Dr Chisholm’s Hospital of Dreams
Photograph of infant prams from an album presented to Dr Catherine Chisholm on her retirement in 1951.
In the early 20th century, preventable disorders affecting infants, such as rickets, were common. Rickets is a developmental condition caused by Vitamin D deficiency leading to severe disability and even death. Motivated to provide more effective treatment for children, Catherine Chisholm BA MB ChB MD CBE FRCP founded the Manchester Babies Hospital for premature babies and infants in 1914. The new hospital had facilities including a modern surgical theatre, laboratory and sun treatment wards dedicated to treating rickets. During a Royal Visit in 1936, the hospital was renamed the Duchess of York Hospital for Babies.
Despite successes like the Duchess of York Hospital, up until the mid-20th century, many hospitals were still miserable places for children, focused on addressing their physical needs but not their emotional ones.
Sir Harry Platt, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery investigated hospital care for children. He wrote his findings in a 1959 report, The Welfare of Children in Hospitals. Many of his recommendations were based on good practice observed at the Duchess of York Hospital. Platt emphasised the importance of placing children in wards together and recommended that hospitals should have facilities for play, along with adorning a cheerful colour scheme and felt strongly about allowing visits from parents. The publication resulted in a national reorganisation to improve the treatment of children in hospitals.
After a degree in Classics, Catherine Chisholm (1878-1952) entered the Manchester Medical School and was the first female graduate of Manchester Medical School. She qualified in 1904. Her father, Dr Kenneth Chisholm, a general practitioner, encouraged her to take up medicine despite the profession generally being seen as a male occupation at the time.
Dr Catherine Chisholm was active in the Infant Welfare Movement, adviser to the Santa Fina Society for Crippled Children, Medical Officer for the Manchester High School for Girls and Honorary Physician for women and children at the Chorlton-on-Medlock Dispensary.
The hospital was founded to address the inadequate care provided to young children in the city. For example, most children's hospitals did not provide beds for babies needing specialist nursing. Some of the details of this annual report show the hospital provided training in the care of infants. It details items the hospital needed including new cots and lists of donations from prominent individuals like co-founder Margaret Ashton and businesses including Rylands & Sons.