When we are considering the pros and cons of the NHS in the 21st century it’s a good idea to jump back in time to the ‘good old days’ to see what’s changed for the better—and, with regard to healthcare in SWF, where better to start than with Audrey Holden’s account.
She takes us back to a time before the NHS … and before game changers like the introduction of antibiotics and the widespread use of vaccines to combat killer diseases. To get a feel for what life was like, have a look at the gravestones in All Saints Churchyard in Purleigh when you’re next in the area—so many children died from diseases which are now easily preventable or treatable.
Audrey points out that, in the pre-NHS days, patients had to pay to see a doctor – but says there was a certain amount of ‘Robin Hooding’ going on here in that the rich were asked to pay more in order that the poor could receive treatment free of charge.
Audrey’s account took in the ‘swinging 60s’ when Dr Frew’s Wickford practice and the Danbury practice were, between them, providing primary healthcare to the residents. Dr Robert Frew, would came back from his practice in Wickford two or three times in a single day to see a patient he was worried about. They were made of sterner stuff back then! I remember my Mum telling me that our family GP in Wimbledon Park—Dr Bodkin—sat with my parents overnight at a time when I was very ill. They were tremendously grateful … as was I when was old enough to appreciate what he’d done. It influenced the way I provided terminal care. The relatives involved usually had no ‘hands on’ experience of death and dying and most of them did a great job despite feeing all at sea. They just needed somebody to say “You’re doing a great job” and to be on hand if there was a problem (as the GP who’d known them all for years could quickly and easily sort out most issues.)
Some patients I spoke to remembered trips to the Danbury surgery. One delightful elderly lady told me that she used to cycle everywhere when she came here in 1953 (Danbury and Chelmsford included) as the bus service was so bad. If you missed a bus you sometimes had to wait 4 hours for the next one. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!
Audrey describes “a demountable temporary surgery” in the Warwick Parade vicinity which meant that it wasn’t always necessary to travel to Danbury to be seen. The late great Vivian Porth described this as “a caravan” and said patients often had to stand outside whilst waiting to be seen … whatever the weather.
I’ve mentioned the lack of confidentiality in the ‘tin church’ (aka St Mary’s Mission Hall) where Dr Ingold, whose voice carried well, held her antenatal clinics. When you discussed the news of her pregnancy the conversation reverberated around the chapel … much to the delight of the other patients waiting, seated in the pews at the back of the chapel.
One of her patients (Lilli Mint) told us about Dr Ingold coming out to her one snowy Christmas Day as she suspected premature labour – and asking Mr Lloyd Rankin, the Obs and Gynae Consultant at St John’s Hospital (who delivered my kids) to visit her at home to decide on how best to manage the case. Wow – what an amazing service!
Audrey ends her account in 1985 when, despite the extensive development here, the prospect of any purpose built facility was “still a dream.” The stopgap solution to the lack of a health clinic was a couple of rooms in the fire station.
The aerial photo shows Woodham at a time when the Health Clinic, Greenwood Surgery and Brickfields Surgery had been completed. They were part of the town centre ‘health hub’. As you can see there was plenty of space for parking in those days (people used to use the area around the old ‘Flix Cinema’ as an overspill car park) and there was land potentially available in the town centre for additional healthcare facilities … but more of that later.
Dr John Cormack
Historical account compiled in 1985 by Audrey Holden on behalf of the South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society. (With thanks to John Frankland).