Abstract
First, I would like to acknowledge and thank, on behalf of all participants in today’s celebrations, the President, Council and Staff of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Scottish Medical Journal for their generous support. Thanks also are due to the contributors whose abstracts in this commemorative issue highlight a few of the many achievements of the thousands of staff members, volunteers and the children and families who have been involved in creating a ‘Yorkhill’ child and family centred ethos of caring and learning throughout the West of Scotland and beyond. They have beautifully illustrated through reminiscences of past achievements and their ambitions for goals yet to be achieved, the dynamic force for change which Yorkhill has become.
The increased knowledge base created by clinical, laboratory and other investigative techniques, researched and developed by our talented staff, together with their National and International teaching role has created one of the most highly respected Sick Children’s Services in the world. It is fitting that the late Professor Daniel Greer Young, who instigated today’s and other Yorkhill celebratory events, is given special recognition for his major contributions to children’s surgery by one of his friends and colleagues, Professor Jay L. Grosfeld.
Moving house, home and neighbourhood can create for any family anxieties, stresses and challenges but also can act as a stimulus for progress and improvements.
The move from the original (1883) ‘Glasgow Hospital for Sick Children’ at 45 Scott Street to Yorkhill in 1914 during the start of the First World War must have caused extreme anxieties for those involved. However, that move and subsequent changes of accommodation have almost invariably led to much improved hospital and community services for children with physical, mental and special needs. During the century at Yorkhill, there have been dramatic reductions in the need for long-term hospital care for ‘chronic paediatric diseases’ and an increase in specialist services and care at or nearer to home and family including palliative and hospice care.
Recognition of the importance of maternal and early child health and education to the ultimate mental and physical health of the whole community is increasing and helping to shape the provision of new community and hospital services which can optimise future Community and Child Health. The knowledge and understanding which has evolved over this past century has been driven not only by talented and devoted staff but also by the needs and determination of the children and their families who have inspired, challenged and encouraged the staff to help meet those needs.
The Yorkhill family of staff, children and their families are moving to a new home at the South Glasgow University Hospital. Our best wishes go with them.
Samson Gemmell Professor Child Health, University of Glasgow and Consultant Paediatrician at RHSC and QMH, Yorkhill 1977–1996
Chairman Yorkhill Children’s Trust 1996–2001
Emeritus Professor Child Health and Hon Research Fellow Department of Child Health, University of Glasgow 1996–present