Stracathro Hosptital - Angus - April 2009

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Stracathro Hospital was one of the emergency hospitals similiar to Killearn Hospital that were built during the Second world war toaccept casualties from air raids on area of conurbation, and was built in a rural area to avoid such attacks. It was built to take 1,000 patients, although the maximum number actually achieved was 999! As with Bridge of Earn, early patients came from nearby troops and local residents, but became it busier later with air raid casualties from the South and after D-Day. Long trains would deliver the wounded at Brechin station. Chief clerk Miss Robertson and her staff would join the train at Bridge of Dun and carry out the documentation, medical staff labelling the patients according to their injuries - Red for Surgery, White for Medical, Green for Orthopaedic. A shuttle service of wartime ambulances then transferred the patients to Stracathro. There were 19 different categories of admission, each of which would receive a different ration allowance, with certain lucky ones also getting a bottle of stout courtesy of Guinness! "It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times" recalled one man who as a young lad handed out sweets and cigarettes to the wounded at the station.
The hospital still thrives today and with services being transferred to it from a nearby hospital its future seems quite secure.

The hospital as it was - only the buildings to the far right are as was now.

Corridor

one of the wards

curtains

liked the remaining carpet tiles

cant get away from Two-Tone

first pic of the remaining medical kit

liked the human touch of these drawings still left on the wall

Automatic tourniquet

Shelves

Keys

And last but not least the famous "Iron Lung" - some seem to think this is the only thing worth visiting here for!!!