ANZAC Day 2024: Why 50,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers used to call Harefield their home

04/25/24 • 46 min

What links Harefield Hospital so strongly to Australia and New Zealand?

A question not many people may know the answer to, but Harefield wouldn't be one of the leading heart and lung centres it is today without its connection to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the First World War.

In this special episode for ANZAC Day 2024, we explore how Harefield Hospital became the No.1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in treating injured Australians and New Zealanders, and why, one hundred years on, this connection remains so important to Harefield and its staff - including Australian-born Clair Mullins (Theatre Services Manager) and Mark Bowers (Divisional Interventional Lead) who explain what the connection between their workplace and home means to them.

Also in this episode, Sarah Chaney, a historian who led on the Harefield Centenary project, offers fascinating stories from this moment in Harefield’s history – from the special community spirit forged between Harefield villagers and ANZAC soldiers, to the wallabies that would roam around the hospital fields.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What links Harefield Hospital so strongly to Australia and New Zealand?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Women's History Month 2024: Professor Jane Somerville

As part of Women’s History Month 2024, Episode 6 of 'More than a Hospital' features Professor Jane Somerville, paediatric cardiologist and Emeritus professor of cardiology at Imperial College London.

During an impressive career that spanned over 40 years, Jane worked at both the National Heart Hospital and the Royal Brompton, helping to successfully establish the grown up congenital heart disease service (GUCH) at both hospitals.

Later in her career, Jane, who became only the second woman to enter the Paediatric Cardiology Hall of Fame, founded the GUCH Patients Association (later renamed the Somerville Heart Foundation) and the inaugural World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology.

In the episode, Jane talks about what it was like to be part of the first cohort of women in training at Guy’s Hospital, her role as the cardiologist for Britain’s first ever heart transplantation in 1968, and the many challenges she faced throughout her career.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Creativity and Wellbeing Week: The power of arts on physical and mental wellbeing

As part of Creativity and Wellbeing Week (Monday 20 to Sunday 26 May), we explore the power that arts can have on physical and mental health.

In episode 8 of More than a Hospital, we go behind the scenes of Royal Brompton and Harefield's arts programme, rb&hArts, as our head of communications, Luke Blair, visits Harefield Hospital to attend ‘singing for breathing’, an initiative that gives patients techniques through vocal exercises and song to help manage their breathing. Largely aimed at patients with respiratory conditions, we meet those who have experienced first-hand the benefits of singing for breathing to their physical and mental wellbeing. We also hear from Rosie Watters who facilitates the sessions.

Also in the episode, Mary Paterson, head of arts at Royal Brompton and Harefield, shares why a personal story about her mother-in-law’s dementia brought the importance of art in a clinical setting to the forefront of her mind.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.