Highland doctor (1943)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] you like to leave your court yes SC warmer this is a pleasant surprise I wasn't expecting you till tomorrow well I got your message at Fort William before I started back Vanessa oh yes well what's the case she's a crofter's wife about 7 miles from here this is the history and my first diagnosis was an aarian Cy but I didn't like the look of it and my next thought was that the the sooner I called in a specialist the better has strangulation set in that's just what I'm afraid of Well we'd better be going on our way I'm ready I have the car round at the back l [Music] good afternoon nurse I brought Dr R with me how'd you do good afternoon doctor and how's the patient oh she's had a restless night but she's a bit easier today she's been fretting herself about Dr Wright here coming all that way from in beress oh that's all right now Mrs McDonald it was I who asked Dr R to come over don't you be worrying about that I want him to examine you well Mrs MacDonald you're right she's pretty far Advanced but if we can get her a hospital at once we have a pretty good chance well St is about 5 hours away by bolt and road that would mean starting off a long road we came it would what about the air ambulance we can send her down to Glasgow fine if it can be done oh yes it can be done it's been to the island before that's the thing what about our husband yes if we're taking her to glasow we must consult him nurse where's McDonald he isn't back yet from the fishing he thought it'd be tomorrow you'd come but he shouldn't be long now let's make the arrangements anyway I can tell McDonald when he comes in that's good and I'll have a word with him later we'd better be going down to the post office we've got to wire Glasco for the air ambulance and we'll need to advise the hospital as well will you get your bag packed nurse and be ready to go when will you be back doctor it'll take about 2 hours for the plane to get here by the time we've sent off the wire we should be back with the stretcher in about 2 and 1 half hours about half hour five very good then [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cigarette thanks I have a pipe well since the airplane is coming I might as well go back in it that'll be all right won't it certainly should quickest way to iness yes thanks you haven't been long in the north 3 years I was in a London Hospital when this vacancy turned up you know I'm an Edinburgh man but even so the highlands and Islands medical scheme wasn't much more than a name to me well now that you've seen it working what do you think of it seems to me there's a great future for subsidized Medical Services like this one I'll take today Mrs McDonald gets your services a specialist and an air ambulance to take a 200 miles to hospital in fact she's just as well off as a patient in town who has everything on our doorstep it was a different story when I came here first I I over 30 years ago I used to look at that map and wonder if a way would ever be found to attract enough doctors to the highlands and Islands to make it possible for the people there to get medical attention as easily and cheaply as the people in the [Music] [Applause] South I it's a problem a fifth of the land area of Scotland with so few people living in it and those scattered like thony bits in a Christmas pudding and were just a handful of doctors with patients maybe miles away in isolated Crofts and townships it's often 30 m to see one patient a days journey they and back and they're poor too farmers and Fisher folk you can't charge them for what it cost you they just haven't the [Music] money but there is someone got to look after the folks in the highlands and out here in the islands even if it does mean a bit of a struggle [Music] I it's a problem the je committee I wonder to know what a committee can do investigating the problems of the medical service in the highlands and Islands well let them come and good luck to them we'll tell them the problems all right I only hope they can find the [Music] remedies and what have you to tell us Dr M Willam I expect you have heard what I'm going to tell you from many of my colleagues my greatest problem is the time and money it takes to reach the half of my patients for most visits I use a trap it's a slow way of traveling over our roads but it's better than walking where there are no [Music] roads then I have patients across the LW to get to them I have to take a boat you see the trouble Journeys like these take so much much time and cost us so much in hire of boats and traps that we have to charge a pretty stiff fee even just to cover our expenses and my practice is no exception there is one doctor out from here who has fors to cross on some visits if the Tide's low enough he takes a trap if it's full he goes by boat and if it's happened between well he just has to sit and wait we can none of us C motor cars and even if we had them road conditions are so bad we couldn't use them half the time it's the same for the district nurses too most of them travel by bicycle or walk there are so few of them and they just can't get around their districts and if we have trouble en reaching our patients you can imagine the trouble they have in getting in touch with us post offices with telephones are few and far between and in some places signals are the only means of communication between the doctor on the mainland and his patients on the island [Music] have you any other difficulties in the larger towns we have a few hospitals but most of the communities are so isolated that it's often impossible to send a patient into Hospital over the bad roads it usually means that we just have to operate the best way we can there was one appendix I did in a hut there was the school Master to give chlorop for and all we had for late was a Tallow candle held by the man's neighbor if there's to be a future for these people we must have a proper medical [Music] service yes we certainly gave them something to think about so you are really one of the reasons why we have the highlands and Islands medical scheme today oh well I wouldn't be saying that anyway the result of the Jer committee's report was a grant from the government they made an annual Grant yes here we are for the purpose of improving medical services including nursing in the highlands and islands of Scotland and otherwise providing and improving means for the prevention treatment and alleviation of illness and suffering therein well that seems to cover almost everything that's the end of the story in a way it's only the beginning and the story that starts there makes more pleasant telling I'll not be boring you by no means it's interesting to hear it at first hand well when the Grant had been definitely approved the first job was to attract new doctors to the area one of the first uses of the grant was to bring each doctor's income up to a level he could live on in other words he didn't have to depend on the people being able to pay him and the people in turn only had to pay a small fee when they needed a doctor instead of enough to cover his expenses so the doctor was consulted more frequently People's Health improved and both doctors and patients benefited we were able to afford cars under the Arrangement and as the roads were improved we could get round to our patients more easily now we could visit three patients in the time it used to take to see one then the nursing associations got money from the grant to appoint more nurses and well qualified ones at that after a while many of them were provided with cars too we began to have better Telephone and Telegraph Services new houses were built for us and for the nurses the better roads made it possible to use ambulances more widely and our key hospitals were enlarged to receive the patients we were now able to send them they were equipped with up toate apparatus for all modern treatments and Resident Specialists were appointed then at the beginning of the war the Emergency Medical Service hospitals were organized to receive possible casualties they meant extra accommodation and they used some of their empty beds to take our patients off the waiting lists and that brings us right up to date why man you've jumped a couple of centuries in a few years from Farm cart to air ambulance and it could never have happened if it hadn't been back by the state I if anyone had told me 30 years ago that I would be telegraphing for Specialists and for airlanes well I would have warned him to keep away from the bottle though mind you we are not out of the wood yet there are still lots of things to be done well you seem to be the kind of man to do them ah it's really a young man's job out here I would have retired before this if it hadn't been for the War I wonder ah well it's time we were going anyway I'll get the stretcher [Music] already nurse yes doctor has McDonald come in yes he's here now and he agrees does he I whatever you think best doctor oh hello McDonald this is Dr R how you doing I'm Glad You Came doctor will she be all right of course she will she'll be back with you in 3 weeks and uh when will I know for sure well nurse will telephone Dr mcam from Glasgow thank you Doctor cleav well already know Mrs McDonald who's helping with the stretcher nurse I've got Ian Campbell waiting outside [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] h