Image from Francis Edwards blog The Cornish Historian
sister helen philips-treby
Deceased 1958
Health & Social Care
Suggested by Martin Rich
“Sister Helen Philips-Treby was Head Nurse and General Manager of St Barnabas Hospital Saltash for over 60 years. There is an interesting and detailed account of St Barnabas Hospital and Sister Helen’s role in it on Francis Edward’s, The Cornish Historian, blog. Here is a little edited taste:
“St Barnabas Cottage Hospital and Convalescent Home, Saltash, opened in 1889. The Western Daily Mercury announced that its main purpose was to receive “persons suffering from accident, non-contagious or non-infectious diseases, especially those convalescing from illness, who are discharged from hospitals and not sufficiently strong to resume their work”
As Head Nurse, Sister Helen not only had to manage the entire nursing side of St Barnabas, but also its finances. Before the advent of the NHS, hospitals were provided by local governments and the administrators of the Poor Law. The third variety of hospital, of which St Barnabas was one, were the so-called “voluntary” hospitals, which relied on philanthropy and fund-raising for their upkeep and were generally located in more rural areas. Generally speaking, medical care was better in a voluntary hospital and more medical training was practised in them.
Sister Helen had to report to the Board of Subscribers annually, on all matters financial as well as medical including detail on numbers of patients, major operations, and the accounts. Sister Helen’s concerns were therefore fiscal, as well as spiritual. However, under her management the hospital was already gaining a reputation for two things that seemed to be a constant during her long tenure: excellent care and shortage of funds.”