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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: elliot on Sunday 24 March 24 12:40 GMT (UK)
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The family Doctor was always an iconic figure in our family post War, 'Doctor Stoll', but what was his first forename!
Using Google Streetview, I see that his one-man surgery address is now a Dentists but in 2008 it was 'Heath Health Care' at 6,Constantine Road NW3.
From an Obit. the most likely man [Lionel died aged 100 in 2007] had several STOLL brothers, possibly born in Lithuania, all Doctors in NW London phone book, Lionel Julian 1907, Basil Arnold 1917, and Henry 1913 [so far] and not all living 'over the shop'.
Have you ever reflected upon the significance of your family doctor in our childhood and later life? A different NHS today, before the 'take your pick' of the Group Practices where you rarely see the same GP twice!
Who was your most memorable Doctor? Do you know their forenames? Are they still living?
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I remember our GP, Doctor Mary Mitchell pre the NHS. Her surgery was in her house, now replaced with a block of flats. She took on a femail partner, Doctor Noel Carr. When I was four I was rather ill with pneumonia and she called and gave me tablets, the next day I came out in spots, it was measles. I was convinced the tablets caused the measles and that the doctor gave them to me to sop be being a bridesmaid the following week ;D
Those were the days when the doctors did regular home visits, day or night and rather than appointments, you just turned up at the surgery and joined the queue. When Doctor Mitchell retired her replacement, Dr Am Wyatt, went above and beyond for her patients. I remember when my father was very ill she would often pop in without being called, just to make sure he didn't need anything. I can't imagine the GPs today doing that.
All though it has relocated twice, I have been with the same practice most of my life, except for the years I accompanied my husband on Army postings. Now there are five GPs and you have to wait ages just to get a telephone appointment.
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I always remember my first doctor in the 50s who had a prominent sign in the waiting room which read 'prescribing is the art of keeping a patient happy whilst nature effects a cure'.
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My old family doctor was one of 3 from the same family.
Known as Dr Jimmy, Dr Roger and Dr Margaret! Never by surname.
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I remember my Doctor making a visit to the hospital after I had both of my children, Son born in 1971 and Daughter born in 1974. A further visit was made by him after I came home, and the midwife also came to see me at home after both Children were born.
Carol
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I have a photo of my first doctor in the family album. Dr. Evans. My mother had had some difficulties before I was born. Later, the doctor called in when someone happened to be taking pictures of the family in the garden. Apparently he said "Will you take one of me with the baby? I have had quite a lot to do with her arriving safely." So there he is, with the other family photos.
Only a few years later he decided he was not happy with the NHS, and emigrated to Canada. Anyone seen him there?
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I well remember my first doctor, Dr Hakeem, I’m told he brought me into this world in the days before the NHS, and was our doctor for the next 20 years.
He did his “rounds” on a bike, in those days you asked the doctor to call rather than go to see him.
When the NHS came along you went and sat in his front room and waited your turn, nothing changed,
you described your symptoms and a relaxed laid back doctor said, I will prescribe you a tonic, off you went feeling much better.
I remember my elder sister having acute appendicitis, off to hospital for an operation, three weeks in hospital, with a real possibility that complications could be fatal.
When he retired he was replaced by a compatriot, Dr Naidoo, equally reassuring and laid back, you left again with your tonic, reassured that this would cure everything, it obviously did, since I am still here ;D ;D ;D.
I stayed with this practice till I retired.
Mike
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My first family doctor worked from his surgery which was attached to his house.
I always thought he was very old, ancient in my eyes.
|I looked him up on the 1939 register and he would have been 58 years old when I was born so early- middle 60s when I remembered him, shows how you view of ages changes as you get older.
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I managed to trace mine a couple of years ago. From being a child, I remember him being very, very old. I was surprised to find out that he retired quite recently.
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When I was a child we had "Old Dr Bellamy" and "Young Dr Bellamy". I believe the father, and possibly both, were "panel" doctors for the local mine workers? Someone else may know more about that. Surgeries for our end of the practice were held in part of a tiny cottage in the next village. After I married in 1968 and moved away, our new doctor still held surgeries in one room of a house in one village, and in his own house in another village, and still on the "turn up and wait" arrangement.
I remember going to him for an ante-natal visit at his home surgery, and I think I must have gone straight from work, (about 12 miles by bus). Afterwards he drove me home!
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Our Dr. Was a lovely man,a gentle Scottish accent, he called once when I very ill, I used to have tonsillitis very badly .
He made a house call, prescribed Linctus and aspirin .
I was not improving so my mother called the surgery to hear he had died ,he was 83.
A new young Dr .called ,a Polish Dr, this would be 1950’s - 1953 - he too was lovely but other medicine-.might even have been Penicillin ,I made a good recovery but he said if in future I was ever asked had I had Rheumatic Fever to relate the illness and his comments that he felt I might have as all my joints ached and my skin flaked off.
Blood tests were not common then.
Well I lasted until 2009 and at 72 had a massive heart attack , undiagnosed by GP, I went for four days without treatment as it was atypical .
I am still here although with impairment which is manifesting itself now .
But what a shame , wonder what the outcome would have been been had I been hospitalised with the tonsillitis or immediately after the heart attack .
To have one incompetent Dr is a pity but TWO —— ridiculous !!!
However I am in heart failure now almost 15 years after but it can be managed .
Our Dr. in Belgium was amazing .
I was bitten by a feral cat in a Rabies area, nearly had a breakdown ,well a dreadful death and I had two boys and a very young baby girl .
He got me through that , I am eternally grateful.
He sadly died last year.
A hard act to follow, but these days I find Drs very approachable and friendly.
That is when you actually manage to get an appointment,not their fault is it.
Viktoria.
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My Dr when I was a child was Dr William Cherry, known as Bill, who sadly died in 2017 according to an obituary in the BMJ. He was a lovely man who went to the trouble of getting advice from the government on the occasion when I was bitten by a neighbour 's dog that had just come out of quarantine for rabies. This was back in the 1970's . The neighbours had just retired from the Police service in the Seychelles and had built a big compound in their back garden for the 2 ex police dogs they brought back with them. I was playing outside with a friend and someone left the compound door open and the dogs came bounding out. Needless to say I am now afraid of dogs!! But at least I did not need any rabies injections and was just treated with precautionary antibiotics.
Here is an article about Dr Cherry's retirement
http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1987/September-16/September-16-1987-01.pdf#search=%22bill%20cherry%22
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Many of my childhood doctors seem to have come from Scotland or Ireland. I do remember Dr Kelly (Ireland), though I was very cross with him when I was 10 for referring me to the hospital to have my sinuses washed out, cross because I was probably very frightened at the time at the idea of going to a hospital.
We would turn up at the surgery and sit in a crowded room full of sick people (and cigarette smoke), the doctor would sit at his desk next to a scary skeleton, cheerfully smoking a cigarette or a pipe. Doctors would happily make home visits for all kinds of illnesses - do they do that nowadays?
The doctor who saw my mother through a difficult pregnancy was also Irish, a woman named Snodgrass. She was a great fan of Dr Truby King and his baby care methods, my mother later told me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truby_King .
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It was a different NHS in 1953, too. My father told the story of how the clock in the hall struck midnight, my brother was born, and the doctor looked at his watch and insisted it was still a minute to 12. Or perhaps I've got the order wrong, but anyway there was an argument about which date to register the birth with.
I doubt you'd get a GP to attend a home birth in the middle of the night now.
And 18 months later he came to the house to give us all our jabs, as we were about to travel to Egypt to join Dad who was in the army and stationed there. I remember running to hide at the other end of the garden (coward!).
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Fiddler’s Lass, in 1976 a dog in quarantine gad been there the required time
and was reunited with their family .
It bit someone and was diagnosed with Rabies.
Wholesale panic hit England, much wildlife was destroyed even birds .
Dogs in the quarantine kennels destroyed .
We were returning from Belgium,the quarantine was extended to nine months from six,no visits were allowed.
Our dog would have to be picked up on board the ship ,not allowed to even walk on the quay, the van had to drive on board ( it was a roro ship, ( roll on roll off) all was focused on the dog whilst we a family of five and all our furniture etc were of no importance .
In addition the cost!£1,000 a month for nine months for a dog who would be bereft, and could be destroyed if any dog near its cage developed rabies during the extended quarantine period, without us being consulted.
We were not allowed to visit and it was in North Yorkshire .
So sadly our lovely dog had to be put to sleep .
We had to buy a house and start all over again and the quarantine costs were as much as a house in those far off days .
I still feel guilty.
Viktoria.
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I know exactly how you feel Viktoria, we had exactly the same thing with our cat on moving back from Berlin. When we got back from the vet my husband and I both sat and wept. We had sent our sons to the pictures so they didn't know what we were doing.
Apart from a budgerigar, we had always refused them a pet because of the problem moving between countries every two or three years. Then one day boys rescued a kitten when the mother, a stray and her two other kittens had died. We didn't expect ours to survive, his eyes were only just open, but I fed him with an eye dropper every hour and kept him in my apron pocket during the day for warmth, at night he slept in my fur hat turned inside out, in a box by the bed. I have never got up so many times in the night as I did to feed him.
Against all the odds he thrived and grew into the most loving and playful cat. In the evenings he would curl up on my lap and the bird used to love to sit on his head and nibble his ears. Visitors couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was the most unlikely sight and gave us many a laugh.
We had no more pets until we were back in England permanently.
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Yes, our dog was lovely, could play the piano!
Well stood on her back legs with front paws on the keyboard and walked from bass keys to treble and back again,plink plonk .
She joined my daughter when practising .
It was hard ,she was young and healthy,not like releasing an old ill dog from suffering.
We bought her on impulse, one morning after Church we went to the animal market where believe it or not there were lion cubs for sale ,exotic birds ,kittens and chickens etc.
She sat with her paws crossed,a Black and Tan version of a border collie ,about eight weeks old .
She had a little mark on her mouth which made her look as if she had heard some talk of which she did not approve ,we called her Prudence,- well Pru .
But the cost was impossible and for her to be there nine months with the possibility there might be another dog in a cage close to hers which developed rabies so she would have to be put to sleep also ,after months of paying ,no as far as it could be it was as kind as possible with me holding her
and talking to her ,” walkies, we’ll go walkies ,”a flicker of a wagged tail and nothing more.
I am in tears now.
Oh dear how they pull at our heart strings .
Viktoria.
P.S is there a rescue service for goldfish?
I really can’t keep up my little pond anymore ,despite all my efforts, filters aerators etc it goes green so quickly ,too much sunshine, but the fish are quite tame ,and come to the corner where I feed them when I tap on the rim.
It is a big job clearing it out . I have tried shading it more but still goes green even with the fluid for clearing algae ,filters cleaned etc.
I will enquire .
Cheerio.Viktoria.
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Yes Viktoria, ponds do need a lot of attention to keep the fish healthy. Perhaps there is somewhere near you that would take your fish.
When the grandchildren started to arrive, we decided to do away with our pond for safety. We asked at our local garden centre about re homing the goldfish, they have a large raised pond full of fish. They said they would be happy to take our fish, so they ended up enjoying far greater room to swim around in, plus plenty of fish for company.
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I believe I only saw my family doctor twice as a child, as an 8 year old (was very sick with something the doc said I likely picked up at a local outdoor pool) and at 17. The latter was just before going off to live in residence at college and a cursory physical was needed. I think our universal healthcare began the following year. He was a French Canadian by the name of Noel Pelletier and I remember he too, smoking in his office while he dealt with me. Certainly wouldn’t be allowed today!
Was in England in 1966 and on my return home would be going to Guide camp, and needed a check up, for some unknown reason my mother decided to take me a doctor who was a friend of some family member (Brighton/Hove) and the least said about him the better. I am glad my mother was in the room with me. I was back in England with her in 1991 and wouldn’t you know, this doctor drove us somewhere! I was very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out of the car.
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Mesh drawstring net bags with fresh barley straw in it, weighed down with a hefty stone will sort out your pond's green hue, Viktoria. I have 4 large ones in one pond, three in another, and two in the smallest. Take out each winter, let the straw go on a border or compost heap, wash the bags - I do them with garden fleeces in a big net bag in the washer. When dry re-fill with new straw, tie in a bow and re-sink. Worked for years, no effort, really.
TY
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I have heard of that and how well it works ,my pond is only small, just enough for three small goldfish , but no harm in trying with a small amount.
I am very fond of them,very tame .
Thanks for the tip.
Lovely day mostly here ,but a very blustery night with heavy storms last night.
Have bakes two chocolate cakes ,one fir Sunday when eldest son and his wife will join us for tea and one for Monday when Flash Harry ,Kyra and their zmummy and Daddy come for the day before heading South home to Suffolk.
I have made play dough for them .
A big chicken and salad and nice bread rolls ,then yogs or ice cream and or chocolate cake with chocolate nests I have made with mini eggs in them .
A Thomas The Tank Engine book for FH and aPeppa Pig activity book for Kyra.
Clock go forward tomorrow folks !
Cheerio .Viktoria.
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Clocks going forward for Easter Sunday! Glad I wasn't planning to go to any early services - I can probably cope with 11.00 even if it is really 10.00. ::)
Eldest grand daughter is 18 on Easter Sunday.
(I have just realised this is on the "family doctor" thread, so a bit off topic!)
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Not so off topic as I!
So determined not to forget the clocks go forward —- I changed them all last night!
So I will be in a tizzwozz all day now!
::)
Viktoria—- well I was all last week!
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Not as off topic as me, replying to Viktoria! Sorry.
TY
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My childhood doctor - "a warm and friendly doctor." Actually, I recall her as cold, distant and intimidating. Fortunately, I was healthy kid and didn't see much of her except for routine checkups.
https://old-school-boston.blogspot.com/2013/02/remembering-pediatrician-dr-perry-in.html
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Very easy in my case, my family have lived in the same village since 1806. We still have a house there. The two practice doctors were friends. I moved 44 years ago but still know the village family doctors. In fact one phone me while I was visiting my dad in hospital so that I could tell him how dad was a couple of years ago, and he always phoned me when my parents and brother passed away to make sure I was ok even though he isn’t my gp. My own gp is another matter >:( :-X
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You are lucky to have an "own GP" let alone "village family doctors". Both dying breeds. Round here GP practices have 2 or more health centres in villages several miles apart, with a changing cast of doctors. I am lucky enough so far not to have much need of them, and when I have needed appointments I try to get the same doctor, but he mainly practices in one of the further away centres.
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GP, what's a GP??
All changed, and not I fear, for the better in NHS.
TY
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My childhood doctor was Dr Houston, who had a practice with Dr Gofton and Dr Walls in North Shields town centre.
I had to make frequent visits as I suffered from repeated earache.
I found him quite scary. He had a very dour demeanor.
He seemed to be a heavy smoker as he kept a large supply of cigarettes displayed on his desk! :o
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Not the 1940's but I worked at the Department of General Practice of Manchester University in the
1960's 1970's. We had such a variety of doctors, some excellent, some absolutely useless. The one who stands out in my memory is the only one NOT employed by the University. He was the one who would extend his surgeries if they were nearly full, and he was the one who would attend any road accidents outside the practice (a busy crossroads). And what I really loved about him were his referral letters for his patients - short and very much to the point. 8)
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Threlfall Yorkie ,off topic I know but I have googled thevstraw for ponds and for £3-99 with cheap postage I can get four brick sized bundles of barley straw
for small ponds ,use one at a time.
So many thanks ,I will send for some tomorrow.
The pond will need ckesning out anyway but a clean start and bundle in might be all that is needed with perhaps more shade.
It won’t clear a pond but will help to keep it free from algae and blanket
weed .
Thanks again .
Viktoria.
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I'm going to try to get down to doing mine today. I got a small bale of the straw from "The Range", and will extract some from what's left of that.
TY
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Dr James McDowall. He was a sole practitioner working out of his study at home. It was one of those Edwardian houses with a square hall and we all sat in there waiting to be called into the inner sanctum.
As per his name, he was a Scot and could be dour with it. When one of our neighbours went to see him with concerns about falling hair, his response was to say "What are you worrying about? You can get a wig on the National Health!"
Despite that, he could be very kind. He came out on Christmas morning when I had measles as a three year old, and he took me to hospital wrapped in a blanket in the back of his car when I had appendicitis as a nine year old, and visited without being asked to when he knew I was out of hospital the following week.
When I looked him up on Ancestry some time ago, I was surprised to find that he graduated only twenty or so years before I knew him, so would have been, from where I am now, still a relatively young man, although he seemed old and serious to me.
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Here is an article about Dr Cherry's retirement
http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1987/September-16/September-16-1987-01.pdf#search=%22bill%20cherry%22
Note the snippet: "A double ration of Mollie Sugden." :D