It has been our pleasure to give a tour around HRI for a group of nurses who all trained in 1969 - just three years after HRI opened. They contacted the Trust  telling us about their 50th anniversary and we invited them back in for a tour  and look around HRI from Jeanette Cockroft and Cath Briggs. (Big thanks to them!)

Here's a few of their thoughts comparing now to  way back then.

Margaret Grundy:

Then: The hospital opened in 1966 and we trained in 1969 so everyone was still new.

Now: Lots more single rooms, ambulatory and assessment units – a wonderful new idea

Anna Fernando

Then: More beds to a ward

Now :Lot of technological advances, more nurses to patients

Carol Rushforth

Then: Meal breaks were taken in the dining room and coffee lounge,

Now: Much more focused on daycare and a great deal more technology

Valarie Riding 

Then: Very different. 

Now: Sisters look so young. Haha. Keep up the good work

Shirley Fox

Then: More beds and hand written notes

Now: Patients have a much shorter stay in hospital.  Improvement in nurses' roles with extended roles and  advanced nurse practitioners

Rosemary Andrews

Then:  Wards with 30+ beds and spacious

Now: Ambulatory excellent, nurse practitioners excellent, nicely decorated

Joan Pember 

Then: So different. Patients' bed nearer to each other

Now: Staff are doing a great job

Lesley Devlin

Then: : My time at HRI was relatively short I loved every minute

Now: Very electrical and friendly staff, modernised for the better