Annual report : 1940 / Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital.

  • Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1940 / Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/60 (page 17)
    Not one building or department escaped extensive damage, and little imagination is required to realise fully not only the dangers which the Staff on duty had to face, but the great difficulties which confronted them. x* • « J The following day all patients were transferred to other Hospitals, and the Staff were accom¬ modated at the Kenilworth Convalescent Home—which earlier in the year had been acquired for Hospital use—and at our Convalescent Home at Keresley. A few days later many of the Probationer Nurses, with a few trained Staff, were transferred for duty to Barnsley Hall Emergency Hospital, Bromsgrove. # A week later the Emergency Committee—which was appointed by the Board of Management in December last year—met to consider the position, and immediately convened a Special Meeting of the Board of Management, which was held on April 24th. In the meantime,4Sir Alfred Herbert— to whom this Hospital owes so much—had written expressing his great distress at the disaster which had overtaken the Hospital, and offered a generous donation of £10,000 to assist in carrying on the Hospital services. This gift would be made over a period of years, under Deed of Covenant, and the Hospital would ultimately benefit to the extent of approximately £20,000—but in order to provide immediate funds Sir Alfred offered to lend £10,000 free of interest and repayable over a period of seven years. He had approached Lord Nuffield—another generous benefactor of the Hospital—who had immediately and generously offered to give a donation of £10,000 provided a similar sum was raised by public subscription by the end of May, 1941. The Board of Management, having discussed the many problems involved, and fully appre¬ ciating that apart from the Out-Patient Department, none of the present Hospital buildings could be brought into use, resolved that every avenue be explored, and all necessary steps be taken, to acquire other suitable premises and to carry on our services as a Voluntary Hospital. The Emergency Committee were authorised to collaborate with Sir Alfred Herbert in launching an immediate Appeal for funds, and to report to the Board of Management as occasion required upon the measures taken or proposed in connection with the re-establishment of the Hospital services. At this Meeting, approval was also given to the following suggestions from the Emergency Committee :—(1) that a temporary modified Out Patient service be instituted in Department 17 ; (2) that Operating Theatre accommodation be provided at Keresley Convalescent Hospital; (3) that authority be given for the purchase of two small vertical steam boilers. I • The “ Emergency Fund Appeal ” has met with most gratifying success. Employers and the general public have responded magnificently, and up to date* the Appeal Fund amounts to £31,913 0s. 0d., exclusive of the donations from Sir Alfred Herbert and Lord Nuffield. Your Board wishes to take this opportunity of conveying to Sir Alfred Herbert, to Lord Nuffield, and to our numerous friends who have responded so readily and so generously to our appeal for funds, most sincere and grateful thanks. The present position regarding Hospital services may be summarised as follows :— (1) Repairs to the Out-Patient Department are nearing completion—but for the time being out patients and casualties are receiving treatment in the old Medical Block. It is hoped, however, that the section of the Out-Patient Departments allocated for our Casualty services will be ready for occupation by the end of this week. (2) The costly X-Ray Diagnostic and X Ray Therapy apparatus has been dismantled and taken to Keresley. A new building—of air raid shelter construction—is in course of erection at Keresley, and will, it is anticipated, be ready for occupation within the next six weeks. This will provide a Casualty Department for night casualties ; a Department for major X-Ray diagnosis and for X-Ray treatment, and will have accommodation for twenty in-patients. (3) Operating facilities are now available at Keresley and sixty in-patients beds are now in use. *{The date of the Annual Meeting, June 11th, 1941)