To end the story of how Kettering and District Hospital Management Committee is carrying out developments to meet the increasing demands made on hospitals in their area, this week we feature Rushden, where the townspeople themselves have played a big part in the cause of public health.

At the end of World War Two the inhabitants of the town contributed towards the purchase of a beautiful house, standing in spacious grounds, near the centre of Rushden, and helped to provide the necessary equipment.

Rushden Memorial Hospital, as it is called, therefore belongs very much to the ordinary man in the street. Originally intended as a small cottage hospital, it was adapted in 1949-50 as an out-patient clinic. During that year it handled 600 patients, but by last year the figure had jumped to 1,000, which gives a clear idea of how it is being utilised.

At present Rushden Memorial Hospital provides services for general medicine, general surgery, gynaecology, ear, nose and throat treatment, and ophthalmology. Soon its scope will be widened to cover paediatrics (children’s diseases and disorders) and dermatology (study of the skin).

Mention of Rushden conjures up in most people’s minds thoughts of the now famous sanatorium there battling against tuberculosis with an encouraging measure of success.

‘San’ was full

Working in association with Creaton Sanatorium, Rushden “San” provides treatment for patients living in the administrative county of Northampton, and during the last financial year was occupied to capacity.

Accommodation for patients at the sanatorium comprises 80 beds in four bungalow buildings. There is a library of some 2,000 books available for patients and wireless is also installed, and the Friends of Rushden House intend providing patients and resident staff with a television set.

New additions to Rushden Sanatorium are a pair of cottages, built to house Mr. W. A. Wicks, superintendent gardener, who tends the gardens of all hospitals administered by the management committee, and Mr. T. P. Duffy, stoker.

Just as they provided Rushden with the Memorial Hospital so the public, through the Tuberculosis Care Committee, does valuable work for the welfare of patients discharged from the sanatorium, and through the Friends of Rushden House provide in-patients with extras and amenities.