Builth Cottage Hospital, A Centenary History 1897-1997, by Gwen Davies
Foreword | Acknowledgements | Prologue Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 |
Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Epilogue
The League of Hospital Friends, by Betts Pugh
Builth, Queen of the Wye, by Jim Davies
Chapter Ten - "A NEW ERA"
The Inaugural Meeting of the Brecon and Radnor Hospital Management
Committee was held in the boardroom of the Brecon War Memorial
Hospital on 31st may 1948.
Present were: Mr E A Watts (Chairman)
Mrs Gibson–Watt, Mrs J G Eadie
Brig. Venables-Llewelyn
Ald. Tudor Watkins MP
Messrs T O Collier, W J Bevan, T P Davies, Mr Moseley.
Drs Miller, Kerr, Bettison, Watson and Davies.
It was decided that hospitals should enjoy a high degree of independence
and autonomy within their own spheres. Freedom for local
initiative and enterprise would be encouraged with the Board being
responsible for day to day control and would act as agents for
the Board. As there was a need for a smooth transition to
the new management structure on 5th July 1948, the committee would
appoint all hospital staff with the exception of Senior Medical
Officers and Specialists.
Patients could obtain, free of charge, the services of Specialists
on the recommendation of Doctors, and there would be no boundaries
with reference to this service.
Local interest would be maintained and local public meetings would
be held each year so that links with the community would continue.
Shortly after this meeting was held a seat became vacant on the
Management Committee – Mr Meredith Jones applied to fill
this vacancy and was accepted. He then joined Mrs J G Eadie on
the Committee representing Builth Hospital
On August 11th 1948 the Committee was informed that a property
adjoining Builth Hospital was being offered for sale. It
was suggested that, should the necessity arise, this building could
be adapted for an extension to the hospital and the opinion of
the Board was being sought. The reply was that the purchase
of the property known as Craigydyddd could not be contemplated
at that time.
An application was made for a portable X-ray unit to be supplied
to Builth Hospital.
The Management Committee had for some time been in consultation
with the Breconshire county Council regarding the adaptation of
shoes for children with feet problems. It was eventually
agreed that the Council should bear the cost of any repairs or
specialist adjustment of shoes for such children if the alterations
had been recommended by the Orthopaedic Clinic.
Mr Dick Davenport, who had been secretary at the hospital for
several years, informed the committee that he ad been offered a
position as clerk to the three Builth Doctors who were in partnership
and taken premises together at “Maesycoed”. Mr
Davenport would be responsible for the keeping of patients’ records
and other clerical duties from 9 am until 10 am and from 6 pm to
7 pm. He wished in future to work at the hospital on a part
time basis from 1 pm to 5 pm. This suggestion was to be considered
by the committee. Mr Davenport did, in fact, work these hours
for some time. He eventually left the hospital position to
become full time secretary at the surgery, and was popularly known
as “Dr Dick”. Later he was joined by Mrs Anne
Lloyd who had formerly been a Nursing Sister at the hospital.
In 1950, the need for more accommodation at the hospital became
acute, as babies were sleeping in the Operating Theatre. On
hearing of this Dr Stenner Evans said the practice should cease
forthwith and a single bed ward was to be found immediately to
accommodate the babies. Within a few months a small ward
had been converted into a Baby unit and a baby bath was installed.
At this time all TB patients were seen by a specialist at “Haulybryn” which
was a recognised TB Visiting Station and was rented for that purpose. It
was decided that this practice should be discontinued and that
all TB patients should attend at the hospital for consultation
with Dr Ivor Williams.
In 1951 a letter was received from the British Urban District
Council requesting a meeting with the Management Committee and
the three local Councils to discuss the question of a Mortuary. The
Hospital Management resolved not to agree to this meeting and pointed
out that it was the responsibility of the Local Authority to provide
mortuary accommodation. Furthermore, it had been brought
to the attention of the Management that a body, other than
that of a patient, had been brought to the Hospital Mortuary, and
they were unable to sanction the admission of any body when death
did not occur within the hospital. After further pressure
from the Council they did not meet with the other Authorities when
Dr T C R George, Medical Officer of Health, expressed the hope
that the Committee would give favourable consideration to the suggestion
that the Hospital Mortuary be enlarged and used for both public
ad hospital purposes. The management committee decided that
there was no money available to undertake any building work and,
in their opinion, it was undesirable to have a public mortuary
within hospital grounds. They decided to stay with their
original decision.
The Hospital continued under the sometimes autocratic rule of
Matron Dodd who at one time asked the house committee for a ruling
as to whether the doctors or herself should have the final say
on the admission of patients.
More and more patients were being X-rayed and in 1956 a new Chest
Screening Unit, ordered by the management, arrived at the hospital,
but it was found to be too large to be accommodated in the intended
room. This necessitated a great deal of re-organisation and
it was decided that the new unit be transferred to the Day Room
and the present X-ray room to be used as a waiting room. This
left the management with the problem of there being no room in
which to hold committee meetings. They solved this quandary
by passing it over to the finance committee to sort out!
One of the first changes which the new Management introduced was
to cancel the long standing arrangements of buying goods locally,
and they introduced bulk buying of groceries and provisions for
the group of hospital from a central purchasing point in Talgarth,
although milk was still obtained from Mr Ivor Jarman, Caepandy
Dairy and fish purchased from Mr Lance Burns in Builth High Street.
In July 1957 Matron Audrey Dodd died very suddenly and Miss A
M McRae of Brighton was appointed in her place. Before Matron
McRae arrived to take up her duties in December, the committee
decided to completely redecorate and refurnish her room and consideration
was as given to providing her with a Matron’ Office if space
could be found. Prior to her coming to Builth, Matron McRae
had been a Major in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Arming Nursing
Crops.
The Welsh Board of Health was asked to appoint a Radiographer to
serve the Builth and Brecon hospital and the south Wales Sanatorium
as a matter of urgency.
“Gills” the gardener, who had been in charge of the
hospital ground and gardens for over twenty years, had decided
to retire. At a small ceremony to mark his retirement, he
was presented with a gift of £20 and thanked for the devotion
and skill with which had carried out his work 0ver the years. Mr
Jim Davies, Cilmery, another fine gardener, was appointed, with
additional duties as boilerman. Jim worked at the hospital
in many capacities until his retirement in 1980. His gardening
duties became reduced over the years as more and more of the garden
were taken over for building the hospital extensions.
An Out-patients treatment room was becoming essential and as there
was absolutely no room available within the main building, it was
suggested that a wooden hut on the west side of the hospital be
adapted and furnished. – the cost would be in the region
of £220. An inspection of the hut revealed that it
was storing a number of emergency beds which had been held there
since the war years. Permission had to be sought to dispose
of these now redundant items.
The need for more accommodation was becoming more and more acute
and in June 1958 the medical staff together with Matron McRae
met with the regional architect to discuss alteration to the Operating
Theatre and the siting of the new Autoclave. A thorough inspection
of the building was made and the Brecon and Radnor Hospital management
Committee decided that extensive alterations were long overdue.
The Great Upheaval
After the decision was made to up-date the hospital, a massive
rebuilding plan was put into operation. So great was the
upheaval that it necessitated the hospital being closed for what
was intended to be a short while.
The plans completely modernised the Victorian building with a
new, additional wing being added. The operating theatre was
completely rebuilt and re-equipped with a sterilising room and
a new X-ray department was installed. The former male ward
was converted to a maternity Ward with a small unit for new born
babies. All the original fireplaces and chimneys were removed
to make more room in the wards. The entire hospital was completely
re-floored and joy of joys the old manually operated lift was replaced
with a spacious electric model to the great relief of the staff
and patients. When all the building work was completed the
whole hospital was decorated throughout. With is modern
equipment and gleaming wall and floors and spacious wards, it was
aid to be the best in Mid Wales and was certainly the pride of
North Breconshire.
However, all these alterations took much longer than at first
anticipated and the closure of the hospital caused some disruption
to patients and medical staff. While the operating
theatre was closed during alterations, patients requiring operations
were transported to Llandrindod Hospital where they were operated
on by their own doctor. X-ray examinations had to be postponed
and the delay in re-opening caused both the Builth Urban Council
and the Colwyn Rural Council to write deploring the length of time
the alterations were taking. Colwyn Rural wanted to be given
a definite re-opening date and suggested that he public be invited
to inspect the completed work. The Hospital Management Committee
too expressed their concern and placed the blame on the lack of
co-ordination between the various departments of the Board and
Health who were responsible for the work. Perhaps they should
have been reminded that in 1897 a small local builder had built
the entire hospital in 16 months.
The disruption had been a time of trauma for the nursing staff
also, as when the hospital was closed to patients and the building
was in turmoil, Matron and nurses turned their hands to the making
of cubicle and window curtains, while surrounded by building chaos.
The work was eventually completed in August 1959. The decorators
left and the newly refurbished hospital was opened to the public
for their inspection, as had been suggested by the Colwyn Rural
Council. All visitors expressed great admiration for the
work done and were grateful to get their hospital back in working
order.
There was only one problem – with all the upheaval, the
disruption and the cost, Builth Hospital was still without a satisfactory
Out-Patients Department.
Matron McRae, who for much of the time she was at the hospital
had endured the chaos and disruption of the rebuilding programme,
tendered her resignation in 1960 as she was about to be married. Happily,
before she left the work had been completed and she was able to
take pleasure in the re-furbished building for a short while.
Matron Beryl Rees was appointed in her place.
Miss Rees was a lady of tremendous character and generosity of
spirit, well remembered for her pleasant disposition and sense
of humour. Her previous appointment had been as matron of
the 800 bed “King George Vth Hospital” in Nairobi,
during which time Elizabeth the Queen Mother presented her with
the OBE for her services to nursing at the time of the Mau-Mau
uprising in Kenya. Matron Rees managed the 25-bed hospital
at Builth with consumate ease, even finding time to teach some
of the staff to drive. She was the last matron to “live
in” at the hospital.
Previous Page | Next Page