12. The State Opening of ....

The State Opening of Parliament recently made me think about all the opening ceremonies that must have occurred on the Joyce Green Hospital site during its lifetime.

A smallpox epidemic apparently occurred during the winter of 1901/02 and The Orchard Hospital was built on some farmland between Long Reach Hospital and the area of land that would later house Joyce Green Hospital. Finally, with no signs whatsoever that the smallpox problem was going to disappear, Joyce Green Hospital was opened in 1903 to complement the existing inadequate provision.

But who, I have been wondering, "opened" the hospital and what sort of ceremony - if any - occurred to mark its birth ? When hundreds of patients a month were being admitted during an epidemic of the sort that we are talking about there probably wasn't the time, the inclination or the necessary public health safety-margin to have allowed for a grand ceremony.

Perhaps Dr Ricketts, the Medical Superintendant and the first Matron, Miss Wacher, were joined by a representative of the Metropolitan Asylum Board (the reigning hospital authority) and the hospital chaplain or a local priest for a short and simple act of dedication ? I wonder if we shall never know what actually took place ?

And what about when other buildings, facilities and services came on-stream during the hospital's long life ? The horse-drawn tram system, for example, which carried patients and goods between the three hospitals during the period 1903-1930, the conversion of Joyce Green from a London County Council-run hospital into a local NHS hospital at the time of the creation of the 1948 National Health Service, the amalgamation of the three existing nurse training schools into one new school in 1951 and the subsequent amalgamation of the Southern Hospital with the Joyce Green Hospital in 1959 ?

As many people are aware the latter was marked by the opening of an outdoor swimming pool at Joyce Green in 1961 and no doubt there are still many colleagues around still who remember that great day in May when a certain Mr S.C. Harris, OBE, JP declared it "well and truly open"?

In 1963 Sir Arthur Porritt, President of the Royal College of Surgeons opened the new twin operating suite and in 1969 the new psychiatric unit began to function.

Obviously individuals who worked within the hospital more recently will recall other changes and developments, however one thing that I am also left pondering about is: What ceremony and celebrations accompanied the closure of the hospital on 11th September 2000 ? Surely, I find myself saying, a number of events must have taken place to mark the end of Joyce Green's long and distinguished life ?

Perhaps you are in a position to be able to comment on what sort of ceremony and activities took place to mark the closure of the hospital but perhaps you can also recall some of the details relating to some of the smaller opening ceremonies that occurred whilst the hospital was still active ?

Blogarama have now come on-board to help, too.

Blog-hunting (i.e. searching for a blog) ? Why not try www.blogarama.com ?

Blogarama have recently agreed to help make enquirers aware of this Joyce Green Hosp. blog ?

11. Joyce Green's motto

Thinking a bit more about hospital badges with their emblems and mottos has made me wonder if Joyce Green Hospital ever had a motto ?

Bombay Hospital's motto apparently arose from something that Mahatma Ghandi once said. "A patient is the most important person in our hospital. He is not an interruption to our work, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider, he is a part of it of our hospital. We are not doing a favour by serving him, he is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so".

So, if the definition of the word motto is: "a short sentence or phrase encapsulating a belief or ideal" what then I wonder was JG's motto ... if it ever had one ? Or, if it didn't have one, I wonder what phrase might have encapsulated the hospital's endeavours ?

Two questions then ... Do you know whether the hospital ever had a motto (and given that "Joyce" served humanity for nearly one hundred years, it seems highly likely that one of our predecessors might well have produced one) and secondly,- can you suggest something that might have been suitable, just for the fun of it ? What about the latin phrase: "Experientia docet" - Experience is the best teacher ?

10. New friends

Have you come across the MSN (Microsoft) "Nurses Reunited" website yet ? I stumbled across it the other day whilst I was looking on the web for something else and I was pleased to find the contact details of a ex-JGH nurse in one of its sections.

Perhaps you'll remember Pat du Boulay, who orginally came from St Lucia ? Pat undertook her SRN training at JG between 1962-1965 and then eventually left the hospital in 1965. Pat is married and now lives with her husband in Spain whereas I live in France. So even though we have never ever met we are now in the process of building up contact with each other via regular e-mails.

Obviously we have been sharing news about the paths that our careers led us along and our families but also we are enjoying talking about JGH and some of the things that we experienced there during two completely different periods. It's proving to be real fun talking to an ex-colleague and a new friend and finding things out about Joyce Green that I never previously knew.

You can find that website at: http://groups.msn.com/nursesreunited , although there are not many JG nurses listed on it .... yet !

9. Badges, photos and memorabilia

Have you come across the Squirl.com collectors website ? It has a couple of interesting sub-sites, one of which features hospital badges for nurses and midwives whilst another depicts a series of old hospital photographs. Have a look at these if you are interested ? The address is:
http://squirl.info/collection/show/714

Sadly none of these collectors items relate to Joyce Green but perhaps amongst those of us who were associated with JG it may be possible to track down some undiscovered or un-displayed photographs, badges, emblems, etc that arose from the hospital's past ? Why not have a rummage sometime soon and let us know on this blog what you have found (by leaving a comment) or through sending me an e-mail : careofu@hotmail.com ?