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The hospital, which has accommodation for 136 patients, was established in
1920 by the Council of Management of the United Services Fund for the benefit of
those children of their ex-service comrades in the Great War who were suffering
from surgical tuberculosis and other orthopaedic diseases. At that time the
facilities for the form of treatment that could be provided at Heatherwood hospital
did not exist to the same extent throughout the country generally as they do to-day.
At the date of transfer, the number of patients admitted to the hospital since
its establishment amounted to 1,564, drawn from all parts of the country, and of
these 1,452 had been discharged. In 1,096 cases, the disease had been arrested
and in other cases the condition had been improved.
Investigations made as to the final results of the cases discharged have shown
that a remarkably high percentage of complete recoveries has taken place, many
of the earlier cases now being in full-time employment. A clinic held in London
every two weeks undertook until 30th September, 1934, the after-care of cases
residing in and near London. These clinics are now held at the County Hall.
The hospital consists of three ward blocks, one for children of both sexes up to
the age of seven, and one each for girls and boys over that age. There is a light
treatment block in which the most up-to-date types of lamps are installed. The
hospital stands in fifty-five acres of grounds, partly wooded and partly laid out as
gardens, and is practically self-contained, having its own lighting and heating plant,
laundry and workshops ; also a sewage disposal works. All splints and other
surgical appliances required by patients are made in the hospital workshops, in
which a few suitable patients were formerly employed as apprentices. All extensive
market garden supplies the hospital with most of its requirements in
vegetables and fruit, important items in the children's diet.
Four teachers work under the direction of the head teacher, and the hospital
school is recognised as such by the Board of Education and the Ministry of Health.
Recently at an International Exhibition of Cripples' Work at Bristol, the hospital
secured 6 first class diplomas, 10 second class diplomas, and 16 third class diplomas
for the work of the children. There are active Boy Scout and Girl Guide troops in
the hospital.
The nursing staff are accommodated in the original mansion on the estate,
which is situated a little distance from the wards.
It is proposed to extend the buildings so as to accommodate 100 additional
patients.
The following work was done in the special departments of the hospital during
the year:—301 plasters applied, 67 casts taken, 512 X-rays taken, 24 clinical
photographs taken, 4,017 plaster bandages used, 178 operations performed, 71
dental extractions, 44 dental anæsthetics, 60 dental fillings, 11,335 light treatments
given, and 6,432 treatments by massage and remedial exercises; while in the
hospital workshops 328 splints were made and 103 repaired for in-patients and 254
made and 98 repaired for out-patients seen at the after-care clinic.
Reservation
of beds for
Middlesex
cases.
The Middlesex County Council had an arrangement with the United Services
Fund whereby 25 beds at the hospital were reserved for their patients. It was
agreed that these beds should continue to be reserved for Middlesex County Council
cases for two years from 1st October, 1934, or until such earlier time as that County
Council could make other satisfactory arrangements, subject to the full cost of
maintenance being paid for each bed, whether occupied or not.
Treatment of tuberculosis.
The medical superintendent of King George V. sanatorium (Dr. Watt) has
reported that there was no substantial change in the character of the cases treated.
As in former years, the proportion of early cases of pulmonary tuberculosis admitted
for treatment was about a quarter of the whole. He states that the modern
tendency is to attack more actively than formerly disease that has damaged the
lungs considerably, that there are, of course, many failures among these more or
less advanced cases, but that, on the other hand, there are a good many brilliant
successes. He adds that a higher percentage of cases than formerly leave King