PAPWORTH HOSPITALBy Ruth McErlane.

Papworth Hospital.

Heart and lung hospital. Home to the first successful heart

transplant in the UK. Home to one of the world’s first beating –

heart transplants. Services it provides are cardiology,

respiratory medicine and cardiac thoracic surgery.

Leading hospital in researching heart arrythmias.

Papworth Hospital.

“As a physician I came to heal, and in helping I became more…a tradesman, a manufacturer, a financier, a sociologist and an administrator. And no one has helped me more than many of the men I tried to help.” Sir Pendrill Varrier-Jones (1883-1941) - physician, social pioneer and founder of Papworth Village Settlement.

Originally the hospital was mainly for tuberculosis before World War 1.

Helped people to return to work after convalescence, Varrier-Jones believed in the recuperating properties of fresh fruit and vegetables and fresh air.

As part of recuperating helped patients be involved in local manufacturing including early manufacturing of the Green Goddess Fire Engines.

Opened in 1917 and Varrier-Jones wanted the hospital and surrounding area to have a real feel of community.

Papworth Hospital.

Located in the village of Papworth Everard, 10 miles west of Cambridge.

I did what is known as the “Papworth Experience”. That involved doing an elective there for 4 weeks and staying in

nurses’s accommodation while I was there. I did many shifts in all different areas in the hospital. I worked in:- i) Cardiac Outpatients. ii) Theatres. iii)Thoracic Outpatients. iv) Critical Care Area. v) Hemingford Ward/HDU vi) Radiology. vii) Princess Ward (Thoracic) viii) Cystic Fibrosis Unit. ix) Cardiac Rehab.

Papworth Hospital.