Before The National Health Service (20 January 1978)

Among voluntary organisations which contributed to the people’s health before the inception of the National Health Service in 1948 were local hospital associations and local nursing associations.  For a small annual subscription to these bodies your family could ensure themselves of a hospital bed or the services of a district nurse when needed.

Some of the nursing associations were very local and consequently quite small.  They could combine and they could also split, but in Buckinghamshire most of them eventually gained in efficiency through the setting up of a county association to which they affiliated.  In general, they were another excellent example of the system of the cooperative self-help of those days.

The Bletchley Nursing Association was formed in 1908, with Lady Leon as its president and leading spirit.  Mrs Thomas Rowland was treasurer, and Mrs Thornley and Miss Ridgeway were joint secretaries.  The original committee also included Mrs Best, Mrs Bradbrook, Mrs Robert Hammond and Mrs Clifton.

At that time Fenny Stratford was separate from Bletchley, as also were Simpson and Water Eaton.  Unfortunately, I have no particulars of the origin of the Fenny group, which might well have been the oldest of all.  But eventually Bletchley took over Simpson and Water Eaton and still later – following the death of Lady Leon in 1936 – Fenny Stratford was incorporated with Bletchley, while Simpson separated and combined with Great Brickhill.

The original Bletchley subscription was only a shilling a year.  When later it was raised to two shillings the collector found that in one main street the income was exactly as before owing to the number of people who had dropped out because of the increase.  “But we always knew that Lady Leon would step in with help and money when needed,” she recalled later.

In the early years it was difficult to get a nurse to settle.  This was not surprising, for the nurse’s salary was less than £100 a year, and with that she had to keep herself.  Often she had to be out at night and be back at the job next morning.  The association would have liked to pay her more, but despite the fact that there were other private donors beside Lady Leon who were unlikely ever to need the district nurse themselves the work was done so quietly that the bulk of the people knew little about it.  In fact, Lady Leon always took over the responsibility of finding supply nurses and often footed the bill herself.

Fortunately, there were two nurses who at different times served for the greater part of the association’s 40-year history.  One was Nurse Hatton, who came in about 1914 and eventually married in the town.  The other was Nurse Rawley, who worked splendidly for 25 years.

Later secretaries who did valuable work were Mrs Morris, Miss Wade and Mrs Pollard.  When the association wound up in 1948 Mrs Reynolds was president and Mrs M McLeod secretary.  Its final balance of £160 was divided between the Bucks Nursing Association Benefit Fund, the Bletchley Old People’s Welfare Committee, the St John Nursing Division and the St John Nursing Cadets.

In response to an official request for a small local committee to act for the ensuing year, Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Rumbelow, Mrs Theobald, Mrs Pollard and Mrs McLeod were appointed.

Another organisation that discontinued with the setting up of the National Health Service was what was known as the Bletchley Hospital Scheme, whose final meetings I also attended.  This particular scheme had been in operation about ten years and I suppose that basically it was meant to offer hospitalisation cover to people not already covered by one of the various friendly societies.  Nevertheless, a good many people used it as a supplementary cover and I recall that at one annual meeting an appeal was made to such people to make their first call on their societies and to use the hospital scheme only if absolutely necessary.  The appeal was made after a considerable increase in the annual subscription had failed to meet increasing costs.  However, the scheme had a substantial sum in hand when it was wound up and this was distributed to various charitable causes.  Mr Horace Tranfield was the energetic and well-liked chairman.

One rate-supported body was also discontinued about half-way through that year.  This was the North Bucks Hospital Board.  Oh yes, there was one, although North Bucks was as bereft of a general hospital then as it still is today, 30 years afterwards, apart from the small cottage hospital at Buckingham.

It had been in existence very nearly 20 years, though I have only a vague idea of its origin, as the only hospital it appeared to administer was the isolation hospital at Grove, Linslade, with which the board’s clerk, Mr M C Clifford, had been connected for 40 years.  However, as from July 5, its functions were taken over by the newly-formed Oxford Regional Hospital Board, along with its assets and liabilities.

Its meetings were held in the old Bletchley Council Chamber and its last chairman was Mr H E Meachem who had been one of its original members.

In those days I was younger and healthier than now and cannot say that I noticed any great difference in the medical service between, before and after the inception of the NHS.  When I came to Bletchley in 1946 I thought one medic was likely to be as good as the next, so I called at the first brass plate I came upon.  There I met a doctor who called infirm people “poor souls,” implying they were something more than mere bodies.  So I asked to be put on his panel and never had cause to regret it, but rather the opposite.