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The old Northern General Hospital

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Hi Cojunon - yes, Mick Fiennes was actually the night superintendent, a "fine" man! Dr F.J.P. O'Gorman (1910-1992) was a senior general surgeon; he had a flat in one of the "cottages" and would often turn out at night for an emergency operation. As I wrote above, Dr Frederick James "Jim" Flint was a superb consultant physician and teacher. Medical students tried to get on to his "firm" as it was the busiest! There is a short biography here.

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Thanks Hillsbro for the information as you say all very fine doctors

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Loved picures of 'real' nurses, no messing about in those days. My late mum was a nurse, and would turn in her grave at some of the goings on thesedays!

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Thanks Everyone for your memories, I worked as a nurse at NGH from 73-84 and remember many of the names of the doctors and nurses you mention. Kath Richardson was a sister on 6A when I was on 6B, very sad to hear of her passing.

 

---------- Post added 10-07-2016 at 13:10 ----------

 

Does anyone have a photo of the old Sports and Social club? Knocked down to build the current Spinal Injuries Unit

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A

Loved picures of 'real' nurses, no messing about in those days. My late mum was a nurse, and would turn in her grave at some of the goings on thesedays!

 

I was a nurse ' back in those days' and I am still a nurse at the NGH and I can tell you there was far more' messing about' in those days than there is now.

The things that went off on the wards back in the 70's would not be tolerated now.

The job is far more difficult these days than it was back then - nurses work harder now than they did then - and get far less respect or thanks from the general public.

I am a 'real nurse's too.

---------- Post added 10-07-2016 at 20:21 ----------

 

Hi Cojunon - yes, Mick Fiennes was actually the night superintendent, a "fine" man! Dr F.J.P. O'Gorman (1910-1992) was a senior general surgeon; he had a flat in one of the "cottages" and would often turn out at night for an emergency operation. As I wrote above, Dr Frederick James "Jim" Flint was a superb consultant physician and teacher. Medical students tried to get on to his "firm" as it was the busiest! There is a short biography here.

 

I met Mick very recently and was chatting about the days long ago when he was Charge Nurse on 4A and used to sit in the ward office smoking his pipe.

Edited by Daven

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It's good to know that Mick is still going strong. He had worked at Middlewood before coming to NGH and he knew some of the staff I knew there such as Harold Minogue, charge nurse and Eileen Burkinshaw, assistant matron, both sadly now long gone.

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Hi Cojunon - yes, Mick Fiennes was actually the night superintendent, a "fine" man! Dr F.J.P. O'Gorman (1910-1992) was a senior general surgeon; he had a flat in one of the "cottages" and would often turn out at night for an emergency operation. As I wrote above, Dr Frederick James "Jim" Flint was a superb consultant physician and teacher. Medical students tried to get on to his "firm" as it was the busiest! There is a short biography here.

My auntie Jean was Mr O' Gormans secretary.

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A

 

I was a nurse ' back in those days' and I am still a nurse at the NGH and I can tell you there was far more' messing about' in those days than there is now.

The things that went off on the wards back in the 70's would not be tolerated now.

The job is far more difficult these days than it was back then - nurses work harder now than they did then - and get far less respect or thanks from the general public.

I am a 'real nurse's too.

---------- Post added 10-07-2016 at 20:21 ----------

 

 

I met Mick very recently and was chatting about the days long ago when he was Charge Nurse on 4A and used to sit in the ward office smoking his pipe.

 

I was a student nurse at the NGH in the 80's. It was a different world then with plenty of staff at times. The main difference was that as a student there's wasn't much you couldn't do unlike the ones today who's constant mantra seems to be that they were told in "school" that they weren't supposed to do that until they were qualified

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I was a student nurse at the NGH in the 80's. It was a different world then with plenty of staff at times. The main difference was that as a student there's wasn't much you couldn't do unlike the ones today who's constant mantra seems to be that they were told in "school" that they weren't supposed to do that until they were qualified

I was a porter back then and the student's did seem to have more autonomy.

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In those days students were counted in the numbers and you learnt things by doing them and not just reading about them in books or watching a DVD

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I was a student nurse at the NGH in the 80's. It was a different world then with plenty of staff at times. The main difference was that as a student there's wasn't much you couldn't do unlike the ones today who's constant mantra seems to be that they were told in "school" that they weren't supposed to do that until they were qualified

 

I agree but what was expected of students nurses back in those days was frightening.

On my first ever night as a first years student nurse with only 6 months training I and,another nurse from my school were in charge of a ward full of sick patients some of them attached the cardiac monitors. I had had no training on reading ECG's at that time - my philosophy was that if the little dot kept bouncing around on the screen the patient was OK !

There needs to be some middle ground between what was expected of students in those days and those of today.

Having said that - after 3 years training on the wards we were ready to be Staff Nurses back then and to take charge of the ward from day one in the uniform unlike today where Staff Nurses have to undergo a years preceptorship where they receive support and observation from another RN.

This entirely means that the training currently is inadequate

Edited by Daven

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I agree but what was expected of students nurses back in those days was frightening.

On my first ever night as a first years student nurse with only 6 months training I and,another nurse from my school were in charge of a ward full of sick patients some of them attached the cardiac monitors. I had had no training on reading ECG's at that time - my philosophy was that if the little dot kept bouncing around on the screen the patient was OK !

There needs to be some middle ground between what was expected of students in those days and those of today.

Having said that - after 3 years training on the wards we were ready to be Staff Nurses back then and to take charge of the ward from day one in the uniform unlike today where Staff Nurses have to undergo a years preceptorship where they receive support and observation from another RN.

This entirely means that the training currently is inadequate

The training IS inadequate. I initially trained as an EN. My first day as a qualified nurse I worked on a ward which was described as for severely and mentally disturbed ( No PC in them days :) ). Anyway after a 15 minute hand over I was handed the keys by the charge nurse and told to take charge as he left to go home. About an hour later I was asked to hold the keys for another ward and to do the drug round. This was followed about 90 minutes later by another call telling me to hold the keys for another ward and to do the drug round. So within about 3 hours of my first day as a qualified nurse I was in charge of 3 wards. The irony is that about 3 months later they bought in agenda for change and the grading system in which I was given a C grade which meant I couldn't hold the keys for any ward including my own :)

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