25. Going to Sickbay

As many readers will remember Joyce Green Hospital’s staff sickbay was situated on the outer ring road near to the block that housed Wards G1 and G2 and adjacent to the small Urological Theatre Block.

The sickbay was where some prospective staff went for a medical examination prior to starting work in the hospital (or before commencing their training) and of course it was the first port of call for staff who became ill or suffered an accident while on the premises. It was also where resident staff were nursed as in-patients if this was deemed necessary.

Perhaps the best known doctor-in-charge of the sickbay was Dr E. O’Sullivan who was also responsible for Ward G1 (Infectious Diseases) and for Long Reach Hospital too.

But have you ever wondered how the term “sickbay” arose? It arose it seems from Royal Navy usage and the two most plausible explanations that I have come across are these.

Firstly, it has been suggested that the berths for sick or injured sailors were located at the stern (the rounded end of the back) of old fashioned sailing ships and because the contour of sterns was a bay shape the sailors began calling this area “the sickbay, i.e. the bay where the sick were tended.

The second explanation derives from the fact that on early wooden naval ships the space occupied by each gun on the main gun decks was known as ‘a bay’. However since some of the bays in the forward part of each ship did not actually ‘house’ cannons it became common practice to use these empty bays for dealing with the sick and wounded.

Thus when sailors were sick or wounded they would be removed to this part of the ship, i.e. the sickbay(s), with their hammocks and bedding perhaps so that the fitter sailors wouldn’t have to listen to their groans - because remember analgesics hardly existed then. Or were they moved to one particular part of the ship simply so that life was made easier for those looking after them?

The first naval ships were manned with a ship's Surgeon and a Surgeon's Mate (the surgeon’s mate being of warrant officer status).

Apparently during the infancy of the Royal Navy there were no nurses trained in the care of the sick and wounded and so it became common practice to designate a number of the least-needed members of the crew to assist the Surgeon and the Surgeon's Mate. These crew members were called “landsmen” and they were, more often than not, the older or less able seamen whose job it was to keep the bays (or "the sickbay") clean, well fumigated and sprinkled with vinegar.

During the 18th and 19th centuries these landsmen became known as loblolly Boys (from the activity of serving loblolly - a thick, gooey porridge occasionally containing chunks of meat or vegetables - to sick or injured crew member in order to speed up their recovery. Their duties also included holding patients down during surgery, cleaning the surgeon’s tools, disposing of amputated limbs and bedpan duties. Additionally the loblolly boys controlled the stocks of herbs, “medicines” and medical supplies.

Later they became known as sick berth attendants (or as “baymen” in American Navy terminology).

If you cast your mind back now to the fact that the some of the earliest hospital facilities on this stretch of the River Thames, next to the Joyce Green site, you might also recall the fact that three hospital ships - the “Atlas”, the “Endymion” and the “Castalia” - were purchased and moored at Long Reach. These were used from about 1884 onwards in managing the terrible smallpox epidemic of the time.

Amusing perhaps to consider how the concept of “sick bays” on naval vessels evolved into the formation of hospital (and other) sickbays, like the one at Joyce Green?