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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.

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