Joe Hughes revisits his thirty year nursing and demanding trade union careers at St Francis Psychiatric Hospital at Haywards Heath in Sussex and produces a well researched history which at times is controversial but also humorous and always enjoyable. This is a local history and memoir with a difference. *Read of the old hospital's ghostly Grey Lady who is said to still haunt the corridors of the new Southdowns Park *Wonder at how a nurse found his car on one of the hospital's wards on April Fool's day *Be surprised and shocked at the hospital's speeding ambulance driver as he loses a patient's white shrouded corpse in the snow *Relive national medical history as Dr Charles Lockhart Robertson, the first medical superintendent, initiated the use of Turkish baths in psychiatric treatment in England *Gain new insights into the often strained relationship, spread over many decades, between COHSE (Unison) and management before and during the hospital's closing process. These and many more little known facts and stories emerge from the time the doors of the hospital opened in 1859. Built to house just 400 patients at a cost of £46,531.16s.10d it carried out its work for 136 years until, in November 1995, it closed to fund and make way for advances in the community based care of the mentally ill.
About the Author: Joe Hughes first came to England from his native Ireland in 1960 to train for the Catholic priesthood with the Divine Word Missionaries in Worcester. Several years later, and with the Biblical words ringing in his ears, 'Many are called but few are chosen', he returned home to Ireland unchosen! Later he trekked back to England to train as a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) at St Francis Psychiatric Hospital at Haywards Heath in West Sussex during the late 1960s. From there he completed his State Registered Nurse (SRN) training at the Whittington Hospital in North London. Drawn back to psychiatric nursing he went on to study for the Diploma in Nursing and also undertook management training and studied for a part time teacher's certificate whilst running a clinical unit as a senior clinical charge nurse. Having worked in all of the hospital based psychiatric clinical specialities he thrived in acute psychiatry where his true interests lay but ever eager for further challenges he became branch secretary of his local trade union in which he also served at district and regional level. He retired early from the NHS, following a thirty year career, having undertaken fresh training as a chiropodist and now runs a successful part time practice in addition to his writing and speaking activities. Joe lives in Sussex with his family and makes frequent visits back to his native Ireland.