Learning on ScreenPROFILE: THE DOCTOR
Series
- Series Name
- Mining Review 6th Year
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 3 / 3
- Section Title
- PROFILE
- Summary
- BFI synopsis: the job of an Area medical officer. The work of Dr Edmonds at Thorseby in the East Midlands.
NCB Commentary - New training officer at New Monkton in Yorkshire, Mr. Edmonds has seen 43 years underground as deputy and overman. His four sons have all been scholars; now that they’ve each graduated perhaps they don’t see as much of the Old Man as they’d like. But there’s one son in particular whose profession has brought him close to his father. He is the doctor, today Medical Officer for a Coal Board Area - the son who has come back to the pits.
After 3 years’ hospital work, a year lecturing in anatomy, two years in general practice, his job today combines public health with clinical medicine - and he’s a busy man.
He’s based at Thoresby in the East Midlands. When a serious accident takes place, as accidents will, then nine times out of ten it’s the Doctor who’s called down. He’ll check the patient with the first-aid men and do what he can on the spot. But this one is going to be a hospital case.
So it’s up to the surface with him, to the medical centre, where the patient can have a chance to get over the initial shock. Sister here knows how to look after him. This is the Doctor’s headquarters, and he’ll have other patients waiting. There’s nothing wrong with this fellow: he’s a rescue man, and one of the doctor’s jobs is to give him a regualr checkup.
Meanwhile the ambulance has arrived. The injured patient from underground goes off to hospital.
Public Health covers a big field. Pit consultative committees call on the Doctor for expert advice. At Blidworth Colliery there’s a meeting in progress, and dermatitis is on the agenda. So the Doctor tells the men what they can do themselves, and keeps them in touch with what medical science is doing. He’s well known to all of them - that’s part of his job, too - maybe someone will buttonhole him after the meeting with a personal problem.
Then there’s the question of general hygiene. Pit canteens are part of the Doctor’s responsibility. With the manageress he keeps an eye on cleanliness and discusses improvements. All the pithead baths in the area come under the Doctor’s supervision. He’s put in footbaths here to cut down the spread of infection. This is one of the ideas under trial. Here’s another; it looks like a soap dispenser, but inside is surgical spirit for rubbing on to the skin when men get beat knee. Some of the boys have been filling their lighters with it, so that formula will have to be altered.
To be able to get on with his job, the Doctor must maintain close and friendly relations with pit managers. At Welbeck he drops in to talk over with the manager the new findings of the Medical Research Council on breathing apparatus.
On the way back to the car something else generally turns up. It looks like a friendly chat in the pityard, but there’s more to it than that. Mr. Chapman fractured his neck not so long ago- his arms were paralysed - and now there’s the problem of finding his suitable work. That’s the Doctor’s worry again.
The day wears on. But the Doctor will find time to call in at the hospital to see how our friend is getting on from this morning’s accident. As a matter of course he follows up all accident cases, and there’ll probably be some other patients to take a look at while he’s in the building.
And then, finally, home. How does a doctor have time to be a family man as well? Perhaps these moments are among the most precious of the day to him. Now he can relax, but a doctor’s home, as his wife knows only too well, is never entirely his own. There’s always the threat of the telephone in the corner of the room. The Doctor is always on shift. - Researcher Comments
- BFI sources suggest that this story was researched by Pickering on the 22nd September and then filmed on the 26th November 1952. Commentary recorded 8 December 1952.
- Keywords
- Education and training; Health and medicine
- Locations
- England; Thoresby Colliery
- Written sources
- British Film Institute Databases Used for Synopsis
Film User Vol.8 No.87 January 1954, p32.
The National Archives COAL 32 /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956
- Credits:
-
- Production Co.
- Documentary Technicians Alliance
- Support services
- Eric Pask
- Camera
- Ken Morgan
- Sponsor
- National Coal Board
- Director
- Peter Pickering
- Support services
- Peter Pickering
- Camera
- Wolfgang Suschitzky
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