St James medical checks

Discussion of the children's schools in the UK.
1980sstJ
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:21 pm

St James medical checks

Postby 1980sstJ » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:10 pm

Who remembers the medical checks we had at St James? I remember they were with a man who had quite a high-pitched voice.

Anyone have any memories of them?

User avatar
bonsai
Posts: 322
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:08 am
Location: London

Postby bonsai » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:20 pm

Dr Ratsy

Bonsai

User avatar
bella
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 10:52 am

Postby bella » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:22 pm

Dr...Ratsy? How unfortunate.

Planet
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:40 pm

Postby Planet » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:35 pm

What a strange question to ask. There was a Dr Ratsy who had kids at the school and also a Dr Wilson (a young lady) I think prior to Dr Ratsy.
Also there was a herbalist long ago named ( I think called Dr Lato ) but he wasn't a school doctor but was someone used by lots of SES persons.

User avatar
bonsai
Posts: 322
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:08 am
Location: London

Postby bonsai » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:43 pm

If I remember correctly Dr Ratsy was the dr for the senior boys and Dr Wilson was the dr in the juniors.

I seem to recall Dr Ratsy would give every boy in the school a medical and regularly measure and weigh you to check that you were growing OK.

Dr Wilson was very into alternatives especially homeopathy but I am not sure about Dr Ratsy.

Didn't particularly like him and tried to avoid as much as I could going to see him.

I used to also hate the medical room at Ecclestone Sq and we would often have meditation checks in that room. It used to smell.

My parents took me to see Lato a couple of times when I was young. I think he had a trampoline in his garden. He certainly was not used as a school doctor but with the SES and its thing for alternatives meant that many people went.

Bonsai

User avatar
non-conformist
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:37 pm
Location: London

Postby non-conformist » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:08 pm

I had completely forgotten about Dr Wilson but now you mention it all the memories have come flooding back. Scary woman with cold hands! Tried to persuade my mum that the reason I was being a "difficult teenager" and not performing well at school was a direct result of a vitamin B12 deficiency. Absolutely! So what between that and Nux Vomica/Arnica/Pulsatilla... Its a wonder I didn't join SES there and then... Was anyone else taken to see the wonderful and oh so guru-like Dr Barot?

User avatar
ems
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:55 pm
Location: Surrey

Postby ems » Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:57 am

Wow, yes, what a blast from the past. Had totally forgotten Dr Ratsy with the raspy/squeaky voice.
I remember the school nurse Mrs Buchanan, I seem to remember Mrs Southwell (senior) in the medical room at no 90 (was she a Dr?).

User avatar
bonsai
Posts: 322
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:08 am
Location: London

Postby bonsai » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:16 am

non-conformist wrote:Was anyone else taken to see the wonderful and oh so guru-like Dr Barot?


This whole thread seems to just scare me of the incestuous nature of the SES.

Yes I got taken for many years to see Dr Barot. I didn't particularly mind him, though I just wondered what good he was doing and why I had to see him regularly every six months to end up taking a series of powders for my constitution.

The wildfire with which these practicing alternative therapists seem to spread round the membership of the SES just seems insane.

Why is it that no one asks questions when it comes to alternative therapies. Why does noone ask why homeopathy isn't used in hospitals?

There certainly may be something in these therapies, I don't dispute that, and it may also be worthwhile even if all it is doing is triggering a placebo response. I am however a skeptic and fear that many of these things simply do not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Yet the affluent seem to be quite happy to throw their money after unproven or unprovable therapies in light of huge advances in conventional medicine that has been responsible for huge increases in life expectancy and the survival rates against many diseases?

Yes, there are plenty of things that are wrong and can be improved about conventional medicine. Treatments do seem overly aggressive, there are far too many side effects and drug companies are driven at times far to much by their capitalist interests but let us not forget the scientific principles on which this system of medicine is based and extraordinary leaps for which it has been responsible.

I have this arguement with my parents quite often and particularly my Mum and if there is anything it shows here it is that people just believe what they want to believe.

This is just another one of those areas that goes to show the SES membership will believe things without much real investigation.

Bonsai

User avatar
ET
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 10:49 am
Location: Gloucestershire
Contact:

Postby ET » Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:02 pm

Yes ems, Mrs. Southwell (senior) was indeed matron at No.90 for many years - I seem to remember her cure-alls were arnica and olbas oil:

Broken arm (I actually witnessed this) - arnica tablet and a lie down and then eventually (presumably when that didn't work) hospital

Headache - olbas oil and an arnica tablet!

Arnica is great, and I still use it for bruises, but it's not much use for anything else (feel free to correct me!) and olbas oil is only good for a blocked nose. It certainly never did anything for what I now realise were stress headaches.
Pupil at St James Girl's School from 1979-1989, from age 4-14. Parents ex-members of SES.

User avatar
Free Thinker
Posts: 325
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:05 am
Location: USA

Postby Free Thinker » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:07 pm

Some research group just did a big study on arnica that showed that it didn't have ANY beneficial effects...

User avatar
ems
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:55 pm
Location: Surrey

Postby ems » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:27 pm

conventional versus alternative remedies is a biggun, but I do find that arnica cream works. Heaven knows I have to use it for my (v young) kids all the time (part of my first aid kit I carry). All the mums i know swear by it, none of them anything to do with SES. oh, and teething powder is fantastic stuff.
Alternative remedies are far more in the mainstream now (just look at Boots chemist now). If they are a placebo then that's a good thing, but not if the actual problem obviously requires urgent medical attention (i.e. broken arm - can't believe that). There's nothing to rival good hard drugs if the body needs it (pain killers, antibiotics etc.) I think it's healthy to keep an open mind, however, and there's no harm trying these things if it means you're not reaching for the drugs as an instant reaction.
I didn't realise (yet another dawning moment here) that SES were the promoters of homeopathy in my family. I was brought up on it and never had any antibiotics till I was an adult. I guess I was lucky enough to avoid needing anything for more serious ailments. I would never risk my childrens health by substituting homeopathy for a medical problem though.
These days you can find all sorts of substitutes for medicine though - even getting hypnotherapy to cope with labour - sounds like a good idea to me.
Of course before medicine advanced to the stages it has reached now, all we had were plant extracts etc. to treat problems. Alo vera, a well known one for example, recognised to have great healing properties (without sounding too hippy).
Could be another great debate, this subject.
Ems

User avatar
Stanton
Posts: 189
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:23 am

Postby Stanton » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:21 pm

Arnica is very effective for bruises and aloe vera for skin troubles and dry skin generally. Comfrey - known in the middle ages as knitbone - helps heal wounds and broken bones by reducing swelling. Very recently I was given a bottle of home-made comfrey oil and it dealt with a nasty burn just like that and healed a cracked lip overnight.
Modern medicine is wonderful but the old remedies are often kinder with fewer side effects. Homeopathy and other complementary medicines are now often available on the NHS.

Alban
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:23 am
Location: London

Postby Alban » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:08 pm

Like everything, homeopathy has it's place - that place is not as the sole remedy for a broken arm, or for major illnesses and diseases, and it is foolish to treat them that way. I think the term "Complementary Medicine" describes them very well - i.e. they should be used to complement traditional tried and trusted remedies.

I have personally seen the effects of homeopathy on children too young to make the connecion between something being put in their mouth and them feeling better. Teething powder (Chamomila - from the flower) has ben discovered by so many parents, nothing to do with the SES - it works, there is no doubt about it. I have seen many other instances of the right remedy significantly improving the situation, but the wrong remedy will have no effect, so it is adviseable to see a homeopath who has many years of experience rather than using the Heath-Robinson approach that the SES brings to everything they do.

As far as scientific proof, there have been many studies, and the main conclusion seems to be that scientists don't understand why it works (so they trot out the old placebo excuse). I am certainly not one to throw my weight behind some hocus-pocus treatment, but what I and millions (literally) of others have based our judgement on, is our direct experiences...I don't care that it works, I'm just glad it does. As a human race we don't fully understand so many things in science (if we did, there would be more need for scientists), but it doesn't stop us taking advantage of them.

Homeopathy has nothing to do with the SES, my family were using it long before any contact with the them, and I will continue to use it having long been divorced from the SES.

Oh, and I too went to Dr Barot, and along with all the others, he didn't cure me of what I went to see him about. In fact the only thing that has worked has been something that my brother facilitated - should have given all that money to him instead!

Alban

User avatar
Sam Hyde
Posts: 190
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:33 pm
Location: St James boys school
Contact:

Postby Sam Hyde » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:57 am

Hi guys and girls,

I think this is a thread we can finally see eye to eye on!!!!

Dr Ratsy is STILL at my school, I swear that guy is gonna drop dead one of these days!!!! QUICK NURSE!!!! GET THE ARNICA, WE GOT A CORONARY!!!! lol
But to be fair, there are a bunch of qualified 'matrons' who rota throught the week, however Ratsy does come in once a week to give those required, the ONCE OVER! In my leavers medical, I was asked if I meditated, so thinking, here we go!!!! I fired back at him with a bunch of questions, why does it matter, why is he asking, he is just a Dr......And he explained the reason was that he was doing a little research measuring heart rate and blood pressure against meditation, fair enough. The other thing I was asked how much I drink, has he got all day! lol he was really surprised, and my mate was asked the same.

I remember Dr Wilson, I remember her having really wrinkly hands that were always cold!!!! And a really long SES approoved skirt which had those kind of hip raisers on them, the sort that queen elizabeth wore!!!! Looks like your smuggling two dwarfs under your skirt.

Anyway, jokes memories indeed.

Sam xox
thats old now, like me, only 4 weeks to go!!!!!
"I've never let my schooling interfere with my education"

User avatar
Stanton
Posts: 189
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:23 am

Postby Stanton » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:04 am

Some of us have hips .... some of us don't.....


Return to “St James and St Vedast”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 54 guests