New Accession: Scrapbook of Prof John Feeney
Following our post last week regarding new accessions for the library, this week brings to your attention a new acquisition for the archives.
At the Annual Study Day for the Faculty of
Obstetricians & Gynaecologists in September 2013, Dr James Feeney donated to
the RCPI Heritage Centre, a scrapbook which had belonged to his father, Prof
John Kevin Feeney covering his time as Master of the Coombe Hospital from 1949
to 1956.
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| The presentation of the scrapbook by Dr James Feeney to Dr Michael O'Dowd and Harriet Wheelock |
John Feeney graduated in medicine from the
National University of Ireland in 1933, and received a diploma in Public Health
in 1935. In his early career Feeney worked at the Waterford Mental Home,
Peamount Sanatorium and was acting Medical Officer of Heath for Offaly. He also spent some time in Wales where he was Tuberculosis
Officer to the Welsh Nation Tuberculosis Association, and gained a diploma in
Tuberculosis Diseases. In 1949 he was
assistant gynaecologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin, when he was elected
Master of the Coombe Maternity Hospital by the hospital’s board.
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| Prof J. K. Feeney |
The scrap book covers Feeney’s seven year
term as Master, it contains statements, reports and letters issued by Feeney as
Master, as well as hospital notices. The
topics covered by the material in the book show the breath of issues which were
of concern to the Master, and although some are specific to his time, many
would be familiar to doctors in practice today. The book records Dr Feeney’s concerns at the
quality of the facilities available at the hospital; there are issues with lack
of space, the noise and the quality of equipment. Funding was also a constant concern, with
frequent references to the hospital’s overdraft. In 1952 Feeney issued a statement of ‘Measures to be considered with a view to
economy’, which included reductions in costs paid to suppliers for medicine
and reductions in salaries and wages. There are also ‘measures to be considered with a view to increasing income’, which
include fundraising appeals and better recording of bed occupancy as this
determines the Hospitals’ Commission grant.
Concerns regarding hygiene and patient care
also frequently appear amongst Dr Feeney’s entries, there are several notices
relating to these printed and to be ‘posted
in all parts of the hospital’. One
of these includes a warning that ‘antibiotics
should be used, ordinarily, only in acute illnesses and given in adequate
dosages’ as it has ‘now been
established that penicillin, streptomycin, aueromycin and chloromycetin have
lost some of their effectiveness against microbes’, the implications of
which ‘are very grave’.
One area of concern which was specific to Dr
Feeney’s time as Master is the government’s Mother and Child Welfare Scheme,
which was to provide free healthcare for all mothers and for all children up to
the age of sixteen, funded by taxation. Dr
Feeney repeatedly submits statements to the board expressing his concern at the
financial and logistical constraints that this scheme would place on the
hospital. He also seems to have
consulted with Dublin’s other maternity hospitals to try and establish a
unified response.
On concluding his time as Master of the Coombe,
Dr Feeney went on to become Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at
University College Dublin and in 1983 published a history of the Coombe
Hospital from its foundations to the 1970s.
RCPI’s Heritage Centre is very grateful to
Dr James Feeney for presenting this fascinating item to our archive, where it
will be made available to researchers.
RCPI’s Heritage Centre holds an important
collection of historic books, archives and items relating to the history of
obstetrics and gynaecology in Ireland. To
find out more about the collections visit the Heritage Centre’s webpage
or contact us to arrange an
appointment.
The Heritage Centre is currently working to
develop the collections we hold relating to the history of medicine in Ireland,
especially in relation to the twentieth century and if you are interested in
donating material to the collections please contact Harriet Wheelock at harrietwheelock@rcpi.ie or on 01
6698817.
This post was originally published in The Matrix, the e-zine of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists .
By Harriet Wheelock,
Keeper of Collections