where they would notice the difference straight
away), and a steroid one as a preventative. When patients were newly
diagnosed with asthma, she would spend time with them, helping them to
understand their condition, how their inhalers worked and make sure that
they were used properly. Dummy inhalers were used for demonstration
purposes as it was very important that their inhaler technique was correct
and effective.
“This was the 1990’s and it was very interesting, particularly the
training role and was invaluable in the surgery. Kegworth is a
teaching practice and Dr. Anderson, who is a medical school lecturer,
asked me to see the medical students once a month for a practical
74
session, which was usually on the diagnostic tests for asthma and
the technique and use of inhalers.”
For a time, minor surgery would be carried out on a Tuesday afternoon and
Sister Peters would assist Dr. Foster, which she found very rewarding.
Operations which would at one time be done in hospital could now be done
at the surgery: ingrown toenails, the removal of cysts etc. Dr. Foster would
also perform vasectomies but he did these on his own.
The appointment of a phlebotomist was another innovation. Instead of
patients travelling to hospital for blood tests they were able to make an
appointment at the surgery. In addition to tests taken for the investigation
of illness it became routine to monitor patients on different drugs. Doctors
were requesting more blood tests than they had before so the phlebotomist
did these instead of the nurses.
This was a natural progression of procedures from hospitals over the years:
minor operations performed by doctors at the surgery, blood pressures
done by the nurses and blood tests done by the phlebotomist making health
care even more efficient.
Towards the end of Rosie’s career, the work that she did became more
complex. There was a need for strict guidelines and greater understanding
of all the procedures carried out by the nurses to ensure that everyone
worked in the same way. These guidelines – or protocols – were written by
practice nurse Rosie and her colleague Carol Hunter.
One example is the simple task of ear syringing, or irrigation as it is known
now. There were a set of questions that had to be asked of the patient,
instructions on the way it should be carried out to minimise the risk of
injury to the patient and the warnings that needed to be heeded.
The protocols had to be written in a way that was reader friendly,
comprehensive and easy to understand. It was not a training document,
the nurse would have to be taught in the first place, but the protocol would
serve as a reminder of everything that had to be asked and everything that
had to be done. Other protocols were written on asthma and diabetes. They
were checked regularly to make sure that they were up to date with
national guidelines and the surgery’s guidelines.
Another aspect of education that the doctors were interested in and
involved with was patient information. It’s generally felt that if people
understand their medical conditions and the drugs they use, they would
comply with the treatment. There is a website used in the surgery called
www.patient.co.uk and the doctors - particularly Dr. Foster - would, when
a patient received a diagnosis, tell them about the site and then print off a
patient information leaflet to take home and study.
75
“I began to use this for giving patients information and discovered
that the website wanted people with creative writing ability to write
stories and poems aimed at either children or adults with a lower
reading age. My first poem was “Meet the Asthma Nurse” and it was
accepted for the website. I had 18 published altogether and these
were subsequently published in a book by the company.”
Modern medicine is very much about prevention as well as cure and the
surgery provides information and advice on many aspects of modern day
living:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Lifestyle Changes
Quit Smoking Clinics - support and encouragement
Screening
Blood Pressure Checks
Cervical Smears
Well Man and Well Woman Clinics
Ante–Natal Clinics
Immunisation – Flu & Pneumonia injections.
In the new millennium, we now have Community Matrons - Lyn Cotterill
and her team – who support housebound patients to enable them to stay in
their own homes. There are also other specialist nurses e.g.: C.O.P.D.
(chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), diabetes and even a ‘virtual
ward.’
76
The Kegworth Air Disaster
Sunday 8th January 1989 is a date etched into the memory of countless
people, not just in Kegworth but further afield. A British Midland Boeing
737-400 was on a shuttle flight from London Heathrow to Belfast when it
developed engine problems shortly after take-off. The plane was diverted to
East Midlands Airport, where civilian engineers from British Midland were
waiting to fix the engine.
Tragically, at 8.26 pm the plane, carrying 118 passengers and 8 crew
members, crashed just 900 metres short of the runway where the
emergency services were waiting. It first crashed just east of the M1 before
cutting through trees, descending across the motorway and plummeting
nose first on to the embankment.
47 people died in the crash and a further 74, including 7 of the crew were
seriously injured.
The people of Kegworth, who are used to aircraft flying low over the village
on the final approach to the airport, instinctively knew that something was
seriously wrong with the aircraft. One resident described the sound as:
“A dreadful noise, a thumping noise and we rushed to the window to
see the plane going by with one engine on fire. We saw the plane go
down and we thought it was going to hit the church. Then there was
a dreadful silence.”
Another resident who lives in Whatton Road said:
“We stood outside and heard the plane. It was like somebody rolling
a dustbin of stones down the road. We kept listening and listening
and then, all of a sudden, it was dead and we knew he hadn’t made
it.”
Jeff Gill remembers:
“We were watching television and we suddenly heard a huge rumble;
we knew it was a plane but we hadn’t heard a plane like that before.
There was a tremendous noise and flames were coming out of one of
the engines. It was scarily low as it came over us, about 150 ft.”
He ran across the fields and was at the scene before the emergency
services. It was remarkable that nobody on the motorway was hurt and no
cars were damaged.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes, there were still people driving past.”
77
Eventually someone did stop and they both clambered up the embankment,
and went into the plane and managed to help two or three people out.
“It was pretty nasty; some people had been thrown out of the plane.
We realised when we got in there that there was nothing we could do
because the seats had slammed forward and people were trapped. It
was pitch-dark and we couldn’t see anything, we could only feel
people and we didn’t want to do any more damage.”
Shortly
after, the
emergency
services,
who had
been on
immediate
standby,
arrived and
took over.
Police, fire
crews and
ambulance
crews from
across the
East
Midlands
worked to free those who were trapped in the wreckage. Volunteers from
the AA, passing motorists and members of an army team also assisted.
Once they had arrived, Jeff Gill let the experts take over and picked up his
camera. As all the surrounding roads were closed, he was the
photographer on the scene until about 10.30pm.
This was to be the beginning of a very long night as survivors were carried
down the embankment on to the carriageway and taken to hospital. People
formed a human chain on the embankment and passed stretchers down the
slippery slope. Surgeons and priests worked in the confined space to
release those who were trapped. Many had died instantly and others were
gravely injured.
Dr. Stein, along with other doctors from the practice, was among the first
on the scene. By the time they arrived at the site the walking wounded had
been evacuated. Dr. Stein helped with getting the injured and dead out of
the plane. It was very dark, many were severely wounded and it was
difficult inside the wreckage to ascertain the severity of their injuries; those
who could be evacuated were put on stretchers and she became part of the
stretcher chain.
78
A colleague, Dr. Nick Foster, was helping at the roadside putting up drips
and other partners from the practice, David Hoyte & Phil James, were at
the airport; assisting those passengers who had survived the impact, giving
first aid and treating them for shock. It
was an extremely distressing situation
and one that Dr. Stein will never forget.
Dr. Caroline Anderson, who was 8
months pregnant, was able to give her
support by taking over the on-call service
for the practice’s 7,000 patients.
The account of this tragedy has been well
documented elsewhere. However, largely
thanks to the courage and selflessness of
many people in Kegworth, some of the
people who were involved in this
shocking accident were given urgent
assistance. Dozens of village residents
valiantly helped to rescue and comfort
those involved. Many travelled to
hospital with the injured passengers and
remained with them until the victims’
relatives arrived.
The motorway was closed for a week
while air crash investigators examined
the scene and the wreckage of the
aircraft could be removed.
79
The Kegworth Memorial Garden
Friendships were forged on that bitterly cold January night, one that
nobody in the village will ever forget. The Parish Council erected a
memorial in Kegworth cemetery in remembrance of those who had lost their
lives, those who had been injured and the brave people who took part in the
rescue.
Not long after the crash, the motorway was widened from three lanes to
four. The Parish Council arranged for the soil on the embankment where
the aircraft had come down to be taken to Kegworth Cemetery to form the
base of the memorial garden. On the top of this is a large stone which is
engraved with the names of all those who had perished.
There is also a plaque on the flyover on Ashby Road, just metres away from
the crash site.
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The New Premises – Orchard Surgery 1990 - current
In 1975, after many complaints regarding the lack of a suitable health
centre, it was decided at the Annual Parish Meeting to investigate the
possibility of building a small Health Centre. This would be situated on land
owned by the Kegworth Village Association at the rear of the Community
Centre. Their initial proposal included facilities for:
·
Health Visitor;
·
District Nurse;
·
Mother and Children clinic;
·
Ante-Natal clinic;
·
Visiting Chiropodist, Optician, Dentist etc.
It was agreed by both doctors and patients that the current surgery premises,
which were situated on Nottingham Road, were woefully inadequate. They
consisted of the converted ground floor of two small cottages and the first
floor had been converted into a receptionist’s flat. The premises did not lend
themselves to further extension or improvement to modern standards; there
were no car parking facilities and consequently traffic problems occurred on
Nottingham Road.
The access to the premises was at the rear, leading into a narrow passage
and the door to the receptionist’s office. This passage also led to the two
consulting rooms and the waiting room. People waiting at the receptionist’s
window blocked the passage of traffic affording a total lack of privacy as
details were discussed.
The waiting room’s dimensions were approximately 10 by 12 feet and seating
was provided by a single bench along each wall. It was not unusual for the
number of people waiting to be in the teens and patients frequently had to
wait for up to two hours. The atmosphere was often claustrophobic and
uncomfortable, particularly for those feeling very unwell and for parents with
81
small children. The two consulting rooms were considered to be functional
but were very small and it was felt that there was a need for more attendant
facilities. It was decided that the Parish Council would approach the
Leicestershire Area Health Authority for assistance with the project.
The Administrator of the Family Practitioners’ Committee attended the 1976
Parish Meeting and explained that it was not possible to provide Health
Centre facilities at Kegworth, mainly because the village did not meet the
required population figure of 7,000, (Kegworth’s figure was 3,000).
The Parish Council then decided to investigate ‘going it alone’ with a
maximum of £10,000 to be provided by the parish and to consider not only
the site at the Community Centre but also at the Village Hall. This was
referred to the Health Authority who again declined the proposal on the
grounds that it was not viable and they could not provide the staff to run the
Kegworth facility.
At that time, Leicester County Council were providing Health Centres with
minimum figures and the Parish Council felt that L.C.C. should reconsider
the project with a view to providing a grant on a 60%/40% basis – the 40%
being the responsibility of the practice partners. A letter was sent to Dr. J.
Cronin M.P. asking for his assistance in expediting the matter.
By June of 1976, the correspondence had finally found its way to the office of
the District Community Physician at North West Leicestershire District
Council. The L.A.H.A. however remained resolute that they were unable to
support the practice partners in their endeavour to open a purpose built
Health Centre.
There were frequent letters to the L.A.H.A. appealing for assistance. Although
the Parish Council had asked for their proposals to be placed before the
L.A.H.A., this, as far as they were aware, had never been done. The Parish
Council again wrote to the M.P. stating their case. They reiterated that they
were not asking for the provision of a Health Centre, only for a grant towards
their own scheme to provide health care facilities. The letter ended in a mood
of resignation that because the Council’s proposals did not meet the norm,
the chances of success were slim, but suggested there should be some
flexibility and that individual cases be treated on merit.
In 1977 The Council received an encouraging letter from N.W.L.D.C. stating
that it that it agreed the need for a Health Centre in Kegworth and
supporting, in principle, the Parish Council’s efforts to secure the facility.
There followed a gap in filed correspondence of some 5 years, the next being
a succession of letters between neighbouring counties.
The quest for new premises for the practice continued with urgency as the
Nottingham Road site became more confined. In 1985 the Kegworth Village
82
Association applied for outline planning permission to develop the site of No.
13 Dragwell. This was approved in November that year but as the document
specified, it was for planning permission only. Separate consents had to be
obtained under the Buildings Regulations and the conditions laid down by
the Area Building Inspector at the offices of N.W.L.D.C. in Coalville.
Within a matter of weeks and following a telephone conversation with one of
the partners, further sites possible for the new premises were identified by
Leicestershire County Council.
Land at The Old Rectory on Nottingham Road had outline planning
permission for residential development; a further option was land on Mill
Lane which had been purchased by the County Council on behalf of the
Area Health Authority, who were proposing to build an elderly persons’
home; this was a large site which could possibly incorporate a medical
facility. Another option was the site of the petrol station on London Road
known as Bryan’s Garage, another extremely large site. All of these
locations had obstacles ranging from price, size or accessibility.
The site at 13 Dragwell, owned by Kegworth Village Association, had been
granted planning permission for two houses in 1974. The only drawback to
this plan was that the tenancy of no.13 was protected and the cottage could
not be demolished until the tenants decided to leave the property at their
own free will.
August 1986 saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel for Doctors Hoyte,
James, Stein and Anderson. Confirmation was received from the bank that
a loan had been agreed, to assist with the purchase of the land at Dragwell;
for the building of a General Practitioners’ Surgery and the purchase of
fixtures and fittings. Once the terms and conditions had been met – and
there were many – the loan would be made available. It was reiterated that
the tenant of 13 Dragwell was guaranteed security of tenure with a
peppercorn rent.
(Dr. Phil James, who had replaced Brian Howard in 1985 and Dr. Caroline
Anderson, were offered a partnership commencing May 1986. Both were
previous G.P. trainees of Dr. Hoyte).
Suddenly things were beginning to happen: the initial stages of the site
assessment were in progress, a measured survey of the land was imminent
and the architect was in the process of submitting the planning
applications.
The next stage was the preparation of the construction drawings which
would then be submitted for buildings regulation approval. After this was
obtained, then the drawings and bills of quantities could be sent out to
building firms and competitive tenders would be invited. When the
83
formalities had been completed, the partners were contacted by the practice
solicitors with a view to the contract being signed.
The partners encountered another problem. It would be necessary to gain
access to the garden for the purpose of doing a survey and clearing the site.
However as the entire site was the subject of that verbal agreement, the
tenant would be justified in denying access until the completion of the
purchase. It was inevitable that the construction of the new premises was
going to have a huge impact on their lives.
A great deal of diplomacy was needed and face to face meetings were
necessary in the following months. As the new premises were to be built in
the garden, specifically in the orchard of the garden, survey drawings were
obtained showing the positions of all the significant trees and the tenant
and her daughter were consulted about the plans.
Finally, in 1989, the formalities were completed, the land purchase went
ahead and the construction commenced. The Practice Manager, Isobel
Beynon remembered visiting the site with Dr. Foster to assess the
development’s progress:
“Dr. Foster used to take me round to Dragwell while they were
building the surgery. He would walk me round with the plans and we
would stand in the mud and the rain and he would point out where
my office was going to be. I’d got no vision of it at all; I just saw a
large hole.”
Isobel was largely responsible for co-ordinating the huge task of relocating
from the tiny Nottingham Road premises to the much larger and airy
building on Dragwell. The move was to take place one Saturday morning in
October 1990 and she had spent many weeks planning the operation down
to the last detail. Computers and telephones had to be disconnected;
patient records packed and safely stowed in boxes; office furniture: desks
and chairs, filing cabinets etc. had to be labelled with their allocated
placement in the new building. The list was considerable but her liaison
with the removal company resulted in an efficient transfer on the day.
Ironically, on the day of the move, Isobel was on holiday. Her husband was
a teacher, it was half-term and their holiday had been booked some time in
advance. Her remark to me during our interview - that she was a ‘wee bit
disappointed not to be there’ was an understatement; but she also had the
quiet satisfaction of knowing that the event was as straightforward as any
relocation could possibly be. Her summing up of her part in this
tremendous operation was equally understated:
“It was quite a big move but everybody just pulled their weight.”
84
The new working environment was quite remarkable after the cramped
conditions at Nottingham Road. The space for records was much greater
than before and so much better than having everything crammed into filing
cabinets. The nurses’ consulting room was spacious, light and airy and the
district nurses had their own separate offices.
Change, although for the better, can sometimes have drawbacks, with
wistful memories of how things used to be. There had been an atmosphere
of cosiness about Nottingham Road.
“The staff were all nearer to the doctors, but once we moved to the
new practice, the doctors were all down that corridor, they were
removed from the staff, so it lost its cosiness, we’d got nicer premises
and more up to date equipment, it was fantastic; but in a way all of a
sudden there was a dividing line between the staff and the doctors.”
When we were at Nottingham Road, the district nurses used to come
into the small room and things seemed to be a lot easier in those
days; they had to come into the office where we were so that you
could pass on information quite easily. If the doctor wanted the nurse
to visit a patient you put that on your list, you could do that then.
When we moved to Dragwell they had their own offices and would go
straight there. We had to develop a system that would keep them
informed, they had to come and look in the book but we lost that
personal interaction. When you are writing in a book the information
is brief, you can’t pass on comments from individual doctors;
sometimes those little nuances made a big difference.”
Progress can often be a trial, but at Orchard Surgery the jury was not out
for long before delivering its final verdict:
“There is still that
ethos of the practice,
that every patient is
an individual and is
treated with respect.”
Doctors Anderson,
James, Hoyte, Foster
and Stein at the official
opening in 1990
85
The Partners and Staff at Orchard Surgery
The partners at Orchard Surgery are not just ordinary G.P.s. Each one has
different disciplines within their professional remit and three have been
appointed Fellows of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Dr Caroline Anderson MA, MB, BChir. FRGCP,
DFFP, DCH, DRCOG, is senior partner in the
practice. Dr Anderson graduated from Cambridge
University in 1981.
Trained and inspired by Dr D.A.N. Hoyte, she
became a GP and partner in the practice in 1986.
Her main clinical interests are in the area of
women’s health, obstetrics, sexual health/family
planning and student health.
She is a part time Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and
has a special interest in the support and guidance of medical students and
their career management. She is also the editor of the Nottingham Medical
School Career Handbook. Dr Anderson is responsible for various medical
student attachments within the practice and also teaches at the University.
Dr. Anderson was elected President of the Nottingham Medico Chirurgical
Society (Med/Chi) in 2010-11 and the focus of her year as President was
celebrating local celebrities and the facilitation of Primary and Secondary
Care collaboration. She is only the fourth woman to achieve this status in
180 years. This was a post previously held by the late Dr. Hoyte.
www.medchi.org.uk. Outside of the practice Dr. Anderson is married to a
science teacher and she has three grown up children; she also has musical
interests.
Dr Nicholas Foster BDS, MB, ChB, (Sheffield
1984) FRCGP, DFFP, DCH, DRCOG
Dr Foster is also a senior partner in the practice.
He trained as a surgeon, went on to do
anaesthetics before going in to General Practice,
trained by Dr. Hoyte. He is a course director for
the Nottingham Vocational Training Scheme for
G.P. Registrars and is very active in G.P. training
and was previously an examiner for the Royal
College of General Practitioners. He is a Medical
Director of Principia “Partners in Health”, now
NHS Rushcliffe Clinical Commissioning Group.
86
Dr. Foster is also an Honorary
Medical Emergency Physician
with the East Midlands
Ambulance Service and
responds for them throughout
South Derbyshire/
Nottinghamshire and North
Leicestershire. He has been a
member of the East Midlands
Immediate Care Scheme
(E.M.I.S.) since 1987.
He was awarded the Queens
Jubilee Gold Medal in 2005 and
the British Association of Immediate Care award in 2004 for his
contributions to Pre-Hospital Care. He was involved in the Kegworth Air
Crash major incident in 1989 and in 2006 he received the East Midlands
Ambulance Service CEO commendation following the rescue of a severely
injured workman from a works pit 60 feet deep.
Dr Nigel Cartwright BSc, MB, ChB, (Man 1984)
FRCGP, DFFP, DCH, DRCOG Partner
Nigel Cartwright has been a partner of the
practice since 1993. He qualified with an honours degree in medicine from Manchester
University in 1984 after first studying Physiology.
After GP specialist training he undertook
research into respiratory disease before joining
the practice as a partner in 1993. His areas of
clinical interest include respiratory and heart
disease, diabetes, skin disease, musculoskeletal
medicine and men’s health.
He has a significant interest in postgraduate medical education with a
particular expertise in teaching communication skills. He is a GP trainer
and programme director for the Nottingham GP training scheme. He has
since 2003 been an examiner for the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Outside of the practice he is married with two grown up children and enjoys
a range of outdoor activities.
87
Dr Helen Eglitis MB, ChB, (Leicester1987)
MRCGP, DRCOG. Partner Trainer, Nottingham
GP Specialty Training Programme. Her special
interest is in the area of Women’s Health,
Obstetrics, Sexual Health/Family Planning and
Paediatrics.
Helen qualified in Medicine in Leicester and
completed her training for General Practice in
Leicester before joining as a Partner in the
practice in 1997. She is married with two
daughters and has an interest in cycling.
Dr Clare Pollock MB, ChB, MRCGP, DRCOG
and DFSRH. Partner Trainer.
Clare’s area of special interest is in the area of
Student and Women’s Health, Obstetrics,
Sexual Health/Family Planning and
Paediatrics. Clare qualified in Medicine at
Birmingham in 2002 and worked in several
practices prior to being chosen to join the
Kegworth Practice in 2011. Her husband is a
surgeon and they are kept busy with two young
children.
Dr Omar Khalique
Lives locally, qualified as a doctor at
Nottingham Medical School then completed his
training on the Nottingham GP training scheme
in 2013. He worked as a GP Registrar in the
practice and joined the Partnership in
September 2014. His interests include men’s
health and IT in medicine. Hobbies are cricket,
football and music.
88
Dr Tim Daniel
A salaried GP and also consultant in Public
Health Medicine. His wife Avril is a research
Professor at the medical school and they have
three teenage children. Keen attender of test
matches at Trent Bridge.
Robert Barrass
Business Manager
Sue Sharp
Assisting Practice Manager
Julie Foster
Deputy Practice Manager
89
From left to right:
Sisters Helen Randle, Alison Mehan, Marion Thomas and Helen Wallbanks
The practice nurses who are always available with appointments to see
patients, not only with dressings and vaccinations, but also for minor
illness, travel advice, contraception, and much health promotion and
chronic disease management.
Kegworth Practice Staff: August 2014
Julie Foster, Deputy Practice Manager, Sarah Woods-Flack, Receptionist,
Kim Collings, Receptionist, Christine Reddish, Secretary, Mandy Watkins,
Receptionist, Rachel Bumby, Secretary and typist for ‘An Apple a Day’
Laura Hunt, Receptionist, Sue Sharp, Practice Manager, Toni Dye, Receptionist,
Helen Wallbanks, Practice Nurse.
Other Staff: Dawn Anderson and Denise Moloney, Receptionists,
Gotham Practice Staff:
Lynn Sankey, Pharmacy Manager, Sue Hylands and Cathy Hoult, Receptionists
and Dispensers, Janet Smith, Healthcare Assistant and Blood Nurse.
There are also attached District Nurses, Community Nurses, Phlebotomists,
Midwives and Health Visitors
90
Acknowledgements
Dr. Caroline Anderson (editor)
Dr. Nicholas Foster
Dr. Doreen Stein
Isobel Beynon
Rosie Peters
Joan Smith
Daisy May Bailey nee Gibson
Brenda Barratt
Mary Briers
Christine Churchard
Victor Clough
Barry Dabell
Mr & Mrs Dean
Jeff Gill
Margaret Harpin
Brenda Moore
Hilda Robinson
Sheila Sharpe
Anita Sumner
Jean White
Ruth Smith - Producer
Rachel Bumby - Typist and Personal Assistant
The staff at Orchard Surgery
Sadly Dr Stein, Joan Smith, Jean White, Hilda Robinson and Victor Clough
are no longer with us but their memories will live on in their contributions
to this publication.
Researching the history of general practice in Kegworth has been an
immensely enjoyable experience and it has been an enormous privilege to
take part in the project. Thank you to all those who gave so generously of
their time and shared their memories with me; quotes from those people
that I have interviewed are printed in italics.
These quotes have not been attributed to any one individual. All spoke to
me in confidence and those confidences are respected.
Each practitioner of medicine in this publication is unique and thanks to
the people I have spoken to, I feel that I have also come to know those who
lived in the last century and the one before that.
91
Conclusion
The evolution of medical care over the past 400 years has been
phenomenal, thanks to the astonishing inventions and discoveries by
remarkable men and women. The list is endless and space forbids, but a
few national innovations deserve special mention. Transport was
transformed with the introduction of the bicycle and the internal
combustion engine. That marvel of communication, the telephone was
invented in the mid 1800’s and the discovery of penicillin by the exceptional
biologist and pharmacologist, Sir Alexander Fleming, was to revolutionize
the treatment of countless conditions.
Perhaps the most outstanding changes have been in living memory and
how medical care has changed out of all proportion. As little as 30 years
ago, if a patient was admitted to hospital with a heart attack, he was put to
bed and monitored, sent home and he either lived or died, that was it.
Nowadays it’s a 999 response; the patient arrives at the hospital, is taken to
the cardiac catheter lab where a stent may be put in, and then sent home.
The profound difference is that that patient is on medication for life; he or
she can hopefully lead a normal life and will becarefully monitored.
General practice has changed beyond recognition and the amount of
knowledge that is required is huge, not only in diagnostics but also in
assessment, in management and being able to tap into the resources at the
GP’s disposal. General practice is becoming a far more complex
organization; doctors now have access to scan investigations, they need to
be able to read E.C.G.’s and to understand blood tests.
It’s not all stress though. It is very rewarding working as a G.P. in a rural
practice and seeing how it has evolved. One of the nicest aspects is being
part of the community something that isn’t found in an inner city. The
practice in Kegworth and Gotham is part of the community, which is
special. It has progressed from the doctor going on foot; in his pony and
trap; on his bicycle or now, in his Land Rover complete with green flashing
lights (NJF 999).
Whatever the future holds, there is a solid base in the practice; the next
generation of doctors is coming through and the patient will always come
first.
92
Epilogue
Three roads in Kegworth have been named after prominent physicians who
have practiced in the village:
Jeffares Close
Bedford Close
Gerrard Crescent
Dr. J.J. Jeffares
Dr. D.J. Bedford
Dr. M.A. Gerrard
It is both coincidental and appropriate that, as this history of medical care
approaches completion, three new roads have been named in honour of
equally prominent physicians in more recent memory.
Howard Drive
Hoyte Drive
Woods Drive
Dr. J.B. Howard
Dr. D.A.N. Hoyte
Dr. M Wood
93
The Last 25 Years…. Continuity of Care
The Partners 1992-2014
(contributed by Dr Caroline Anderson)
The years between 1984 and 1992 were momentous ones as the three
senior GPs in their 60s retired and were replaced by GPs a generation
younger!
1984
1986
1989
1992
1991-93
Dr
Dr
Dr
Dr
Dr
Dr
Dr
Brian Howard retired and replaced by Dr Philip James
Caroline Anderson invited to join as fourth Partner
Doreen Stein retired and replaced by Dr Nicholas Foster
David Hoyte (age 70) retired and replaced by
Nigel Cartwright
Phil James moved to Norfolk area and replaced by
Helen Eglitis
1994
Doctors Caroline Anderson,
Nick Foster,
Nigel Cartwright and
Helen Eglitis
There were various other part-time salaried Doctors in the Practice to cover
the academic sessions of Dr Hoyte and the Partners. From 2001 Dr Cathy
Scahill and Dr James Ward-Campbell undertook regular sessions at
Kegworth and Gotham respectively.
94
In 2011 Cathy relocated to Sweden with her husband who worked for Astra
Zeneca and James became full-time in his main Practice. In 2011 we
welcomed a new part-time Partner, Clare Pollock, plus a senior public
health doctor and part-time GP, Tim Daniel, to complete the medical team.
The last two decades in the Kegworth and Gotham Practice (1993-2014),
has seen exceptional continuity of care with Doctors Caroline Anderson,
Nick Foster, Nigel Cartwright and Helen Eglitis working together in the
‘new’ Orchard Surgery to deliver high quality patient care with the Practice
team.
GP Partners 2012. From Left: Doctors Nigel Cartwright, Helen Eglitis,
Clare Pollock, Caroline Anderson, Nick Foster
Dr Hoyte’s prior facilitation of his partners’ educational special interests
has since borne fruit with three partners awarded Royal College
Fellowships, two Royal College Examiners, two Postgraduate Course
Directors, plus an Associate Professor at Nottingham Medical School. We
are proud to be educating so many of the next generation of doctors and
GPs and have built two surgery extensions to accommodate teaching. The
Practice area also serves the University of Nottingham Sutton Bonnington
campus, which is evolving rapidly with the new Vet School and a vibrant
student and academic community.
2014 was also an eventful year because after 28 years as a GP, Dr
Anderson transferred to her part-time Associate Professor role at the
Medical School. However, it gave the opportunity to appoint a ‘home grown’
GP as a new Partner, Dr Omar Khalique. Omar was a medical student
taught by Dr Anderson at Nottingham Medical School and then a popular
GP Registrar with Dr Foster.
95
Continual Change
There have been relentless externally dictated changes over the past 25
years with five local medical reorganisations (Health Authority, Family
Practitioner Committee, Primary Care Group, Primary Care Trust and now
Clinical Commissioning Groups). The Kegworth Practice has aligned with
Principia – Partners in Health which was previously called Rushcliffe PCT
and is now Rushcliffe Clinical Commissioning Group (2014). This is a first
wave commissioning group and the Practice ensures active support, so the
voice of the most southerly practice (of sixteen) is heard. Practice activity is
now analysed in detail with micro management of referrals, prescribing
budgets, admissions etc. Our Practice Managers (Robert Barrass and Sue
Sharp) and Deputy (Julie Foster) play key roles. All the GPs also now have
yearly detailed General Medical Council (GMC) appraisals following
guidance in Good Medical Practice. Current Primary Care arrangements
(2014) contrast with 1986 when patients with an illness waited their turn to
see a GP, and there was no communication between local practices. There
is now active collaboration between local practices.
Fortunately, there is a strong medical community in the Nottingham area and
good relations between primary and secondary care. This is facilitated by the
local medical society (Med Chi) for GPs and Consultants of which both Dr
David Hoyte and Caroline Anderson have had the privilege of being invited to
be President. It is therefore a fitting tribute to the broad medical community
in which GPs now function to conclude with Dr Hoyte’s entry in ‘From Sawbones
to Keyholes’ which is a book detailing the Presidents in Nottingham from
1820, and also the 2010/11 Med Chi Newsletter summarising current activities
during Dr Anderson’s Presidential Year. Partnership changes in Summer
2014 are detailed in the Patient Participation Group Newsletter.
The weekly Partners’ business meetings mentioned earlier have allowed the
Partners and Practice Managers to view change as an opportunity and be
proactive. Currently we are planning commissioning during a period of
austerity with the added challenge of promoting health and managing
illness for an increasing elderly population with multiple illnesses.
The surgeries already have online prescription requests and appointments
via the website www.kegworth.net . This will keep you up to date and is
also the home for this ‘Apple a Day’ document. We are proud to offer
medical care for over 8,200 patients covering fourteen villages on the Notts/
Leics/Derbys border.
The Kegworth and Gotham GP Practice always aim to put patients’ health
and wellbeing as top priority and assist as navigators through increasingly
complex medical systems.
‘no decision about me without me’…
Who knows what the next 25 years will bring?
96
Appendix 1
The Orchard Surgery Website
Healthcare in Kegworth has come an infinitely long way since 1601 when
this history began. At that time, in the first decade of the 17th century,
medical advice was almost always sought on foot and sometimes treated
with leeches. Four centuries on, advice is available, online, at the click of a
mouse. The Surgery website www.kegworth.net homepage has an extensive
menu just a fingertip away.
The menu lists information on how to make:
1.
Doctor or nurse appointments.
2.
Other clinic appointments including: antenatal and phlebotomy
(blood tests)
3.
Information on out of hours care and emergencies; (the out of
hours contact number is the same as for the Kegworth Surgery
line: 01509 672419). Also NHS Walk-in Centres in:
Loughborough, Derby & Nottingham. A & E Departments at:
Queens Medical Centre Nottingham, Royal Derby Hospital and
the Leicester Royal Infirmary. The NHS Direct telephone
number or website.
4.
How to order repeat prescriptions – on foot or online.
5.
Health and Lifestyle advice including: Sexual Health;
Contraception; Women’s Health; Children’s Immunisations,
Healthy Living, e.g. advice on how to stop smoking, taking
exercise and information about travel and how to stay well on
holiday or business travel.
6.
About the practice: how to register as a patient, the practice
address and contact numbers for the Kegworth and Gotham
surgeries.
7.
A profile of the practice staff: doctors, nurses, administration
and reception.
8.
Patient Information and the practice feedback & complaints
procedure.
9.
Advice. The Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) aims to:
•
Provide information about the NHS & help with any other
health related query.
•
Help resolve concerns or problems when using the NHS.
•
Information on how to access agencies and support
groups outside of the NHS.
97
•
10.
11.
12.
Provide an early warning system for NHS trusts and
monitoring bodies by identifyingproblems or gaps in the
service and reporting them.
Useful contacts and links including hospitals and hospital
clinics in Loughborough, Royal Derby, Queen’s Medical Centre
and Nottingham City.
Self Help Groups including: Alcoholics Anonymous; Alcohol
Problem Advisory Service; Rape Crisis Centre; Samaritans,
Teenage Health Clinic and Women’s Aid Advice Centre.
Confidentiality and Access to records.
The website link: www.kegworth.net/student.html also offers
comprehensive advice in a range of online information leaflets to new
students at the Sutton Bonnington Campus of Nottingham University. The
students are welcomed to the campus and given details including:
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
98
How to register
A map showing the location of the Kegworth & Gotham
premises including the address, telephone numbers and
surgery hours.
How to access online information on the services they are
entitled to on the NHS
Health check appointments for students taking regular
medication for conditions such as Diabetes and Asthma
Advice on sexual health and contraception
Further information is provided about the University Mental
Health services. The MH adviser can also help to ensure that
students have access to a range of support services available at
the University. These include: financial and academic support;
counselling, assistance with accommodation and specialist
support for international students. They can assist in liaising
with academic schools to maximise the student’s ability to
complete their studies successfully.
There is further support for international students requesting
NHS care including: eligibility criteria, the conditions required
and a list of the countries that the NHS has reciprocal
arrangements with.
A directory of contact numbers including: internal campus
numbers, external numbers such as NHS Direct centres,
hospitals in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and
contact numbers for practically any situation that a
student away from home might encounter.
Appendix 2
99
Appendix 3
Local Medical Society.
Nottingham Medico Chirurgical Society
As recorded elsewhere in this book, Dr D.A.N. Hoyte was president of the
Medico Chirurgical Society from 1998 – 1999. Twelve years later, Dr
Caroline Anderson was also elected president. For two GPs from the same
medical practice to achieve this position is unique.
Presidency of Med Chi Society (2010/2011)
President’s Review – Dr. Caroline Anderson (2010 – 2011)
Dear Medical Colleagues and Friends,
It is my pleasant duty as your recent Med Chi President to review the Med
Chi Year 2010 – 11 and thank you for your valued support. We
celebrate a vibrant programme of 22 Med Chi Events including 10
interactive evening meetings, 6 major social charity events and several
smaller ones. Meetings are now established at both QMC and CHN with a
‘supper and social’ at 6pm prior to interactive ‘lectures’ at 7pm.
We are delighted that attendance has been 70 – 100 at each meeting, often
diverse groups due to collaborations with the Medical School (four Pickering
Alumni meetings) RCGP, LMC & Medico-Legal Society. We have enjoyed
excellent suppers from our new caterers, Merritts, and often music,
including the grand piano and jazz and folk bands. Rami Seth’s talk ‘Living
as a Patient – Laughter is the best medicine’ attracted 21 of 25 Presidents
with a champagne reception after.
Podcasts are on our website, www.medchi.org.uk thanks to Geoff Hulman,
including David Haslam (GP and BMA President) who shares some helpful
‘Practical Leadership’ advice. Please join in the ‘education, entertainment,
friendship and fun’ with our new President Mr. John Lemberger, and an
active Council of 14 GPs and Consultants.
A couple of 2010/11 highlights include the challenge of changing the
President’s Ball venue to a Jacobean stately home (Thrumpton Hall) for a
Venetian Masked Ball which was a sell-out with early bird bookings; also the
stunning ‘Med Chi Philharmonic’ orchestra of 36 doctors at their inaugural
concert, under the capable baton of physician Will Kinnear. With only three
rehearsals their musical expertise was very impressive, and especially
notable was the Medical School Dean (Ian Hall) on harp, triangle and
cymbals.
The Med Chi Charity events raised substantial income (£4,000) which was
distributed to hotly contested medical elective, research and travel awards.
100
My Presidential charities were relevant and were well supported (£7,300).
During the year a close family friend was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Between extended spells on the young people’s unit at CHN he has
proactively supported Med Chi Presidential charities which I had already
chosen to be relevant to our own families and friends as well as patients.
None of these diverse activities would have been possible without the active
participation of Council officers and members: Tanya Nadar, our
administrator, Michael Clemmings and the IT team and our collaborators
(Medical School, RCGP and LMC).
It has been a great privilege and joy to preside over our medical society and I
wish John Lemberger, his wife Pat and Council all best wishes for the 2011/
12 programme.
With all best wishes, yours sincerely
Caroline Anderson
May 2011, Family Doctors and spouses at a Charity Ball, Thrumpton Hall.
Left to Right: Claire Ward Campbell, Dr Helen Eglitis, Dr Caroline Anderson
(Med Chi president), Dr Cathy Scahill, Dr Nick Foster, Christine Cartwright,
Front; Dr Nigel Cartwright, John Anderson, Dermott Scahill,
Dr James Ward Campbell, Richard French (Eglitis)
101
Selected Medical Society Meetings and Events 2010/11
Growing Our Own Doctors
- Celebrating Local Celebrities
Thursday 21st October 2010 - City Hospital, PGEC
Thursday 23rd September 2010
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
QMC Lecture Theatre 1
“GROWING OUR OWN DOCTORS”
RUBIN & PRINGLE REVALIDATION DISCUSSION
Prof Sir Peter Rubin, Chair, General Medical
Council
Prof Mike Pringle, RCGP Revalidation Lead, Primary
Care, Nottingham Uni
Dr Caroline Anderson, GP and
Associate Professor, Primary Care,
Nottingham
Joint meeting with Division of Primary Care
GP tutors
Joint meeting with
RCGP Vale of Trent faculty
Thursday 9th December 2010 - QMC LT1
BART MEETING
Thursday 4th November
2010 - QMC LT1
BART MEETING
OLYMPIC GOLD
DOCTOR
BALLOON CAREERS DEBATE “WHY BE
A .....BRAIN SURGEON?
Mr John Lemberger, Consultant
Urologist, Nottingham and colleagues
Dr Tim Brabants,
Nottingham Alumni and
Kayaking Gold 2008
Saturday 14th May 2011
VENETIAN MASKED MAY BALL,
THRUMPTON HALL
A stunning Jacobean lakeside venue. Early bird
bookings before April 1st will be awarded
champagne for their table.
President’s Charities in Nottingham are:
Children’s Hospital Art Initiative, Teenage Ward
and Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre
14th May 2011 MedChi Ball
102
Dr. David A.N. Hoyte MB. ChB.
MD. FRCGP. President of the
Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical
Society (1998 - 1999)
Dr David Hoyte, who was the Society’s President
during the 1998/9 session, pursued two different
and contrasting careers; both distinguished. His
first was as an academic anatomist, initially in
Manchester and later in Jamaica, whereas his
second, equally challenging, was as a General
Practitioner in the Leicestershire villages of
Kegworth and Gotham.
David Hoyte was born in Vieux Port, St Lucia, West Indies, the second son of Dr
R A Hoyte MB. ChB. (Edin), originally of Trinidad and later of Ghana, West Africa.
He was educated at Farnworth Grammar School and entered Manchester Medical
School graduating MB. ChB. (Hons) in 1946. During his undergraduate career he
was Vice-President of the Medical Students’ Representative Association.
After Resident Posts in Stockport, he served with R.A.M.C. in Egypt and Cyprus,
latterly being attached to 40th Commando Company, Royal Marines. On
completing National Service, he joined the Territorial Army becoming a Major with
a Lancashire Field Ambulance.
In 1952 he embarked on an academic career in anatomy at the University of
Manchester becoming in turn, demonstrator and then Lecturer at the Medical
School. During his time at Manchester he gained his Doctorate in Medicine,
winning the Gold Medal. A move to the West Indies followed in 1960, firstly as
Senior Lecturer and then as Professor of Anatomy in Jamaica. During this time
he was Chairman of the University Admissions Group, Pre-clinical Vice-Dean and
University Public Orator. During the tenure of a Rockefeller Fellowship he was
Visiting Professor at Ann Arbour, the University of Manitoba and the University of
Helsinki.
With a return to the UK in 1974 came a sea change in David Hoyte’s career. He
became a principal in General Practice in Kegworth and Gotham and part-time
Senior Lecturer in Human Morphology in the University of Nottingham. He
became a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1978 and
eventually to the appointment of the Fellowship of the Royal College of General
Practitioners.
David Hoyte’s Presidential Address to the Society dealt, perhaps not surprisingly,
with the history and development of the University of the West Indies in which he
had played no small part. His fascinating and wide-ranging career enabled him
to draw in speakers of diverse interests to illuminate fascinating sessions.
103
Appendix 4
Finale - Message from Dr. Anderson
It is a fitting tribute to David Hoyte to finish this book with his entry in the
Nottingham Medical Society book ‘From Sawbones to Keyholes’ published in
2003. The Honorary Archivist to the City Hospital in Nottingham, Paul
Smith, describes the Med Chi Presidents from 1828 to 2002.
This ‘Apple a Day’ history of the Kegworth and Gotham medical practices
runs in parallel with local GPs from 1835 and health care archives from
1601.
Each generation has seen massive developments in medical care and we are
now very proactive as well as reactive to medical issues in an increasingly
challenging and complex medical environment.
You may have personal memories and reflections to add to the richness of
this book and to Sue Brompton’s skilled authorship. I am proud to have
edited and published it as a legacy to the medical teams in previous
centuries, currently, and in the future.
In August 2014 at the ‘Apple a Day’ book launch we planted a ‘Compassion’
rose by the Kegworth Surgery patient entrance. After twenty two happy
and busy years as ‘Dr Anderson and Partners’ I handed on the baton to ‘Dr
Foster and Partners’ to concentrate on my Associate Professor role at
Nottingham Medical School and facilitate ‘Growing our own Doctors’.
‘Caritas and Compassion’ is a suitable enduring motto.
Caritas RCGP Rose
Dr. Caroline M Anderson, August 2014
104

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