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Transcript of address given by Mr Fred Payne, President of the
League of Friends
at League of Friends Annual Service in the Hospital Chapel on 12th
November 2008
Torbay
Hospital 80 ….
NHS 60 ….
League of Friends 55
This year we are celebrating the 80th
Anniversary of the Torbay Hospital, the 60th Anniversary of the
formation of the National Health Service, and also commemorating the
work of the League of Friends. This, however, is not the first
Torbay Hospital; that Hospital was built in the early 1850's when
Torquay with a population of 6000 was growing following the arrival
of the railway in Torquay.
In the early 1920's it was decided that
the existing hospital was inadequate to meet the needs of Torquay
and the surrounding area and it should be replaced. The problem was
Where and How? At this stage a gentleman named Robert Kitson who
lived in Shiphay Manor offered the Hospital Board a house and
fifteen acres of land surrounding the house as a site for a new
hospital for £8000. They did not have £8000 and it was at this
stage a lady called Ella Rowcroft came forward and purchased the
house and land and gave it as a site for a new hospital
Having now acquired a site the problem for
the Board of Governors was where was the money to build the hospital
coming from? In June 1925 the President of the Board of governors
received a letter from Mrs. Rowcroft offering a gift of £100,000 for
the building of the new Hospital and Hospital Chapel. Today that
gift would represent a sum of between £15M and £18M.
(Mrs. Rowcroft lived in a house called "Pilmuir”
and she later had a house built nearby for her companion and friend
Mary Delve. One day Mrs. Rowcroft saw a beautiful rainbow over the
house as it was being built and she called the new house "The
Rainbow". Today "Pilmuir" and "The Rainbow" are the Rowcroft
Hospice).
Mrs. Rowcroft's offer was accepted and
tenders were invited for the building of the Hospital first.
Seventeen tenders were received and the lowest was £99,990 leaving
just £10 for the building of the Chapel. Again Mrs. Rowcroft came
forward and offered a further gift of £12,000 for the building of
the beautiful Hospital Chapel as a memorial to her parents.
The hospital was built and opened to
patients on 28th September 1928 and the Chapel on 13th August 1930.
The new Hospital had a bed complement of 146 and 250 staff a
proportion being Student Nurses as the hospital was a recognised
Nurse Training School. In the first year the hospital treated 1800
in-patients with an average stay of 22 days.
The hospital served the community right
through the Second World War and then in 1948 it became part of the
National Health Service. The former voluntary Board of Governors
was replaced by a Statutory Authority called The Hospital Management
Committee, replaced after 25 years by an Area Health Authority then
after another ten years by Torbay Health Authority, which became
Torbay Healthcare Trust and is now Torbay Foundation Trust.
The original Hospital built in 1928 had
very few alterations until in 1966/7 it was decided that the
hospital should be extended. Building work commenced in 1968 and
the new extensions, which included new residential blocks, were
opened on 1st May 1970. These extensions included the Tower Block,
Out-patients, Accident and Emergency Departments and many more
departments in fact the only department remaining in the old
building was the Radiotherapy (Oncology) Department which took over
the vacated out-patients and Casualty Departments.
Since that date there has hardly a day
gone by when there is not some development, alteration or extension
taking place at the hospital. This is illustrated by recent
additions to the Accident and Emergency Department and the building
of the new Training Centre on the old hospital drive.
In 1948 when the Health Service was set
up, the Ministry of Health stated that there would be no need for
voluntary bodies working in hospitals; in fact, they were banned
from meeting on hospital premises. It was soon realised that this
was a mistake and in the early 1950's Hospital Authorities were
instructed to encourage the setting up of League of Friends.
In 1954 a Public Meeting was held in the
old Electricity Showrooms under the chairmanship of the Mayor of
Torquay to which all organisations and the general public were
invited. From that meeting the Torbay Hospital League of Friends
was set up. The League started in a small way, the first gift being
a fruit bowl to go on every patient's locker. As the League grew it
was able to provide larger gifts such as patients' beds throughout
the hospital, bedside lockers, and curtains around beds for the
first time and dayrooms where patients could sit in comfort away
from the ward atmosphere. The first major medical project the League
undertook was for a Cobalt Unit and many can remember the exciting
day the hospital had when the Duke of Edinburgh attended to open the
new Cobalt Unit and the Hydro-therapy Pool.
In all the League has raised something
like £13M which has enabled it to undertaken major projects such as
the MRI (One million pounds), CT. Scanner (half million pounds),
Upgrade Children's facilities (one million pounds) Endoscopy
equipment (£760,000} Chest Pain Unit (£600,000) and many others far
too many to mention. At the present time the League is committed to
provide one and a half million pounds towards the five million
pound new Training Centre under construction on the old hospital
drive. One gift which all could see on the sunny afternoon was the
new windows in the Hospital Chapel which cost £30,000.
Although the League is mainly a fund
raising organisation one must not lose sight of the large number of
volunteers who attend the hospital daily and weekly in the
Outpatients Canteen and Guide Service and the Linen League.
Over the years many have seen the
hospital develope from what it was in its early days to what it is
today - a District General Hospital which is loved and appreciated
by the local community and recognised on a Regional and National
basis for the high class care and attention it gives to its
patients.
Torbay has a lot to be thankful for. |
