| Thelma Bates |
 Born in 1929, Thelma Bates studied medicine in Birmingham and qualified in 1952. Starting out as a Ship's Surgeon, Thelma
Bates travelled to New Zealand and Australia where she was a general practitioner, before going on to study radiotherapy and
oncology in Tasmania. On returning to Britain, her qualifications were not recognised and she repeated her radiotherapy/oncology
training at St Thomas's Hospital, where, despite the arrival of three children, she achieved consultant status by 1968. Aware
of the needs of the dying through her chosen specialism, Thelma Bates visited Cicely Saunders at St Christopher's in its early
days. In 1974-75 Mary Baines came to St Thomas's from St Christopher's to see how radiotherapy could be used in symptom control.
This began a reciprocal relationship, with Thelma Bates taking regular clinical rounds at St Christopher's. Using the model
of the Hospital Support Team developed at St Luke's Hospital in New York, Thelma Bates began planning a similar unit for St
Thomas's. Her aim was to mobilise skills rather than assign beds to the team. Opening in 1976, Thelma Bates discusses the
development of St Thomas's Hospital Support Team (the first of its kind in Britain), from its early beginnings on four 'friendly'
surgical and gynaecological wards, to the adaptation of part of St Thomas's for a day care unit. Topics include hospital/
community relations, funding, the expansion of the team to include additional doctors and then social work and occupational
therapy, and the growth of Hospital Support Teams nationally subsequent to an article on St Thomas's Hospital Support Team
in the Lancet and other educational initiatives. The St Thomas's team also developed an academic function, and, with money
from Lisa Sainsbury, Britain's first Professor of Palliative Medicine, Geoff Hanks, was appointed at St Thomas's. Thelma Bates
withdrew at this time (early 1990s) and due to Geoff Hanks' desire to have an in-patient unit he subsequently moved to Bristol
University; his place was then taken by Professor Michael Richards. Thelma Bates' interview also discusses management issues,
staff stress, and patients. Thelma Bates became a trustee of Trinity Hospice in 1978, a founding Trustee of the Princess Alice
Hospice in 1981, and has been Chairman of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement.
|
| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 19 May 1997 |
| Interview Duration: 51 minutes |
|
