Letter: Memories Of The NHS In Guildford

Published on: 22 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 24 Oct, 2019

From John Lomas

The recent article and letters about possible changes to GP services in Guildford have prompted some thoughts about what it was like when I was young.

I had experience of hospitals on three occasions, although two of them I don’t particularly remember.

I was born in 1942 at Mount Alvernia Hospital and some time during my early years (probably pre-school) I had a tonsillectomy. This may have been done at St Luke’s Hospital and I have been told I had post-op ice cream, not generally available then.

The third occasion was at the time of my 11-plus exam which I missed having been taken straight from the doctor’s surgery to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Farnham Road for an appendectomy. I was on an adult ward and had a seven-day stay.

I took the exam later, at the same time as the re-sits, and got in to Godalming County Grammar after an interview.

Our doctors were the Whittaker brothers, Donald and Allan, who had a surgery on that part of Woodbridge Road known as Dapdune Crescent.

We lived in Stoughton on Byrefield Road. I don’t know whether these doctors had been private practitioners before the NHS started in 1948 or had been National Insurance panel doctors. I certainly don’t recall my parents mentioning any other doctors.

In those days, there didn’t appear to be group practices such as are seen in health centres today. The population of Guildford then was about half its current size. I wonder how many GPs were serving then?

There were also National Health Service clinics. I remember the one at the top of North Road in Stoughton, where the school dentist lurked ready to drill into our teeth at the slightest sign of problems.

In fact, I only ever had toothache after a visit there. The clinic was also used for periodic eye tests.

There wasn’t, as far as I know, a county ambulance service, with the Red Cross based somewhere near St Luke’s Hospital and St John Ambulance in Woodbridge Road providing emergency services.

Perhaps others can add to this brief recall of the Forties and Fifties?