margate winter gardens and the style council 1987

Some schemes were linked to just one hospital, others to multiple hospitals in a given area. The contributions to the hospitals were exchanged for the right of members to treatment, without recourse to means testing. After the First World war such schemes expanded, becoming vital as a reliable source of income for voluntary hospitals that were facing rising costs. Penny-in-the-pound schemes typically levied a portion of the workers’ wages: one penny per pound, or two to three pence weekly. These schemes were important for more than funding a patient’s convalescence. RichardsonĪlongside these individual bequests, some homes were established through contributory schemes, where workers contributed a part of their wages towards health care – effectively a form of health insurance. The Rustington Convalescent Home, West Sussex. The former Atkinson Morley Hospital in South London is a prime example. Early convalescent homes tended to look very much like the parent hospital. From the mid-nineteenth century increasing numbers of voluntary hospitals started to establish convalescent homes, where their patients could be moved, thus freeing up beds in the main hospital. Sometimes neither the home nor the family’s income were adequate for someone in need of rest, nourishing food and fresh air. Wage-earners returned to work too soon, while wives and mothers went back to the heavy work in the home and taking care of their children. In the nineteenth century, charitable voluntary hospitals found that patients discharged after surgery or an illness often had to be re-admitted soon afterwards, having relapsed through not being able to convalesce at home. A period of convalescence by the sea or in the countryside was an important part of the recovery process. Postcard of Queen’s Lodge Convalescent Home, Colwyn Bay, Wales, from about 1980Ĭonvalescent homes were once numerous in Britain, particularly in coastal resorts.

Margate winter gardens and the style council 1987