50 years ago, Craven was looking forward the opening of Airedale Hospital. It cost £5 million, around half that of a conventional hospital, and was heralded as the most modern in the country, if not Europe.

The new, much anticipated £5 million Airedale District General Hospital at Steeton was 50 years ago nearing completion.

It had taken more than three years to build, and official commissioning of the hospital was not due to take place until June 1, 1970, but the Craven Herald looked forward to its opening with a full page of interviews with hospital leaders, why the site at Steeton was chosen, and what would be on offer at the new health facility.

“The Craven area, Keighley and beyond, will have one of the finest and most modern hospitals in the country, if not the whole of Europe,” said the Herald.

The 648 bed hospital occupied a site of about 33 acres and at ‘fully operational level’ would employ 1,200 staff.

Commissioned by the Leeds Regional Hospital Board, it was of a horizontal design, as opposed to a multi-storey design, and had been built at around half the cost of a conventional hospital.

Building work started in September, 1966, and by February, 1970, the building had been handed over to the Airedale Hospital Management Committee, which was to be responsible for managing the new hospital.

Heading up the new committee was group secretary, Mr W A Hope, who had recently moved to Bradley, who had been faced with the task of of making sure the new hospital started operating smoothly without a breakdown of existing hospital services in Skipton, Castleberg and Harden Bridge, Austwick.

The opening of Airedale meant the closure of three hospitals in Keighley, while in Skipton, Raikeswood Hospital would continue to care for geriatric patients, and at Skipton General, 40 beds would be given over to geriatric patients, and 20 for the use of general practitioners.

It would have more than 20 wards and treatment facilities and its 648 beds would include 120 for medicine, 120 geriatrics, 78 maternity, 64 psychiatry, 40 paediatric, and 90 for general surgery. There were also to be 60 accident and orthopaedic, 30 gynaecology, 15 special care baby beds, 16 isolation and 15 private beds.

Each ward was in the shape of an ‘L’, with 15 beds in each arm, all self contained, allowing each arm to be used solely by male, or female patients. Each ward was to have its own treatment facilities and a day room where patients could sit and read, watch television, or eat meals. Each ward was also to have an overnight room for visitors.

A feature of the wards was that ‘piped oxygen and suction’ was to be available, which meant cylinders would not have to be carried from one ward to another.

An innovation was the inclusion of an intensive care unit for seriously ill patients with a need for ‘high pressure nursing’ where they could be cared for short periods until being transferred to a main ward. The unit was to include concentrated resuscitation equipment and cardiac monitors and would be staffed by highly qualified people.

The planners had aimed to keep associated departments as closely linked as possible, so the outpatients and accident and emergency departments were sited close to the x-ray department; while the main surgical wards were on the same level as the operating theatres, so patients would not have to get in a lift before operations.

The accident and emergency department was ‘well equipped’ to deal with all emergencies whether accidents or sudden illnesses. It had two entrances, one for ‘walking wounded’ and one for stretcher patients or the seriously ill. The A&E had ten treatment cubicles, a specialist resuscitation room and a day room.

THE hospital’s chief nursing officer, Miss A M Tinkler, also in charge of nursing at all the hospitals in the group, told the Herald that the ‘Salmon’ scheme was to be introduced at Airedale, in line with all hospitals in the country. Under the new system, a clear path of promotion would be brought in, and once nurses had carried out basic training, they would be ‘streamed’ with a number sent on courses in to hospital and personnel management. The term ‘matron’ was to disappear and be replaced by ‘principal nursing officer’.

Miss Tinkler said the ‘girl’ needed in the new type of hospital would have a minimum of two O levels, and preferably five or even A levels. They would be taught to SRN level and then streamed. She added there was also a great need for girls, or even boys, who did not have a very high academic standard but who would be interested in training as a State Enrolled Nurse - their services would be in ‘greatest demand at the bedside attending to the more clinical aspects of nursing’.