The National Health Service turns 75 today – but how much has working life in Kent’s hospitals changed since those early days?

Today, we hear from two long-serving former nurses who have told of the strict regime on wards when they began their careers, including standing to attention in the presence of “god-like” doctors…

‘Night duty was a baptism of fire!’

Peggy Pryer, now a health campaigner, originally studied catering at sixth form, before deciding it “seemed pointless spending hours creating dishes that would be demolished in just a few minutes”.

Her headmistress suggested nursing would be a good career choice – but the now 85-year-old grandmother, from Bridge, near Canterbury, initially disagreed.

Peggy recalled: “She said: ‘I can see you as a nurse’. I said: ‘I can’t!’.

“But in those days you did as you were told, certainly by your headmistress, so that’s how I ended up on the pre-nursing course at what was then Maidstone Technical School for Girls, now Invicta Grammar School.”

Peggy’s training as a State Registered Nurse started in 1955, just seven years after the NHS was formed. She spent three years as a student nurse at The Kent & Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells before marrying her policeman husband and moving around Kent with him.

In 1961, when their first daughter Jayne was 10 months old, Peggy worked part time at the then Ramsgate War Memorial Hospital until a few weeks before having their second daughter, Beverly, in 1963.

When Beverly was a few months old, Peggy became a district nurse for six months in Ramsgate, covering a friend’s maternity leave. After her third daughter Hilary was born in 1965, she returned to work part-time on day duty at Ramsgate Hospital.

The family moved to Whitstable where Peggy continued district nursing and completed the National District Nursing Certificate.

She covered Seasalter, Whitstable town, Swalecliffe and Chestfield in her Mini car, before moving to Herne Bay and working in the town centre, Herne, Greenhill, Beltinge and Reculver.

She said: “There were some very early morning visits, including going to diabetic patients’ homes to give them their pre-breakfast insulin.

“It wasn’t easy trying to reach the time target if there were more waiting for their injections. In those days patients were never allowed to self-administer insulin.

“We had no hoists then, so we were left trying to move bed-bound patients by ourselves, which was really quite dangerous. It is no wonder so many nurses of my generation have experienced bad backs.

“When hoists did come in, patients were frightened of them – as were some of the nurses!”

After four years as a district nurse, Peggy went on to complete her midwife training at the Edith Greaves Maternity Unit, now part of the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

She said: “One night soon after I had qualified I was allocated to the labour ward which meant I was in charge of the unit.

“We would have to line up outside the Senior Nursing Officer’s (SNO) door each night to be told where we were working. I couldn’t argue with the SNO, I just had to get on with it.

“Night duty in charge with minimal staff, only three of whom were qualified midwives, was really a baptism of fire!”

After finding midwifery increasingly hard to fit around her husband’s shift work and family life, Peggy decided to train as a health visitor, meaning no more nights or weekend shifts.

When she qualified, she took on a caseload of more than 600 under-fives in Canterbury, often working late to write up her notes from daytime visits.

There were also occasional assessment visits to the elderly.

She trained as a steward of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the professional college and trade union for nurses, to campaign for improvements for their professional education, salaries and wellbeing.

In 1987 Peggy, then the local RCN lead steward, was involved in a car accident while on duty that led to her being medically retired in 1989.

She became actively involved nationally with the RCN’s Work Injured Nurses’ Group (WING), supporting other nurses injured or who had become ill as a result of their work and received the RCN’s Award of Merit in 2002.

At one of the Nurse of the Year presentations, she received a cheque for WING and a huge bouquet of flowers from then Prime Minister John Major, and she also regularly met Secretaries of State for Health, pushing for them to recognise that work-injured nurses could still take on a variety of nursing roles.

In 1990 Peggy was elected to the Canterbury and Thanet Community Health Council and served on this for eight years.

When plans were discussed to reconfigure healthcare in east Kent she began campaigning for the Kent and Canterbury Hospital to be maintained and upgraded.

The campaign evolved over the years and Peggy is still involved in the background, more than 22 years on.

She said: “It is always about educating the public and making sure people know the plans for healthcare locally.

“Being involved in the campaign really brought home to me how much people care about their local hospitals and the NHS.

“I may not be working now in the NHS but I’m still passionate about it. Members of my own family and friends work in both local and national healthcare and along with them.

“I want the NHS to be the best it can be for everyone as it was when I joined as an 18-year-old student nurse way back in 1955.”

‘The doctors were gods – we had to stand to attention when they arrived’

Marcella Warburton is also sharing her memories of her long nursing career which began when she was just 16 after moving away from home to train as a cadet nurse.

And she revealed what a strict regime there was on wards, with nurses required to stand to attention in the presence of doctors and be at their accommodation and in bed by 10pm.

Her two-year induction included visiting a fever hospital and learning anatomy, before she was finally allowed on the wards – where her duties included collecting up patients’ false teeth for cleaning before returning them to the right person.

Marcella, now 80 and from Broadstairs, said: “I did originally think about being an air hostess but from the age of 15 I knew I wanted to be a nurse - I just wanted to look after people.

“I started my training in 1959, when only two hospitals were doing the cadet nurse scheme. It was designed to pull in young people to nursing.

“To begin, as a student nurse on a wage of 7s 6d, there was very little contact with patients – we spent a lot of time cleaning. I remember collecting up the stainless-steel bedpans, which had to be sterilised and boiled once a day.

“Then I would clean the sluice and the toilets and sometimes I would get on my knees and scrub the floor in the sluice because I didn’t think it had been cleaned enough.”

Mealtimes were a strict affair, with a scale on the trolley so food could be weighed for diabetic patients.

The ward sister was in charge of the meals, with junior nurses helping to serve food and clear up, as well as keeping patients supplied with tea and water throughout the day.

“There was a strict hierarchy on the ward and elsewhere, with staff standing to attention when the doctor arrived,” said Marcella

“The doctors were gods. Only the sisters went on the rounds with them. We had to make sure all the patients were sitting up in bed or in the chair, and the beds were neatly made with all the corners tucked in.

“Some sisters were very strict and everyone was scared of them, but they knew what they were doing so you respected them. It made us do everything properly, or we would get told off.

“Matron came at lunchtime, and we had to be on our best behaviour for them and they would sometimes test us on patients’ names or their treatment.

“In the dining room, the cadet nurses were served last and we only had a half-hour break, so if we wanted coffee, which was served back in the nurses’ home, we had to run there and back.”

Some students did test the rules, with nurses climbing in through their bedroom windows after the 10pm check.

Marcella said: “I was always too scared to do that, but they would throw stones up when they wanted us to let them back in, so that was our role.”

Student nurses had to pass exams every year, including on anatomy and physiology, with regular lectures to help their studies.

After completing the final exams in 1964, Marcella was a State Registered Nurse, and chose to work on a medical ward.

She said: “Back then there were no speciality wards so we had everything from heart attacks and strokes to leukaemia.

“I remember one young boy, who was 14 and had leukaemia and needed the care of the physicians two or three times a year.

“He became a little favourite of mine and we would go and sit in the bathroom and have a natter.

“He went home and died at home, and his parents sent me his St Christopher’s medal to keep. I still think about him.”

Marcella completed the first part of her midwifery training as part of her standard training, and decided to complete the second part as well. When she qualified, she was then asked to work in a new maternity unit for a year, but never looked back.

Her career took her to Iran, helping to commission obstetric and paediatric services, but the revolution started and after returning to the UK on holiday she found she couldn’t get back.

Marcella worked in care of the elderly for many years, including as a matron in a Royal British Legion home. She worked for the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a fitness to practice panellist, and also volunteered at the QEQM and served as a governor for the Trust as well.

She said: “I’ve been able to use my nursing skills in many different ways over the years and it has certainly been a varied career.

“A lot has changed over the years, from the roles nurses perform to the advances in medicine and I am definitely glad we still have the NHS.”

‘The hospital has always been a part of my life’

This year is a double celebration for the League of Friends of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital – as not only is the NHS turning 75, but the charity is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

The group marked the occasion by funding the construction of a new surgical admissions lounge at the hospital, providing a comfortable environment for patients attending the new vascular services centre or awaiting other elective procedures.

Funding of the £160,000 project was largely provided by a generous legacy, bequeathed by a loyal member, together with £50,000 from hospital shops’ profits.

The League was founded in 1953, with the aim of providing those extra items of comfort that the NHS was unable to support.

In the first year, some £50 was spent on gifts to the hospital – now about £250,000 each year is provided for projects benefitting patients, staff and visitors.

Since the charity’s formation, more than £8 million has been spent on a huge range of items from tables and chairs to high-tech medical equipment.

One of the most visible contributions the League makes to the hospital are the three shops, which together recorded more than £100,000 net profit in 2022.

Volunteers give their time to work in the shops, as well as running a ward library trolley, and the League also provides a daily ward trolley service.

Funds are also raised by eight city and local village groups who meet regularly to plan events.

League chairman Dr Catriona Irvine said: “As the League celebrates its 70th anniversary, it is clear that the charity’s contributions to the hospital community have been invaluable.

“The tireless work and dedication of our group members and shops’ volunteers have helped to improve the quality of care provided by the hospital and have enhanced the well-being of patients, staff and visitors.

“Thanks also go to our hard-working shops’ staff, the volunteer-led stamp and coins service, our trustees who work diligently behind the scenes ensuring the smooth-running of the charity and, of course, our fabulous donors.

“We are looking forward to many more years of making a real difference to our local hospital and thank everyone involved with our charity for helping us to continue achieving our aims.”

One of charity’s stalwarts is Jenny Reed who also marks her 75th birthday this year.

The grandmother was born at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital just a few months before the foundation of the NHS and it has since remained a key part of her life.

Her daughter worked at the hospital and for almost 20 years Jenny has volunteered her time as a trustee of the League of Friends, helping to raise vital funds to support staff and patients.

“The connection really started with my dad, who was 10 when the hospital was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1937,” said Jenny, who lives in Oxford Road, Canterbury.

“He was on guard duty that day and I still have the programme from the opening.

“I was born at the hospital in April 1948, before the NHS, and my mum then convalesced at a maternity home in the Dane John Gardens for a fortnight.

“It was a very different experience when my two grandchildren were born, and my daughter was home within a couple of days after an emergency caesarean section.”

Jenny’s two children were born with the support of the NHS, and the family continued to attend the Kent and Canterbury Hospital over the years.

When she retired from her role as a PA in the city’s magistrates’ court, she decided to use her time to help charitable and voluntary groups, and was recruited to the League of Friends by the charity’s former chairman and consultant and radiologist Stuart Field.

Jenny said: “I’ve been a trustee for almost 20 years and it has been a lot of fun. We have eight city and local village fundraising groups under the League of Friends’ banner who work hard organising their own events, and more than 50 volunteers work in the shops and in other roles.

“When I first retired I was involved with a lot of different groups and I’ve stepped back from most of them now but the hospital has always been a favourite of mine.

“It has always been a part of my life, and volunteering has been very enjoyable and never a chore.

“The proudest moment for us all was when we received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, which was personally signed by the late Queen – it’s now on display on our noticeboards.

“A lot has changed over the years, and the League of Friends have been involved in helping to support developments at the hospital, including most recently the new surgical admissions lounge which will provide a comfortable environment for people who are coming in for elective surgery.”

If you would like to volunteer with the Friends, or for more information on fundraising and events, visit www.lofkch.org.uk or call 01227 864030.