‘The babies I treated 30 years ago now offer to buy me a pint’ (From Surrey Comet)

‘The babies I treated 30 years ago now offer to buy me a pint’

10:04am Friday 17th September 2004 in News

Kingston's first paediatrician is retiring after more than three decades treating the town's youngsters. DAN JUDGE spoke to him about the changes he has seen and brought about.

In 1973, as Kingston Hospital's first and only consultant paediatrician, Dr Richard Wilson headed a department of just three other doctors and was on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

When he retires this week after more than 30 years working in Kingston, he leaves behind him a paediatric department with an enviable reputation throughout greater London.

There are now 10 consultants, 14 registrars, and around the same number of junior doctors. In a long and illustrious career, the doctor can count among his many achievements helping to set up the neonatal unit at the hospital and its sister charity Born Too Soon. An expert in respiratory problems in children and babies, he has studied cot death and worked with organisations like the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society, and has been closely involved in building and reshaping maternity and neonatal services at the hospital.

And it is, he says, with some sadness that he leaves it all behind at the age of 67.

Dr Wilson says: "I still value seeing children and their families and trying to help them sort their problems out. So I shall miss that very much.

"Babies fascinate me, I could sit and play with them for hours. It is so interesting to watch the physical and developmental changes they go through. How they learn to do new things and how they will do the same thing interminably until they have learnt it, and then move on to something else. They're fascinating."

Dr Wilson says he decided to specialise in paediatrics as a young doctor when, while working a shift in A&E, a mother brought in her baby who had died from what is now recognised as sudden infant death syndrome.

Dr Wilson says: "The poor woman had been told by her GP only the day before that the baby was fine, so I thought this was an area of medicine I should learn about, and I later decided it was the job for me."

And nearly 10 years after he made that decision, he arrived in Kingston. While more was understood about treating infants by this time, Dr Wilson says there was still around one infant death every six to eight weeks at the hospital.

He says: "That got me involved with the Institute for the Study of Infant Death. In those days one was still very much preoccupied with trying to prevent the deaths of children, but now the mortality rate is much better."

Dr Wilson says at that time, simple advice for parents, such as not to smoke around their babies, was not given out because it wasn't known.

"And some of the things that people were advised to do were not actually good for babies," he says, citing the outdated belief that it was good for all babies to sleep on their front. Dr Wilson says when it was found that having premature babies sleep on their front cut cot deaths, the advice was generally accepted as good practice for all babies, but it is now known it only applies to premature infants.

And he says working in paediatrics is both one of the most rewarding areas of medicine and sometimes the most tragic.

Dr Wilson says: "Of course it can be very upsetting seeing young children who are so ill, but it is also so brilliant when you see them recover and their lives improve.

"It's not just the children you develop relationships with. The parents have always been very much part of the job and part of the reward. You might see them in the street or supermarket and they say do you ever go in such and such pub? If you do my son is in there and he'll buy you a bitter'.

"The first babies I treated are all grown up by now and in their 30s. I really like seeing them, it is a great joy for me to see how they've become adults."

Under Dr Wilson the maternity unit at Kingston has grown from 2,000 annual deliveries to around 5,000 last year.

He says: "We are one of the biggest units in greater London. The growth from when I started reflects our increased reputation, increased desire from people to come here and increased contracts from health authorities for our services."

During his tenure at Kingston, Dr Wilson helped set up the Maple Unit, which treats physically and mentally disabled children, and also helped redesign the maternity unit in preparation for two renovations.

He helped develop counselling services for bereaved parents and an outreach nursing team which allows children to be treated at home, thus avoiding the potential trauma of a hospital visit.

Dr Wilson is also proud of the training provided at the hospital.

He says: "When I look back at the trainee doctors who've gone through the unit, there are a couple who are now professors and more than 50 are consultants, which isn't a bad record."

The doctor also paid tribute to nurses, midwives and doctors he has worked with over the years, the children he has treated and the families he has met.

He says: "I just want to say thank you to all the staff because it has always been a team effort. To all the staff and parents who have taught me so much and helped build such an excellent unit here in Kingston."