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50 years of our doctors re-united - - November 2006 (Left to right - Gareth Edwards, Stephen Morgan, Lawrence Brad, Tessa Bevan Jones, Robert Schuster Bruce, Alistair Scales, Elizabeth Sylvester, Alan Fisher, Charles Vartan, John Surridge, David Granger, John Granger) We have two versions of the practice history. Both are set out below. Inevitably, with the passage of time, there are some discrepancies about dates and detail. They do however give a fascinating account of this long-established practice. History 1. Written by David and John Granger with additions by later partners1909 Henry Granger joined a group of established practitioners with Dr McGillicuddy as senior partner. Henry practised from "Musgrave", 8 Christchurch Road. 1913 Henry's brother Douglas joined him but then went off to World War 1 in 1915. Henry Granger and Dr Marriner looked after the practice until Douglas returned in 1918. He then practised single-handed from Hillcote, Richmond Hill where John and David Granger were born. Just after the second world war Douglas Granger was joined by Don Harrocks. They practised from Denecote, Westminster Road and in 1946 were joined by Roger Barker. 1948 At the outset of the NHS Roger Barker left to practice entirely within the NHS leaving Douglas Granger and Don Harrocks to continue in private practice. Meanwhile Stuart Robertson and James Fisher were practising from Avon House on the Westcliff and they were soon joined by Graham Robertson with part-time assistance from David Granger. 1954 As there were not sufficient patients on the Westcliff, James Fisher and Graham Robertson started a branch surgery in Moordown, in the north of the town 1955 David Granger joined his father's private practice. 1957 John Granger, who had been in the RAF for his National Service came into Stuart Robertson's practice. David Granger was invited to join the practice in 1959 but at first declined as he was still working in private practice with his father and uncle. 1960 Practice consultations now started at "Linda", 5a Poole Road. This was a four-storey Victorian house. The flat upstairs was occupied by a succession of partners; David Granger, John Surridge and Roger Barker. Rooms were let at times to a varied group of tenants including a dentist, a dental technician, an architect and consultants (Buckell, Holding-Parsons, Barron, Stearn and Jessop) Dr Stuart Robertson continued to practice from his house until his death in 1961. James Fisher, John Granger and David Granger continued to practice from "Linda" with John Granger helping out in Castle Lane occasionally. The Westcliff started to open up in 1961-62 with the beginning of the boom in construction of retirement flats. 1962 John Surridge joined the practice and for two years worked about half at each end until Isobel Jack also joined. After a year she requested that she should work wholly at Castle Lane and John Surridge moved entirely to the Westcliff. The two ends of the practice split in 1967. 1969 Roger Barker, who had left Douglas in 1948 to build a large NHS practice, came up the road from The Square with 4,200 patients and his daughter - his invaluable secretary. As the four partners found it increasingly difficult to cope with the increased practice lists they asked Roger Gillett, another old St Thomas man, to join them. By 1972, the old Victorian and Edwardian houses on the Westcliff had sadly nearly all been replaced by modern flats, and numbers swelled even more. Charles Vartan from Barts joined, having been a medical registrar with high qualifications – one of the first of several partners who had opted out of hospital medicine. By 1974 it was realised that the "seams" were bursting in "Linda" and an extra six consulting rooms were built to accommodate the new partners and existing tenants. 1979 Dr Roger Gillett decided to leave the practice to take over a neighbouring one up the road – he took some patients with him. Dr Alan Fisher joined from Southampton where he had been working as a medical registrar, taking over Roger Gillett’s remaining list and building up his own. By 1983 the need for a lady partner was realized and the practice was lucky enough to find Elizabeth Sylvester who had been doing her vocational training in the depths of the Welsh Valleys. Six months after this Roger Barker retired and handed over to Alistair Scales who having graduated from the London Hospital then worked up to medical registrar level in the Southampton area. There were now three partners with the MRCP, a fourth was to join later. The practice then appointed its first practice manager who remained for three years. Owing to the ever increasing numbers of patients, doctors and ancillary staff the practice expanded into the basement of "Linda" and this meant having to work from four floors without a lift. Life became very difficult and the practice unwieldy it was decided to look for another site more central to the practice area. A perfect site was found to the north of Westbourne in Milburn Road. After many mishaps building was finally started in January 1987. 1987 Moved into Westbourne Medical Centre. Computers were installed in reception in 1988 and terminals put in each consulting room in 1989. 1992 Dr John Granger retired and replaced by Dr Robert Schuster Bruce. 1993 Dr David Granger retired and replaced by Dr Tessa Bevan Jones. As Dr David Granger’s list size had been reduced the partners decided the work could be covered by a part-time partner. In the same year the practice became "fundholding" which over the next five years enabled an extended range of services to be offered from the medical centre. 1996 Dr John Surridge retired and replaced by Dr Lawrence Brad. David Clippingdale was appointed our fund-holding manager. 2001 Dr Stephen Morgan joined the practice as an additional partner to help with increasing workload 2003 Dr Vartan retired and replaced by Dr Edwards History 2. Written by James Fisher (no relation to Dr Alan Fisher)The Origins of the Practice that eventually split up to formthe Westbourne Medical Centre and the James Fisher Medical CentreT hough not one of the earliest practices in Bournemouth we date back to about 1880. Thomas Bodley Scott (1851-1924) was the son of a Brighton doctor, Samuel King Scott (1818-1865). He qualified at Barts in 1874 and shortly thereafter set up practice in Bournemouth. He may of course have bought into an existing practice but we have no record of it. He headed a distinguished medical family which included some 14 medical men of which one, Sir Ronald Bodley Scott, left general practice, became a consultant at Barts and eventually the Queen’s physician. T Bodley Scott became Mayor of Bournemouth, but died in office in 1924.
His brother, Bernard Scott qualified MRCS and LSA at Guys in 1881; this was before the days of the Conjoint. Bernard, after working in the Sussex County Hospital in Brighton moved to Bournemouth and practised from “Hartington”, Poole Road and can be considered the founding father of the practice. Dr Horace Dobell’s “The Medical Aspects of Bournemouth and its Surroundings” (1885) gives an interesting picture of the town at the time our practice started. He names no local practitioners, but gives especial praise for “Mr Duncan, the senior chemist and druggist at Bournemouth”. . However he does say “During my career as a London Physician I always knew Bournemouth as a place where patients would be certain to receive unusually good care from the local practitioners.”
In the seventy years since its foundation in 1810 ( the hey day of Brighton, Bath and Cheltenham) Bournemouth had become England’s premier health resort. The Royal National Sanatorium had been founded as a country branch of the Brompton. Dobell himself set up the sumptuous Mont Dore Hospital (now Bournemouth Town Hall) to treat the rich and the titled consumptives with the regime pioneered at Mont Dore in the Auvergne.
Bernard’s son Maitland (1887-1942 - not to be confused with Maitland Bodley Scott, his cousin - also qualified at Guys, spent the whole of the First War in the RAMC and returned home to his father’s practice in 1918. By this time Bernard was living at “Fairlea” on the West Cliff. This was next door to “Stagsden”, Bournemouth’s leading surgical nursing home, which was run by the Scott family In the thirties Maitland’s sister, Elisabeth, the distinguished architect of the Stratford Memorial Theatre, built a house for him in the grounds of “Fairlea”: this was “Avon House”, 16a West Cliff Road. In 1942 Maitland Scott died suddenly from a coronary thrombosis
Stuart Robertson (1888-1961) was one of fifteen children of a doctor practising in Dumbarton. All ten boys went to Glasgow University. Eight qualified in Medicine. Stuart at first studied Architecture, but turned to medicine on his father’s death. He served in the RAMC in France, Gallipoli Ireland and Russia in the First War and was awarded the MC. After the war he practised in Margate, but in 1940 nearly all his patients left that vulnerable town. Having no patients he moved to Bournemouth where his brother Dr Morton Robertson, who had practised in Bournemouth for 20 years, made no effort to help him or give him work. Morton Robertson’s practice is now continued by Drs Tetley, Blick, Levitt and Shakespeare.
Stuart Robertson had to pick up whatever work he could. The deaths of Maitland Scott and Dr Edward Hardie gave him a nucleus. When Maitland Scott’s widow suggested he buy the practice, Stuart said he had a practice already, but would be interested in buying the house. By 1948 he was running his practice in Avon House, earning at least half as much again as the average established general practitioners. He had in effect re-established the Bernard Scott practice.
On July 5th 1948 the NHS started operating. This was totally to change the practice patterns, especially in a prosperous residential and hotel district like the West Cliff. Stuart had had a “Panel” in Margate but never in Bournemouth. James Fisher (born 1922) had qualified from UCH in 1945, been a house surgeon at Boscombe Hospital and had done two GP assistantships of a year each. He was the son and grandson of country practitioners in Hertfordshire, but had not fitted into the family practice. He arrived as a partner to Stuart Robertson a fortnight before the critical date. It was six years after July ’48 before any new NHS doctors were allowed into Bournemouth..
It had been believed that the NHS would be adopted or not adopted area by area. This was not so. Private patients (including an Irish peer) unexpectedly signed on the list, though the core of elderly wealthy private patients remained until they died off. Which they did.. To develop an NHS list became imperative. By a sad chance Charles Hawkins, an elderly and idiosyncratic single handed GP in Castle Lane, had “a turn” on the evening of July 4th. Within hours of the Executive Council offices opening on July 5th Mrs Hawkins dumped about 1,000 cards on the counter saying “He can’t go on.” The Clerk, Mr Lowe, told Fisher that if he wanted a practice he had better get some rooms quickly and pick up what he could. There was no procedure yet in place for taking over the practice. A dentist in Redbreast Road was not using his rooms owing to illness, so patients were recruited and seen there. About half of Hawkins’ patients signed on in the first three months. Adequate rooms only became available when James married Rosemary in 1950 and bought 125 Castle Lane from Charles Hawkins.
The practice in West Cliff Road with its branch surgery in Castle Lane grew satisfactorily, yet in the second year of the partnership the NHS list had grown by 500 further patients yet the gross practice income had fallen by £1,000. By 1953 it was clear we needed a further partner. Graham Robertson (1926-2004) was Morton Robertson’s son and so Stuart Robertson’s nephew. He had qualified BM Bch from Magdalen, Oxford in 1949 and after his National Service and an assistantship in Port Talbot joined the practice in 1953.
The first year that Graham was with the practice was spent planning and building Bournemouth’s first purpose-built detached surgery at a total cost, including the land at the corner of Castle Lane and Cox Avenue, of £4,000. The radiotelephone installation cost a further £700. The building was opened in September 1954. With numerous additions and alterations it eventually served a practice population of just over 13,000. In 1985 the whole operation was moved to a larger site in Tolpuddle Gardens.
In the later fifties both John and David Granger joined the practice. Their father Douglas Granger (1890-1961), and their uncle, Henry Granger (1882-1960), had been part of a loose co-operative which was in effect the most influential and successful medical grouping in Bournemouth between the wars. It included B.E.Tompson a consultant physician and Dr Blunt an anaesthetist. After the Second War it was joined by Don Horrocks, Roger Barker just out of the Navy and by Basil Furness. It was never a true partnership and did not survive the organisational changes imposed by the NHS in 1948. In its time it was so influential that when a vacancy for an Honorary Physician to the Royal Victoria and West Hants Hospital occurred in the thirties they convinced the Committee that “there were far too many Scotts in the town already” and so their candidate Bertram Tompson was preferred to Ronald Bodley Scott.
John Granger had been at Oxford with Graham Robertson .so was a natural choice as a partner in 1957 when he had finished his National Service in the RAF.
David Granger, who since 1955 had been working with his father and Don Horrocks, joined as a partner in 1959
As the practice grew dedicated premises were called for. In 1960 John and David Granger bought “Linda”, 5a Poole Road. James Fisher and Graham Robertson now exclusively owned 85 Castle Lane, but the two areas continued to be organised as a single practice
In 1962 John Surridge came as an assistant with view. After a few months, not then having any obstetric experience, we obtained an obstetric HS post at Boscombe Hospital for him while he was still living as an assistant above the surgery at Linda, 5a Poole Road. A most successful initiative in what eventually developed into the national Trainee Scheme.
Isobel Jack arrived with her MRCOG and with experience of working as a registrar in Nigeria. She maintained her connection with hospital practice throughout her years in general practice
In 1967 the group had reached a size when it was decided to split into two independent partnerships. James Fisher, Graham Robertson and Isobel Jack now worked from 85 Castle Lane. John and David Granger and John Surridge were joined at “Linda” by Roger Barker, who brought his large practice from the Square. Thus the practice at 5a Poole Road can be considered as being in part derived from the practice founded by Henry Granger in 1909.
By 1985 there was an opportunity to move from 85 Castle Lane to much larger premises in Tolpuddle Gardens, in the middle of the new development north of Castle Lane.
In 1991 the premises in Tolpuddle Gardens were designated "The James Fisher Medical Centre"
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