With a special exhibition taking place next month to mark the 45th anniversary of Ealing Hospital, both current as well as former staff are telling their special stories about the hospital and working there.
Michael Rudolf, a retired respiratory consultant, worked at Ealing Hospital for 35 years from 1979 when it opened and eventually become its medical director.
Mr Rudolf said of his career journey to the hospital, which is now run by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust: “I had no plans to become a doctor. I originally studied organic chemistry, but the medical students seemed to have far more fun so I swapped courses. I found studying life in the human cell infinitely more interesting than what went on inside a test-tube.”
He retired in 2014 and is one of a handful of people who can recall the small cottage hospitals that served the area before Ealing Hospital was built which included King Edward Memorial where he worked two days a week prior to his appointment at Ealing Hospital.
Mr Rudolf said: “It was tiny compared to Ealing Hospital but had such an intimate community feeling. Everyone knew one another. I only saw 2-3 patients on my last ward round because the majority had either been discharged or transferred to the new hospital.
“I started work at Ealing the following week. It was a bit surreal for the first few days. The hospital was largely empty, you had no problem with parking spaces and A&E only admitted between 10 and 20 patients a day. That didn’t last long!”
“I was lucky to have worked for the NHS during that period. Clinical staff were far more involved in running the hospital. There was less bureaucracy and red tape, and no performance targets beyond doing the best for your patients.”
As medical director of the hospital, Mr Rudolf coordinated its response to incidents including the Southall rail crash, a terrorist bomb in Ealing Broadway and the Southall Riots.
He said: “There was wonderful team spirit and sense of togetherness. A lot of staff socialised together and that strengthened the sense of camaraderie. I had a wonderful career and count myself lucky that I spend most of it in Ealing.”
