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on duty. The load on nursing organisation has been, and continues to be, extraordinarily
heavy, for as many as 16 patients have simultaneously required to be given artificial
respiration continuously in special machines, each calling for the utmost vigilance and care
It says much for those nurses who accept this very great responsibility that they have
carried and continue to carry out their very heavy work with great energy and unremitting
care and concentration, and many patients owe their survival and comfort to their unselfish
and uncomplaining devotion.
The physiotherapy staff of the hospital has had to be augmented. This is not done
solely for the care of affected limb or trunk muscles but also for the specialised work
entailed in the prevention and treatment of lung complications which may arise when
breathing muscle paralysis or swallowing difficulties are present. The regularity of the
physiotherapy rota of duty has had to be considerably altered. No longer can it be
planned on a system in which the team ceases to function in the late afternoon and early on
Saturday; but arrangements have had to be made to provide a shift system to cover late hours
and even night work and of course the week ends and public holidays. This onerous duty has
been accepted with great enthusiasm and efficiency by the physiotherapy staff, without whose
efforts it would indeed have been impossible to reach the satisfactory results achieved,
The hospital's special wards and theatres have been supplied for some years with a
system of emergency lighting and power which provides a standby in the event of electricity
cuts or breakdown, with immediate automatic operation. This is an essential service in
places where so much depends on uninterrupted electric power which is required to operate
the special breathing pumps, one of which is necessary for each seriously complicated case
with suffocative symptoms.
There are still 22 cases of paralytic poliomyelitis in hospital, many with respiratory
muscle paralysis. A number of these have not yet reached the level of recovery where
their transfer to long stay orthopaedic hospitals can be safely carried out, but some are
likely to achieve that grading in the near future.
w.Howlett Kelleher
Physician Superintendent
25th January 1956