1939: London hospitals in wartime

Hospital staff from around London describe the steps they have taken to protect patients from the war, including relocating an operating theatre to a basement and burying radium used in medical treatments to protect against radioactivity in the event of a direct hit from a bomb. One matron of Queen Charlotte's Hospital describes how, on hearing an air raid warning, anti-splinter blinds are drawn across the windows, babies are moved to a 'gas refuge room' and mothers are given gas masks along with a cup of tea.

Great Ormond Street was one of many London hospitals damaged during a 1940 bombing raid. Hitler's heavy bombing of the capital began on 7 September 1940, following attacks on various military targets across Britain, and other cities were also attacked. An air raid siren installed at a hospital in Bristol by US troops in the 1940s has only recently been removed.

From the BBC Archive. Originally broadcast 26 November 1939.