The Seaside Clinic in Gdynia as an example of hospital private initiative in the interwar period. Case study
The article introduces the short history of a private clinic operating in Gdynia of the interwar amid the broader grounds of the health care system of the time.
Starting with the definition of a clinic – a facility limited in its care range to a selected group of diseases, the text describes the circumstances of establishing such a mini hospital in the growing town of Gdynia. This Baltic shore village had become a place of significant investment since 1920 – the construction of a port serving the reborn country. In a short period of time subsequent harbours were built: naval, fishing and trade with a thriving and modern city alongside them. The scale of transformations as well as the social processes involved, including a massive flow of population meant that the administration at various levels did not keep up with the construction of necessary infrastructure. Shortages in terms of health care and treatment, housing development or education were covered by private initiatives. There was prosperity for such undertakings in Gdynia. Two visiting doctors had also decided to take advantage of it, namely Miron Mikiciński and Stanisław Bobkowski, who having observed the necessities of the city established there in 1929 a clinic for surgical, gynaecological and midwifery cases.
It was in a rented villa close to the very centre of the town where a facility with 36 beds was established, whose financial maintenance was supported by local authorities. The undertaken public and private venture was indispensable for securing immediate surgical cases, while at the same time giving the inhabitants the possibility of having their children delivered in proper conditions, among others. The clinic would quickly take over the „market” in the scope of female health and pregnancy pathology. Still, they treated patients insured in the public Health Maintenance organisation (Kasa Chorych), which constituted a source of additional income. It would trigger controversies, since the chief medical doctor of the insurance institution was at the same time an investor of the clinic. Thus, despite its broad range of activities, operations of the facility would raise doubts or even were critically judged. In nearly three years after its opening, facing an absence of agreement while striking a new deal with local authorities, the owners closed down the clinic. Its equipment was then bought by the city authorities and ended up in two hospitals in Gdynia, the doctors – owners and employees, with one exception, remained in Gdynia, successfully continuing their practice. After Zbigniew Tustanowski, the one doctor who had left the city, an extraordinary legacy remained, namely an album with photographs of the personnel, patients, the interiors and the inventory of the facility. From it, we learn of the everyday life of the hospital and of the backstage of functioning of that interesting place in the medical history of Gdynia.
Lecznica Nadmorska w Gdyni jako przykład prywatnej inicjatywy szpitalnej okresu międzywojennego. Studium przypadku
