By Wilfrid Edgecombe, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.
The history of the Harrogate and District General
Hospital
Central heating
In the following year, 1950, it was decided to change the method
of heating the hutted wards from the old-fashioned coke-burning
stoves, installed when the huts were built at the outset of war, to
the modern system of central heating run off the main boiler at the
hospital. This was effected at a cost of £300 per ward.
Also it was found advisable to convert Hut E into bedroom
cubicles for the housing of pupil midwives.
The training of pupil midwives at the hospital began late in
1949. They are admitted four times a year in batches of seven or
eight, and from the inception of the scheme, up to 1956, 270 have
been trained, an average of 30 per year. The hut will accommodate 12
to 16 students and in addition to the bedrooms there is a large
comfortable sitting room, also used for instructional classwork.
The need for proper housing of the ante-natal clinic, then
carried on in Hut A was strongly urged by the gynaecological
consultants, and the principle approved. It was also resolved that a
premature baby unit be provided in the maternity department. Not,
however, until 1956 did the two schemes come to full fruition, as
will be narrated subsequently.
