Looking back at the early days of one the region's biggest hospitals
Thanks to huge advances in modern medicine over the past seventy years this thankfully is no longer the sight that greets you at hospital.
These archive images show how rudimentary health care once was in the region.
From the Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust archive these grainy black and white photos show the early days of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, known to most as the QE.
The QE originally started life as an infectious diseases hospital, and a plan to extend the hospital was started in 1939 but building work was interrupted by the Second World War, meaning the project was not completed until 1945.
The Queen Mother, whom the hospital is named after, officially opened the extensions to the hospital on Thursday March 18, 1943.
Photos show her smiling and chatting as she met nurses and doctors and paying a visit to the maternity unit.
In 1944 there were 645 births in the hospital, but in 1947 that rose to 844 and then in 1947 it rose again to 870. The main hospital saw 2,225 patients admitted to the general ward in 1947.
A report into the hospital after its opening said: "The co-operation and tema spirit of the staff is not the least remarkable feature of a hospital that has given just cause for satisfaction and pride to the citizens of Gateshead."
However that co-operation did not spread into lunch breaks which the nurses and consultants spent apart in seperate dining rooms as they weren't allowed to socialise and mix during break times.