Children in Hospitals Before There Were Children’s Hospitals

Thinking outside the box in clinical practice

“…Why not try to make one with your patients having credited roles in front of and behind the camera, show it at an RCPCH annual meeting and then upload onto RCPCH YouTube Channel? I won a bet as a non-academic consultant working in a DGH to get a paper published in Pediatrics, 15 giving me access to the Hospital Medical Illustration to professionally make a film. That film,  The First Day , reconstructs inpatient and outpatient hospital child healthcare at Northampton General Infirmary, 1744 16.…”

Using the historical archives of a district general hospital

“…These host institutions in some cases were treating children long before the opening of specialist children’s hospitals as well as having undertaken the majority of clinical work in the UK before and after the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS). Northampton General Hospital first opened as a general infirmary in 1744, its first inpatient being a 13-year-old child, Thomasin Grace 2…”

A Virtual Academic Unit—the first 10 years

“…Pioneering the VAU between 2004 and 2014 my specific aims were: To submit two substantial peer reviewed publications 5 6

To contribute to an established research group, in my case the Progressive Intellectual and Neurological Deterioration Group ,7 and became involved in research to ultimately find the underlying cause of neurodegeneration in two of my patients 8

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“…Create a portfolio of published papers on clinical medicine, medical history/humanities (for a later DM), demonstrating the applied principle of running a VAU 2 5 6 8 9…”