Hospital Hub to include museum items
Budleigh Hospital Hub project development manager Rob
Jones with a jar used for storing live leeches by
19th century doctors. Barts
Hospital in London used 100,000 leeches annually to bleed patients
A Victorian surgeon’s set of instruments, cupping
therapy equipment and a leech jar are among the artefacts that could
be on view for visitors to Budleigh Salterton’s new Health and Wellbeing Hospital
Hub. But patients can rest assured that the items will remain in glass cabinets
as medical curiosities.
If, like me, you tend to visit doctors’ surgeries
and hospitals more often than you would like, the chances are you’ll wonder how
our various ailments were treated in the past.
And how they’ll be dealt with in the years ahead. CT scans, hip
replacements, robotic surgery and laser eye treatment would all seem miraculous
to patients and doctors of just a century ago. As for genetic engineering, we
can only dream of how diseases like cancer will be avoided in the future.
Budleigh Salterton’s Hospital on East Budleigh Road
Plans for the NHS-backed transformation were announced by
Budleigh GP Rick Mejzner at the annual meeting of the Hospital’s League of
Friends in July last year. The
types of services which could be available in the new Hub include additional
physiotherapy, podiatry, hospice services and audiology.
Clinics offering specialist healthcare for elderly
patients will run alongside the day hospital and will be complemented by a
respite centre, as well as other services run in partnership with charities
such as Age Concern and the Alzheimer’s Society.
“The Hub will offer support, information and educational
resources to people of all ages and backgrounds, with a focus on preventing
illness at the earliest stages, says Hospital project development manager Rob
Jones of Westbank Community Health and Care which is leading the project.
Architects David Wilson Associates have developed designs
for the Hub, due to be opened in late summer 2015 following the start of
building work in January.
A 19th century
Assistant Naval Surgeon’s Capital Set in
"a superior Brass-bound Mahogany Case, lined with Silk Velvet" as described in the supplier's catalogue. It contains
forceps, catheters, probes, knives, screw tourniquets, a tooth punch and a
skull saw among other items. Manufactured by Evans & Wormull it was known as a Capital Set
because of the Capital Knife, used for amputations on board ship.
The saw would be used to sever the bone. The average amputation of a leg would take two and half minutes.
Image courtesy of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society
The idea for the displays of medical equipment from the
past came about after visitors to Fairlynch Museum’s 2013 exhibition were shown
items that the 19th century Budleigh physician Henry John Carter FRS might have
used.
“We’re keen to tell the story of the building of Budleigh
Hospital and the way that medicine has developed over the centuries,” explains
Rob Jones. “The Hospital Hub is extremely grateful to Professor David Radstone
of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society which has built up a fantastic
collection of fascinating items from the past that we’re being allowed to
display.”
On view in the new Hub will also be profiles of some of
the eminent doctors who have lived in the Budleigh area, thanks to research by
volunteers at Fairlynch Museum.
Some local people know about Dr Thomas Brushfield, pictured above, who
lived at The Cliff on Cliff Road in Budleigh and wrote about Sir Walter Ralegh
and East Budleigh church. Not too many are aware that he was a pioneer in the
treatment of the mentally ill in a more enlightened way.
Other notable medical experts from Budleigh’s past
include the surgeon Marmaduke Sheild, who has a chair of pharmacology at
Cambridge University named after him.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the Royal Navy
There is also Murray Levick, the naval medical
officer who settled in retirement on the
outskirts of the town. As the doctor and
zoologist on the ill-fated Terra Nova
Antarctic expedition of 1910-13 he was the subject of Fairlynch’s recent
two-year exhibition about Captain Scott’s Northern Party.
Curiously,
some of the Victorian items on display would be recognised by some medical
practitioners today. In the
19th century, Barts Hospital in London used 100,000 leeches annually to bleed
patients. The use of leeches in modern medicine made its
comeback in the 1980s after years of decline, with the advent of
microsurgeries, such as plastic and reconstructive surgeries.
Lady Gaga during the ArtRave Tour
Image credit Zlouiemark45546
Image credit Zlouiemark45546
And although most
doctors would say that modern science has not found any benefits of cupping
there are many supporters today of this most ancient of practices in Chinese
medicine, including celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga, and
even tennis ace Andy Murray.
Comments
Post a Comment