Contents -

Shop Talk
Reorganisation
Letter to the Editor
Hospital Snobbery
Technical Nursing Library

SHOP TALK

Staff Social Club

The Friday night Disco's in the Club are now under way again from 8.00 p.m. - 12.00 p.m.
Make Friday night a swinging night - the more the merrier.

THANKS

In the recent move of Ward 16 to Ward 45 I would like to thank Mr. Dilworth and his porters, the joiners, electricians, and the patients and staff of Ward 43 for their help and co-operation. Not forgetting the staff of Ward 45, of course.

T. Muldoon,
Charge Nurse.

Sister Critchley and the staff of Ward 36 wish to thank the staff of Social Therapy for their part in making the Ward Xmas party such a success.

Mrs. Knowles and the staff of Female Industrial Therapy would like to thank everyone who made the Industrial Therapy party such a success.

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Staff Functions

This year saw a further departure from tradition, when the demand for tickets for the Social Evening already organised led those concerned to arrange an additional Social Evening in place of the first Staff Dance.

The first Social Evening hold on Friday, 4th January seemed to go off without a hitch and guests were entertained by the Arthur Ingram's Modern Septet (featuring our own Dr. Ward), and various Cabaret acts. However, on 8th January when the second Social Evening was held, due to some hitch over the licence no alcohol could be served to the guests! Faced with the prospect of a "dry" night Winwick initiative triumphed as the majority made a bee-line to local pubs and returned with various consignments of drinks. Ironically, the evening seemed to exceed everyone's expectations, for in view of later complaints about bar prices those present on Tuesday certainly obtained value for money and the evening appeared to be a success. Again, acoustics left something to be desired and the Comedian's risque jokes were almost inaudible from the back of the hall.

Thanks,

The New Year's Ball was such a success,
On behalf of friends I would like to express
Thanks to all who helped to bring
The New Year in with such a swing.

Special thanks I should like to recall
To Mr Fox for organising the Ball.
Mrs. Naisby with helping hand
To see that everything went as planned.
Messrs. Bainbridge and Ashton for preparing the eats,
Also the staff who served the treats.
For making us an evening to remember,
Into January from December.
With best wishes so sincere,
All the best for this New Year.

From some of the Night Staff.

Wanted.

Old tights and stockings to Ward 43.

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Christmas Activities per Social Therapy.

Firstly, may I wish all the staff of Winwick Hospital a happy New Year. Although belated I would also like to convey the Department's thanks to all staff who displayed so much interest in us in the form of assistance and positive co-operation.

For me, Christmas 1973 supported and proved the fact that communication between the integral facets of our hospital community is not only vital but desirable, in that involving others brought about the natural desire of wanting to help and be part of something. I feel and know that with a concerted approach a positive chain reaction does evolve culminating in our realisations. In turn, involvement seems to lessen the complexity of things. If we only involve one another then the reciprocal feedback supports the maxim of "two heads being better than one". I hope that our happy 1974 will do just that.

To continue, may I thank (and use as an example) the following people who indulged and effected the Christmas comedy team: "Winwick Wizz Kids and Showband"; Mrs. Middlefell for her consent and advice before embarking on other hospitals; Mr. French and Mr. A. Makin in arranging expedient financial support; Unit Officers and Charge Nurses who so kindly adjusted the participants duties to coincide with each project; Mrs. Collier and staff who not only made the costumes, but stitched a lot of patience and goodwill into the garments; Mr. Bainbridge blessed with Job's patience met our every need; Charlie Carrolli (Clown) for his advice and expertise; Mr. Scott and staff for his talent in dyeing yards of material and never questioning our ever-changing whims; Stan Fagan, a better Road Manager you never met - we are convinced he joined the wrong profession; Joan Hill who's interest and talent with make-up never failed to please; Olive Bryant who so readily proffered her transport and drove for us when the National fuel crisis reared its headbang on Christmas; Social Therapy staff who so admirably covered the entertainments programme thereby giving the team licence.

Last but not least, the team:

Marie Bailey	Dave Murray	Peggy Nugent.
Elizabeth Bailey	Ken Royle	David Hill
Ian Preshoe	Kathleen Kidd	Denise Harrison

We are indebted to them for the time given voluntarily in addition to their duties. The energy and interest in rehearsal and preparation was a credit in itself. The pleasure emanating was not only afforded to Winwick, but several other areas:-

(1)	Medical and surgical units at Warrington General Hospital.
(2)	Psychiatric wing Warrington General Hospital.
(3)	Mentally Handicapped Children's Christmas Party at the Y.M.C.A. Warrington.

What else can we say but Thank You.

E. Villiers.

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HEALTH SERVICE REORGANISATION

N.H.S. Reorganisation Bulletin No. 10 reiterates the statement in a DHSS circular (EM(73)36) -
Health authorities should undertake all the necessary consultation with all the staff interests concerned in accordance with the advice given in HRC(73)11. They in turn should ensure that all staff comments (including those from local authority staff likely to be affected) on interim management arrangements and associated amendments of staff transfer schemes are taken fully into account, along with all other factors, before interim arrangements are finalised. It is important in the interests of staff for the interim period to be as short as possible and any movement of staff or adjustments to existing duties limited to essential matters.

A long letter from Sir Keith Joseph to NALGO concludes -

I realise that much of the anxiety felt by staff about their future would have been allayed by earlier dissemination of information about salaries and conditions of service. On the other hand the thorough consultation that has taken place with the Staff Side on these matters at national level has resulted in substantial advantages to those affected by reorganisation.

Nearer home the implications of NHS Reorganisation were discussed at a meeting of the JCSC here at Winwick in December, when Mr. Fox, Group Secretary, speaking of.the transfer of staff, said, 'In the case of this Management Committee it will be a complete transfer to the Area Health services apart from social workers who are to be employed by the Local Authority. The only staffs who will be in any way uncertain will be those employed at Group level. They will be transferred to posts in the District set up. However, administration must consult with trades union authorities as to the way in which staffs are being transferred, from whom, to whom, by whom. Mr. Fox concluded that in spite of the extra work which preparations for transfer of staff entailed, very early in January it was intended to call a meeting with staff organisations.

LETTER TO THE EDITORS

Kitchen staff grumble (and rightly so) about dirty toilets. The maintenance staff execute the work of decorating, relaying floors, etc. Ono particular toilet has been done a mere two months but some staff still find it funny to carve their monologues on doors and walls. Can it really be that some people actually like living in these conditions?

R. Dingsdale,
Maintenance Staff.

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HOSPITAL SNOBBERY

Morbid process of hospital snobbery

Hospital life like any other region of human activity enjoys no immunity from the contagion of snobbery. Psychiatric hospital life with which we are here concerned has two main sources of contagion, one indigenous and the other external to the hospital. The major difference between indigenous and externally-sited snobbery resides in the morbid processes of their development and propagation.

The morbid processes of indigenous hospital snobbery are of a morbid character; by which I mean that this sort of snobbery changes from a benign to a malignant form. The morbid processes of externally-sited snobbery on the other hand have a metastatic character; by which I mean that this sort of snobbery is malignant at source and that its spread involves a medium or vehicle of transmission. If we trace the processes of metastatic snobbery to their site of origin we will find it located in the value system of the outside world. Slang in current everyday usage furnishes us with a fairly reliable index of the attitudes of the man in the street, and this is particularly true in regard to his attitude to mental illness, mental hospitals and psychiatry in general. Popular slang relating to mental illness has a rich store of derisive nomenclature. Such phrases as "up the pole", "round the bend", "nutty as a fruit cake", and such words as "screwball", "loony-bin", "loony-basher", "trick-cyclist", "headshrinker" and "nutcase" are so much a part of everyday language that popular comedians constantly and confidently resort to them as an instant laughter-trigger. One well-known T.V. comic established his nationwide popularity on his ability to mimic the limb movements of Huntingdon's Chorea. Now the T.V. rabble cannot be deprived of its laughter, and in a democracy the political establishment remains the political establishment only as long as it remains sensitive to the needs of the masses. Politicians in power become the vehicle of transmission of metastatic snobbery because they realise that there is little vote-catching potential in increasing expenditure on the care and treatment of chronic nutcases. Thus it is that in Winwick Hospital we have twelve wards, some of then drab, dreary and dingy with a patient population in excess of fifty. This takes us to the tertiary stage of metastatic snobbery, its final invasion of the value systems of workers in the psychiatric hospital field. Doctors and nurses are ordinary mortals and the moral capacity of ordinary mortals is of an ordinary calibre. Such calibre provides us with an ethical sense which is more conformist than creative, more conventional than cerebral and which is more practical than profound. In short it is a calibre hardly likely to enable us to transcend the traditional and officially-received values of the deprived environment in which we work.

Moramorphic Snobbery

In the outside world there are many professions and occupations in which snobbery has little or no effect on professional efficiency. The tailor, tinker and candlestick-maker can all be riddled with snobbery and yet be able to do their work efficiently and even expertly.

In a psychiatric hospital, however, where the quality of the therapeutic milieu depends largely on the existence of a spirit of corporate wholeness between the various professsions in the care of the patients, snobbery in any form acts as a divisive and destructive influence. It destroys the spirit of unity and sense of interdependence between the various hospital services, and fragments the hospital into isolated island kingdoms which come to regard each other with jealousy and suspicion. In such circumstances no-one is happy, least of all the patient. Self-overvaluation in hospital life whether it takes an individual or collective form has always in my experience been a case of tuppence-halfpenny looking down at tuppence. This and the other side of the same coin, self-undervaluation are the most common types of metamorphic snobbery in hospital life and both are equally pernicious.

Now that the reader has reached the end of this piece he will have realised that it is blatantly propogandist, an obvious attempt to influence the views of others. Why should I care about the views of others, you may ask? Frankly, I do not care a damn, but there is a good chance that those who read "The Standard" will, at some time, work either above with, or beneath, me and even though I may not know their views they should as a result of my contributions to "The Standard" have a fairly sound knowledge of mine.

Cathal Breslin.

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TECHNICAL NURSING LIBRARY

New books available on loan -

"Principles of Intensive Care' - Emery, Yates & Moorhead.

"The Practice of Behaviour Therapy" - J. Wolpe.

"A History of the Mental Health Services" - K. Jones.

"Individual in Society" - Kroch, Crutchfield & Ballachey.

"The Heart" - D. Longmore.

"Human Hormones" - R. Green.

"The Science of Decision Making" - A. Kaufmann.

"The Molecules of Life" - G. Nass.

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