Surname
|
Tait
|
Forename
|
Ian
|
Date of recording
|
May 2009
|
Year of birth
|
1926
|
Place of Birth
|
Handcross Sussex
|
Occupation
|
Retired GP
|
Fathers occupation
|
Doctor
|
Present Address
|
Aldeburgh
|
Location Interview
|
Aldeburgh
|
Interviewer
Summary |
Debbie Bone
|
Duration
|
59 Mins
|
No of tracks: 7
|
This interview is on 7 tracks. This synopsis has been updated from the original transcript following discussions with Janet Tait in October 2016 to correct a number of errors in particular a confusion between Drs Stevens and Briscoe in the original transcript.
Track 1 [10 mins] Interview by Debbie Bone on 18th May, 2009. Ian Tait was born in Handcross, Sussex in 1926. His father was a doctor. Describes going to school locally, then on to prep school at Rottingdean near Brighton. Remembers being evacuated to the Metropole Hotel in Padstow during the war. Remembers there was no sports field and the boys were taken by boat across the estuary to Roc Golf Course where they played golf. Mentions he was very keen to join the navy and go to Dartmouth but his father thought that was not a good idea as he was far too young to make that decision. Mentions that he went on to board at Cranleigh School in Surrey. Remembers going on a naval short course, 6 months at Cambridge University before serving in the navy. This was 1944/45. The course was to entice young, highly educated boys into the navy. Describes how he thought he might be posted to Japan but the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and instead he became a Junior Navigator on a minesweeper. Mentions the Queenie Howe system of radar to locate the mines and then describes how they cleared the mines. Describes how he then decided he wanted to go into medicine and joined HMS Cavernam and proceeded to do a biology course. Remembers they could not get another biology teacher so he volunteered to take the course. Describes how eventually he was discharged from the navy. Describes going to Magdalene College, Cambridge to study medicine. Mentions that this was a three-year course, the first degree being natural sciences. The remainder of the medical training was spent at St. Bartholomew’s (Barts) for a clinical course. Mentions that he was the fourth generation of Taits to study medicine at Barts. Track 2 [10 mins] Describes how he qualified as a doctor and mentions he was very keen on the new Health Service. He was at university 1947-50 and the Health Service came into being in 1948. Describes his thoughts on the new Health Service. Mentions he became a Junior Doctor at Barts specialising in Medicine, surgery and paediatrics, also mentions his friend, John Stevens. Remembers an American doctor coming over on an exchange to link the two hospitals (Barts and St Luke’s in New York) and mentions he was encouraged to go to America to study further. Mentions he had just got married to Janet who had not finished her medical training but they agreed he should go so he went to America and Janet finished her qualification and followed on in the Autumn of that year. Mentions that they stayed in America for eighteen months and their first child was born there. Describes how he was not entirely happy with the way the hospitals in America worked as there was no health service and the poor people were not treated very fairly. Describes how he returned to England and eventually got a job at Ipswich for 6 months in obstetrics. Remembers he then went on to St. Helens Hospital as a chest registrar. Describes how his friend, John Stevens, was working in Aldeburgh and how he (Ian) wished to set up a practice in Suffolk. Describes how he set up the first vocational training programme, with John Stevens, based on a District General Hospital. Track 3 [2 mins. 45] Describes how he continued to look for work in Suffolk and mentions that he always signed his letters "with kind regards, your sincerely". Eventually he was offered a job as a junior assistant with Daly Briscoe in Woodbridge. Describes how John Steven's senior partner in Aldeburgh died (Robin Acheson) and how he then went to join John in a practice in Aldeburgh. Mentions he was slightly dubious as the job did not seem to be challenging. Also there were not many young people in Aldeburgh and most of his friends were the American airmen from Bentwaters air base. Track 4 [10 mins] Remembers hearing about an incident when a man lost his arm in a large food mixer, used for making biscuits. This man subsequently became a patient. Mentions the surgery was in Lee Road and the hospital was used and run by the local doctors. Remembers there being a matron and nurses and about 19 beds. Mentions they also ran a 24-hour casualty department, which got very busy in the summer months with all the visitors to Aldeburgh. Remembers a lady who tried to commit suicide - she walked on to the marshes and banged a six-inch nail into her head, but she did not die and walked back to the hospital where it was successfully removed. Mentions that Janet ran a family planning clinic and various school clinics. Describes how they both started to feel a bit restless and saw an ad in the BMJ for doctors to go out to Swaziland. Describes how they arranged for Dr. Briscoe's son to come to Aldeburgh for three years as a locum doctor and John Stevens and he worked 18 months each in Swaziland. Describes travelling out there with his three children. Describes the hospital he worked in with three other doctors and about 60 -100 patients. Remembers there being a huge out-patient department. Describes travelling to the distant villages and holding clinics where people had been waiting perhaps two days for them. Describes how many children used to die. Track 5 [7 min38] Describes coming back to live in Aldeburgh. Mentions that Dr. Bristow then went to Swaziland with his wife. Describes how Mrs Stevens, (June) died in a car crash in Johannesburg when her car hit a rock. Mentions she was on her way to pick her children up who were coming out to stay. Mentions that Dr. Stevens then came home and they worked extremely hard together at setting up a scheme for training GPs. Describes the scheme and mentions that before the scheme most doctors did their training in hospitals and it was felt they needed more teaching in surgeries, understanding their patients and guiding them through procedures and listening to them. Mentions that the Aldeburgh hospital was under threat from government to close as they wished to stop spending money on smaller hospitals. Mentions that it was stated by the government that no hospital should close if they were more than 40 miles from a District General Hospital. Track 6 [10 mins] Remembers the Health Authority was always looking for reasons as to why we could not have our hospital. Mentions that one of the reasons was that the hospital was once a private house and only had one staircase and it was inconvenient when carrying dead bodies down the stairs, while patients were walking up the stairs. Mentions that this was about 1967/8. Describes how Dr. Stevens was very passionate about his hospital and immediately went to see Dr. Euan, who was Chief Medical Officer of the Regional Health Board and persuaded him that if he (Dr. Stevens), could raise half of the money required in six weeks, then the Health Authority would put up the rest. This would enable a lift to be built and build another building. Mentions that Dr Stevens did manage to raise £7,000 in six weeks from about 8 or 10 wealthy donors and others and they managed to get their lift and two extra beds. Describes another occasion in 1976 when the owner of Priors Hill died and the land was sold off in lots. Describes how the Friends of the hospital managed to buy one plot and two further plots were bought by independent donors and formed and Land Trust run by Trudy Scott, John and himself. Mentions Trudy Scott, Jean Paul (now Flick) and John Stevens were leading the Friends who were very active at that time. Mentions that nothing was done with the land until 1983 when the Trust said that if the hospital could be extended they would donate the land. Track 7 [7 mins 52] Remembers that in 1988 Geoffrey Barnard, Chairman of the East Suffolk Health Authority made a decision that the new hospital would be at Aldeburgh as they already had a small hospital, the land to extend and if the Friends of the hospital could raise half a million pounds then that is where the hospital would be located. Mentions Jean Paul, Tom Miller Jones, J Whately-Smith and Trudy Scott set about raising the money and succeeded. Mentions that he was very keen to preserve the GP beds but this was soon overtaken by the closure of beds some years later. Describes how the new hospital wing was built in the grounds and the house became more the administrative side. Mentions the building started in 1994 and the hospital was opened in 1995. Mentions that he feels life has been very satisfying but does regret the closure of the accident and emergency department. Briefly talks about the fight for saving the beds. Mentions that he feels the biggest change has been the loss of personal attention and that patients today do not get the continuity of care they used to. |