SOUTHEND Hospital swamped with patients, council and hospital workers striking, bills going up and wages going down.

This could be yesterday’s news but in fact all of these things were happening half a century ago in January and February of 1973.

Mirroring the current health crisis, exactly 50 years-ago Southend and Rochford Hospitals were so overrun with patients they were only admitting emergency cases. A flu outbreak over the festive period had pushed the hospitals to breaking point.

Services were stretched even further as ancillary workers at Southend Hospital went on strike. Volunteers were having to change beds and serve food to patients at the hospital, after the workers walked out and domestic staff worked to rule.

Rochford, Westcliff, Shoebury, Orsett, Thurrock and South Ockendon hospitals were also affected by the hospital workers strike over pay.

Because of the industrial action it turned out that 150 people who should have been admitted to the Southend Hospital for treatment were turned away.

Meanwhile more than 2,000 civil servants in Southend, including customs officials, staged a demonstration over low wages and a pay freeze.

The workers downed tools at 3pm on January 10 to head out to car parks at Alexander House in Victoria Avenue and hear speeches from union bosses.

Organisers claimed the pay freeze had put the wages 20 per cent below the rest of the country.

Also in the news was plans to axe Southend’s main post office and two sub post offices, - but this also met with firm opposition from protesters.

The economic climate- just like today- was depressing. Making ends meet was becoming increasingly difficult.

Bargain hunters kipped out overnight on the pavement outside Keddies department store in Southend in order to land themselves New Year bargain. Patient Southender Tony Seaman played the long game. He was first in the queue and waited 33 hours in the rain. He was happy though. He snapped up a three-piece-suite which had been slashed from £139 to £39.

Not so happy, however, were a group of campaigners in Hullbridge who were irate at Britain’s entry into the Common Market. They staged a mock funeral, where ‘British democracy’ was buried.

In softer news, legendary film star and director Richard Attenborough came to Southend - then swiftly delivered a rebuke to the town over the way it treated children with muscular dystrophy.

The Great Escape star was in town for the premier of his film Young Winston at the Southend Odeon. The proceeds from the event went to the National Muscular Dystrophy Group, of which he was president.

Back at this time some big names were hitting town to perform.

Bruce Forsyth, Lulu, Franki Valli, Ken Dodd and Glen Campbell were all headlining at Talk Of The South nightclub in Southend.

Actor Stephen Lewis who played bus conductor Blakey in ‘On The Buses’, was absolutely mobbed by fans as he visited Southend as part of a publicity campaign at Southend Bus Station.

Also at this time in 1973, Canvey Islanders were gearing up to mark 20 years since the devastating floods. It must have seemed so close at the time. We are now preparing to mark the 70th anniversary.