Redhill General Hospital

A Memory of Redhill.

The picture is of the old East Surrey Hospital and I can remember my mother being an in patient there for many weeks around 1954--- as children we were not allowed in to the wards and I can remember waving to my Mum through a window.
I did my nurse training at Redhill General-- starting as a pre nursing student in 1965 and qualifying in 1970. We went between the two sites -- the other one being Smallfield Hospital in Horley which was an old war time hospital. I trained in the days when every hospital had a Matron and there was very strict discipline. we wore starched caps and aprons and the stiff collars were very uncomforable.
The ward at Redhill were named after places in Surrey--- the medical wards were Chipstead and Chaldon. Surgical wards were Bramley and Brockham and the childrens ward was in a part of the hospital that was the old workhouse--- The Spike. The isolation ward was also very old and had been an isolation unit for a very long time-- that was called Ifield Ward.
Despite it being a very old hospital some very innovative surgery was carried out there in the 1960's -- it was here that some of the first hip replacements were done by Mr Peter Ring who perfected a special technique that was in vogue for several decades.
It is interesting to note that each ward had it's own designated cleaner who took great pride in the ward-- we must have had very low infection rates despite there being only a very small proportion of the antibiotics that are available today.
The hospital was in a beautiful position on Redhill Common and the training I received there is still being put to good use as I continue my long career-- now in Australia. I have many happy memories of my time there.