COATHAM – Home for Sick Children

Accreditation the Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 13/10/1871

THE HOME FOR SICK CHILDREN
Editorial

            From time to time notices of gifts and appeals for help have been inserted in our columns on behalf of the “Home for Sick Children,” established at the Sisters of the North Ormesby Hospital, and it is gratifying to find that already much sympathy and beneficence has been exercised towards this new development of Christian work by a community already well-known for their action and self-denying labours in the densely populated town and suburbs of Middlesbro’. The Cottage Hospital is in truth a household word amongst the poor of the district, for it, not only receives sufferers from accidents at the works for which it was primarily established, but the poor who need the special medical all surgical help which a Hospital so well affords I received from other places, and many of the sick from Redcar and Coatham who have experienced its aid and shelter in their times of necessity there ample testimony to the careful nursing and kind attention bestowed on them, whilst within its walls. It is also most true that the Hospital had been, and continues to be, a help in time of need to many who but for its shelter would have been homeless and comfortless at times when specially needing home comforts, and this hospitality is exercised without distinction of sect, or creed, a fact which cannot to strongly urged upon the laws who differ from or object to the distinctive tenets held by the Sisters themselves. The words of the Divine Master inscribed upon the walls of the Hospital (“Inasmuch, as ye have done it unto one of the least of My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”] have  never been forgotten, and the object of the Sisters has ever been to minister to the sick and suffering members of the body of Christ, according to their necessities, entirely irrespective of their religious views and opinions. We hold this to be the especial feature of this Institution, that in ministering to the temporal necessities of the afflicted, no question as ever been asked as to the creed of those seeking admission, nor has any credential been necessary save the need of the sufferer. Indeed we are here reminded of the traveller who, when visiting the Hospital of God in Paris, asked the Porter the question “What is needed to gain admittance to this Institution?” Received the ready answer “To be sick;” and this is the principle as far as means allow on which the Hospital’s conducted, and we have laid a especial stress on this matter because we are aware that some excellent people are deterred from assisting the work because of the strong pronounced principles of the workers; and we hope that we have stated the case plainly enough to show that the Hospital appeals to all who desire to help suffering humanity, and more especially to those poor from high motive and Christian principle rejoice to succour the distressed.

We pass, however, on the work at North Ormesby, which is its own commendation, and now wish to direct attention to the work the Sisters are seeking to establish at Coatham as a branch institution, “The Home for Sick Children,” and we suggest a visit to the House itself, situate near Coatham , Church, where the Sister in Charge will gladly explain to visitors. The features of this new work in which they seek to end list the sympathies of those who are able to contribute towards the maintenance of such a Home for the young. The value of which will be at once apparent to those who are at all acquainted with the waste of human life in childhood in large towns, caused too often by neglect, but also by want and inability on the part of parents to obtain the necessary sustenance for their children. We are glad to find that the hearts of many have already been stirred to assist this undertaking by gifts horse in money and kind, and as the work becomes more fully known and appreciated we trust that means will be forthcoming to enlarge its sphere and ensure its permanence.