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As good as a rest

Reading about the importance of convalescence in your December issue really made me think about how we have advanced from a medical standpoint in many ways, learnt some lessons, and yet forgotten others.

My mum, Jean, got TB at the age of five in the late 1940s. She spent months in a hospital bed, only able to see her parents once a month through two glass windows either side of the corridor running alongside her ward. I found out last week that she also spent some time in a convalescent home, which she certainly remembers more fondly than the hospital.

The overall ordeal meant she had to relearn to walk, and the trauma of lack of contact with her family has stayed with her for her whole life. The way we now treat young children who are sick has very much changed, with the understanding that they need the love and support of their mum and dad in that circumstance more than ever. About four years ago, at the age of 74, Mum went into hospital again - this time for a mastectomy. This hospital visit lasted all of 24 hours before she was discharged to go home to her flat, where she lives alone with two cats. I wholeheartedly agree that even just a few days of convalescence, with a little more understanding and sensitivity than her five-yearold self was afforded, could have given her a little of the rest that made up her childhood TB care. Although hopefully the food would have been somewhat less disgusting than she recalls from 1948-49!

'Wouldn't it be lovely to have an NHS that was again able to provide the benefits of convalescence'

Resting place Convalescent homes gave patients the opportunity to recover

Thankfully, she made a full recovery at home with her moggies and regular visits from family and friends, as well as a bit of light gardening. But wouldn't it be lovely to have an NHS that was again able to provide the benefits of convalescence that it offered at its inception in 1948.