Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:We ALL wore uniform outside CH ----- remember it was Wartime and Clothes rationing.
We were NEVER, as I remember, allowed into Horsham, at all.
The theory being that, if we were to return bearing the germs of the "Dreaded Lurgi" or the like, it would spread through the closed community of the School, like wildfire !

Now that contact with the wider world is permitted ---- has this ever happened ?

Major flu epidemic in the mid 1950's despite very limited access to Horsham

http://www.chforum.info/pictures/largei ... ct1957.jpg

Like 45 others I was in bed when this was taken

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:I believe that JR and myself, are excused any comments !


I mean, apart from anything else --------- GIRLS ????


(Actually --- I for one would have been delighted !!! )

A bit like National Service, which I missed by a year or two and had I not opted for the police, may well have joined up.

Missing the girls coming to Horsham was something I DID regret !!

The uniform was dropped as part of the Horsham visit rules soon after the arrival of Peter Southern in the mid 1990s. It was felt that it drew attention to the pupils in a way that was not helpful. Sound but sad as many in Horsham now never see the uniform.

.... unless they`re sitting in Horsham`s Minor Injury dept for 4 hours like I was with a pupil earlier today!

Mrs C. wrote:.... unless they`re sitting in Horsham`s Minor Injury dept for 4 hours like I was with a pupil earlier today!

Only 4 hours ????

Could've been worse: E.S.H. at Redhill, frinstance !!

It looks as if we are about to start a new Topic on NHS waiting time !
Bournemouth Hospital are top of my admiration list, having returned me to society --- a bit lighter !!
(I am in again on the 10th -- to see if they have missed anything !)

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:It looks as if we are about to start a new Topic on NHS waiting time !
Bournemouth Hospital are top of my admiration list, having returned me to society --- a bit lighter !!
(I am in again on the 10th -- to see if they have missed anything !)

Don't get me started, Neill: I could boggle everyone's mind with my detailed records of excruciatingly long and boring waits for chemotherapy to start, for drugs bags to be changed ( what's the point of bleepers if there aren't enough staff available - ever! - to respond?); in fact waiting without complaint is the one skill I would recommend every prospective NHS outpatient should learn, for the sake of their own sanity ...

Try living in the States without insurance and you will become great admirers of the British health system in a hurry.

LongGone wrote:Try living in the States without insurance and you will become great admirers of the British health system in a hurry.

My son had a fit in Manhattan and was rushed to the hospital part of an Ivy League Uni; he had no ID or papers with him. In 3 hours they did an MRI scan, treated him and got him into bed. I understand it took the social worker another 4 hours to get his mothers name and phone number and she then phoned us in England. She even got us accommodation for when we were there. IMHO that is good service.

My wife had a fall and went to A & E; the doctor was busy so the nurse started working on the lacerations and the doctor arrived 3 minutes later. He didn't use steristrips because a woman would not like the scars on her face - the cuts and stitch marks are now invisible. He then had X-rays taken, dealt with a broken nose and we left less than 40 minutes after arriving. That was the French equivalent of the NHS though I understand that service elsewhere can be a bit slower sometimes.

UK minor injuries clinics ....................... don't get me started again

Two months ago my 94 year old mother-in-law tripped over a loose paving slab. Para-medic took 75 mins and ambulance 2 hours, (tho, they kept saying it was on its way). It was then another 5 hours at A&E before she finally had xrays,which showed fractured wrist and chipped cheek bone, and another 2 hours before wrist was plastered....I've always previously had no quarrels with NHS, but that was ridiculous. Fortunately she has recovered amazingly and is back to doing almost everything for herself.

sejintenej wrote:

LongGone wrote:Try living in the States without insurance and you will become great admirers of the British health system in a hurry.

My son had a fit in Manhattan and was rushed to the hospital part of an Ivy League Uni; he had no ID or papers with him. In 3 hours they did an MRI scan, treated him and got him into bed. I understand it took the social worker another 4 hours to get his mothers name and phone number and she then phoned us in England. She even got us accommodation for when we were there. IMHO that is good service.

UK minor injuries clinics ....................... don't get me started again

So: who paid for all of it? Normally you would get hit with a bill for several thousand dollars if you had no insurance.

My mother was so careless as to go to the Loo at 11pm, without her Zimmer frame ------
The inevitable happened, and her fall broke a hip.
I was, fortunately still up and about and heard a faint cry -------
The Ambulance arrived within about 15 minutes, and she was transferred to the Hospital.

NOW THEN ---during the journey, she insisted that they were taking the wrong route, and repeated this until arrival.
(She was, of course an EVANS !!!)

It was pointed out to her, by TBA, who nipped down from ITU, to see her,.-- that a new bypass had been built, which cut TBA's journey, on duty,to the Hospital by 10 minutes !

Mother, of course, was unaware of how long it took TBA to get to work !

LongGone wrote:

sejintenej wrote:

LongGone wrote:Try living in the States without insurance and you will become great admirers of the British health system in a hurry.

My son had a fit in Manhattan and was rushed to the hospital part of an Ivy League Uni; he had no ID or papers with him. In 3 hours they did an MRI scan, treated him and got him into bed. I understand it took the social worker another 4 hours to get his mothers name and phone number and she then phoned us in England. She even got us accommodation for when we were there. IMHO that is good service.

UK minor injuries clinics ....................... don't get me started again

So: who paid for all of it? Normally you would get hit with a bill for several thousand dollars if you had no insurance.

Remembering that he had been unconscious when he went to the hospital and his belongings did not go with him, nobody knew anything but they still tested and treated him. Eventually they found out that he had insurance but only after quite a while. In the event we never did get all his belongings back.

Horsham hospital has never been good though, I spent my fair share of time there both pre and during CH, I was even born there. At one point when i was about 9 most of the casualty nurses knew my by name when we passed in the street. Perils of living on a farm and being curious.

But I think my worst was curtesy ofCH's Dr Hoskyn's, I leant back against a LHB dayroom window which was actually open, fell out and put my arm out to arrest the fall (remember it is 4 steps up into LHB on that side). I went to the sicker where i was given tubigrip and aspirin by Dr Hoskyn's who was not amused to have his Sunday afternoon disturbed, at about 1am I could bear the pain no longer having not slept at all and went back again. Nurse gave me a larger tubigrip and more aspirin. Morning surgery after no sleep Dr looked at it again and due to my moaning booked me to go to Hospital for x-ray after morning school. Turned out I had broken 9 bones in and around my wrist/thumb and spent 9 weeks in plaster over that summer. Nearly made the nurse sick when they removed that plaster as i had worked on the farm and had barley growing under it, complete with a root network in the layer of dead skin.

Nearly made the nurse sick when they removed that plaster as i had worked on the farm and had barley growing under it, complete with a root network in the layer of dead skin.

Thank you for that lovely image Wurzel! Now I remember why I didn't go into nursing...