Old fashioned convalescence holidays. Were they a real thing or only in stories?

[StillTheOneIRunToooooo]

I read a lot of Enid Blyton type books in my childhood 😂🙈

It’d be nice to have more funded ones for patients, basic nursing care can make a huge difference to a patient who’s been seriously ill.

Perhaps someone in the know could say why cottage hospitals were done away with. They seemed good halfway houses for many.

Real thing. Some people still have them.

@ApplePippa

Convalescent homes were definitely a thing. I grew up on the Kent coast, and there was a convalescent home at the end of my road. We used to go to their annual fundraising summer fete. It closed years ago and has since been knocked down.

I also remember the Royal Seabathing Hospital in Margate, which I think treated TB patients who were sent there for the sea air. Also closed, and now converted into luxury homes.

My DF was in Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford from 1956 to 1958 where he was being treated for a late diagnosis of TB. Every morning the TB patients were wheeled onto the balcony, given their penicillin injections and had to stay out there all day, no matter what the weather. In the 1970s I ended up working with one of the nurses who, as a newly qualified nurse, used to do those injections. No doubt one of her patients would have been my DF.

Convalescence holidays sound like such a good thing, for proper recovery from illness and injury.

Not quite the same thing but I saw advertised in my local paper (in Finland) a bus holiday to a medical spa in Estonia. Price included a doctor visit at the spa and access to the pools and saunas, extra treatments at extra cost. Sounded rather nice. Just been looking up medical spas now and seriously considering going to one one day, reasonably priced too because Estonia.

@DottyHarmer

Perhaps someone in the know could say why cottage hospitals were done away with. They seemed good halfway houses for many.

They still exist in some rural areas; we have one on this scottish island.

My Dad is a retired fireman and went to a facility in the Lakes run by the Fire Service Benevolent Fund after his hip replacements for convalescence and physio. He's off back in a few weeks for some more physio after a shoulder replacement. Think he mostly wore out his joints going up and down ladders, so it's nice they're looking out for him!

A colleague had breast cancer and following a mastectomy went off to a convalescent hotel somewhere in Ireland. She had to do structured activities though, vsuch as yoga and pilates

A lady I knew used to go on one, around once a year. Not sure the location

A lot of Miners welfare organisations owned and run Convelecent homes for the benefit of their workers who often suffered from long term Lung problems brought about by the inhalation of Coal dust down the mines. There was a large Care complex and various services offered To Miners at Skegness, they also offered Holidays to ex Miners at a very reduced cost.

they were definitely a thing and i wish they still were! Kicked out far too soon these days.

Fresh air and green space was an essential part of a convalesense home or sea air for those down on the front. Beds were on wheels and wards had large verandas they opened on to. If you werent fit enough to get up they would wheel the beds out on to the veranda, even in winter - they would wrap you in blankets and put you out for your fresh air. Also gave them a chance to give the ward it's thorough daily clean. It was considered essential for you mental as well as physical health during recovery.

Would be really beneficial if wards were still like that instead of the awful closed in recycled air dirty boxes we have now.

I went into a nursing? home for two weeks many years ago when recovering from major surgery after 11 days in hospital and as I had nobody to take care of me. I had light exercise every day and hydrotherapy two or three days a week. There was a small gym and I was encouraged to use the rowing machine, under supervision. Walks in the lovely garden and gently exploring the locality. I really appreciated that time. 🌹

It wiuld help with "bed blocking " too if people could recuperate with support.

I woild have loved this after some big operations I had, and after a traumatic birth .

A colleague many moons ago was from s africa and didn't have family locally where we were so paid for his wife to stay for 2 weeks recovering after birth somewhere, while he visited etc. Seemed strange at the time but now seems nice!

My mum went to a convalescent home on the South coast in about 2015, following cancer treatment and major surgery at Barts Hospital. The hospital had acccess to a number of places each year funded by a charity endowment.

It's still running but I can't remember the name.

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