WORKING AT WORCESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY, CASTLE STREET BRANCH AS MEDICAL SECRETARY JULY 1967 – JANUARY 1973
I attended Worcester Grammar School for Girls 1960 – 1965 and then Worcester Technical College 1965 – 1967 studying for an Ordinary National Diploma in Business Studies with Shorthand and Typing.
I succeeded in getting the position of shorthand typist in the X-ray Department at WRI Castle Street starting on 10th July 1967. The salary scale was £363 - £849 p.a. and I initially started on £455 p.a. The Consultant Radiologists at that time were Dr. John Wood and Dr. Tony Vickers. This is a photo of me taken in X-ray Reception December 1967.
After about 9 months I applied for and was successful in getting the position of medical secretary to Dr. A. J. Popert, Consultant Rheumatologist, who had clinics at Castle Street and Highfield and St. John’s Hospitals in Droitwich. I worked solely at WRI Castle Street. My working week was 38 hours and I think once a month that included a Saturday morning. Because I had RSA Stage 3 Typing qualification and RSA Shorthand 120 wpm I was able to enhance my salary by receiving additional increments for these achievements.
The surgeons working there during my time were Mr. George Marshall (Gen. Surgery), Mr. A. C. Clarke (Orthopaedics), Mr. Nicholas (Urology), Mr. Paul Houghton (Gen Surgery), Mr. Jeremy Eckersley (Orthopaedics), Mr. Colin Windsor (Gen. Surgery), Mr. Chalmers (Gynaecology) and Mr. MacMillan (ENT).
The Physicians were Dr A. J. Popert (Rheumatology), Dr. Atkinson (General Physician), Dr. G. Aldridge (Paediatrics), Dr. Spencer and Dr. Hall (Psychiatry), Dr. Wood (Dermatology), Dr. Terry (Diabetic clinics) and Dr. S. Kalinowski (Chest clinic).
There were 12 medical secretaries working from a mezzanine level above the Outpatient Department with individual desks separated by glass partitions and accessed from a staircase behind the Reception desk. Jo Witherford, who worked for Mr. Marshall, was the Office Supervisor. In the Summer it was unbearably hot and as the open windows faced onto Castle Street it was noisy not just from the traffic outside but also from the 12 typewriters and the busy out patient department waiting area below. There was 1 telephone at the end of the office. In the corner of the outpatient area, where people waited for transport as well as for their appointments, there was the WRVS refreshment hatch. The Casualty Department was situated just off the waiting area until the ‘new’ Accident and Emergency Department was built at the rear of the Nurses’ Home.
The wards then were called Bonaker, Rushout, Bates Medical and Surgical, Garlick, Wheeley Lea and Maddox (these are the only ones I remember).
Dr. Popert had 2 clinics at WRI Castle Street on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons. He was assisted by Dr. Ralph Holman and Dr. Jean Pritchard (who were both local GPs) at the Wednesday clinic and by Dr. Holman at the Friday clinic. My job was particularly interesting because Dr. Popert wanted his secretary to accompany him round his clinics so he would dictate directly to me while examining the patients and then at the end of clinic he would dictate letters to their GPs. The other 2 doctors dictated their notes and letters into a dictaphone. So at the end of each clinic I would type up Dr. Popert’s patient notes and the letters to their GP from my shorthand plus the tapes from Dr. Holman and Dr. Pritchard. I think I was the only medical secretary who accompanied their Consultant in the clinic which I found really interesting.
When one of the secretaries was sick or on leave then we would be expected to cover for them and I vividly remember being asked to go into the ‘old’ Casualty Department to take notes one day for what seemed like 100 patients. I ended up with so many pages of shorthand that to this day I’m not sure if I ever got to the end of them.
Before Christmas a few of us would go round some of the wards to look at the decorations and on Boxing Day I remember going to a Christmas Show in what would have been the Nurses’ Home which had been put on by the doctors and nurses which was great fun. I also remember going to a few parties held when some of the more junior doctors were leaving.
I joined the Medical Secretaries Association and secretaries from the hospital and local GP practices would join together for monthly evening meetings in the Board Room where Sir Charles Hastings founded the BMA, occasionally have talks or visit a place of interest locally. One such visit was to the Worcester Berrows News building in Hylton Road and this is a photo of the medical secretaries some from the hospital and some from local GP practices, from 1971. I am centre front.
I had a good working relationship with Dr. Popert. At the end of a clinic if time permitted he would quite often share his family news and to this day I remember the names of his 5 children. I recall he was able to reel off pieces of poetry from memory which was very impressive. In 1970 while studying to improve my shorthand speeds at evening class I succeeded in being awarded the Royal Society of Arts Silver Medal for the 140 w.p.m. exam. When I met my future husband on a skiing holiday in Austria Dr. Popert was very keen to see the photos and he and his wife Mary were guests at my wedding in January 1973.
It was a very busy environment but I very much enjoyed working for Dr. Popert and there was a good camaraderie amongst the secretaries at WRI. I left Worcester in 1973 when I got married and moved to Kent working at 2 different hospitals in Dartford. During my interview at Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford I was informed that the reference which had been provided by Dr. Popert was the best they had ever seen. I moved back to Worcester in 1975 and worked at Highfield Hospital, Droitwich until 1978 when I started a family.
Diana Levins nee Clinton, July 2026