I wonder how many people watching the TV series this week about our NHS at 70 have realized as I just did that I am older than NHS. The programme tonight on Birmingham Childrens' Hospital brought back unhappy memories of having my tonsils out in probably 1950 in Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. A really nasty staff nurse spoon fed (force fed more likely) me banana in milk and to this day I can't eat bananas! My parents were not allowed to come and see me until I was ready to come home and my older sister who was also there was miles away at the other end of the ward.
Considering the London Hospital was one of the best in England at the time we have come a long long way so lets all be proud and happy.
And please no politics. Neither side is whiter than white.
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BobD
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I haven't seen the programmes Bob I will have to look on catchup TV .I can remember having my tonsils out at Derby Royal Infirmary in the 1950's , picking up an infection and not having any visitors. A horrible experience I don't like to think about.
I was sent to an Aunt to recuperate and kept in bed for weeks .
Just be glad you got banana milk! My brothers description of having his tonsils out in the mid 1930s determined my father it should not happen to me! My brother is still very much alive and still remembers EVERY detail poor thing.
Ditto - my father worked for the NHS and was determined I wasn’t going to be - his words - ‘a guinea pig’ when our family GP - who used to come to the house in those days - insisted I needed my tonsils out - despite never, ever having tonsillitis?? All because of his childhood memories which would have been in the 1920’s.
I had my tonsils and adenoids out in the early 50's at the R D & E Exeter. I remember coming round after the op and being very sick and a very sore throat but after that I can remember being given lots of ice cream to ease the throat and scooting around the ward on the laundry trolley!!!!! We took it in turns to see who was the fastest. Was allowed visitors, even our two dogs came to visit me. In all after the first day or so I had a good time, very strict ward sister but some lovely nurses.
Cassie
I thought you were the same age as Machu Pichu! 😊 irina
I was born a few years after the introduction of the NHS (got my bus pass yesterday). Aged 6, I had already been diagnosed with a heart murmur but it was more than 50 years before the congenital condition was properly diagnosed and put right. Heart surgery on children just wasn’t done unless life-threatening. At about this time, I had peritonitis and an appendectomy. I stayed in hospital for a fortnight. It would probably be a few days now. Mum visited in the afternoon then rushed home to get Dad’s tea and they both came back in the evening. My older sister wasn’t allowed to visit.
This is sort of the Swiss system which always impresses me. Pharmacists have the title 'Doctor' there and are the first point of contact usually and have the task of keeping people healthy to stop them clogging the main system. As well as drugs, they prescribe healthy diets and give all sort of other advice. This also means that even a village often has 2 to 3 pharmacies.
I like that. If we had more functional med doctors then it would benefit everyone in the long run except big phama of course. I too can remember when I was a child in Great Ormond Street and had an emergency ear op. No one explained anything to me and my parents were kept from me. Very frightening. The NHS has come a very long way from those far off days and so has medicine. In spite of its failings we are very lucky to have it and should appreciate what we have rather more.
Same here, hated it but I did however love the bread and milk covered in sugar fed to me my my darling grandmother. My son on the other hand went into St. Thomas's in London in 1969 for his tonsillectomy and I was amazed on visiting that he was being fed toast!
I can top Bob having had my tonsils removed in the late 1930s and a mastoid operation in probably 1941 (I can remember being shepherded down to the basement during an air raid). At that time patients were wheeled into the operating theatre fully conscious and I still remember the horrible smell as a mask was placed over my face. At that time visiting was twice a week, not twice daily. Things have certainly improved a great deal since the NHS came into existence.
Much of the work on Attachment/Separation Theory in the UK (no monkey experiements) and it’s detrimental affect of separating young children from parents was originally studied in children’s wards in the 1950’s. That changed policy for good - thankfully.
John Bolby - Attachment Theory - and good luck reading that in the original!
Interesting about Mastoids. My Father had a double mastoid op at London Hospital in 1948 and nearly died. Took six months to recover by which time his partner had drunk the business away! I remember going to the local Food Office to get new batteries for his huge hearing aid every week. Collected my orange juice at the same time.
oh that orange juice, now that was something special, and what about Cod liver oil & Malt at school and the tiny bottles of milk......we had a lovely life, playing on the bomb dumps etc.,......and don't forget the Ricketts lol
Sent to Canada as a war refugee at the age of two to live with my great aunt together with my sister I suppose I must have been about four when they decided both of us should have our tonsils out. I can still vividly remember the horrific experience taken to hospital in Vancover left on our own no adults with us it coloured my fear of anaesthetic s for the rest of my life!
I was born in 1947 and had my tonsils removed in 1950.....on the kitchen table at home...the ultimate in home visits lol. I do remember being fed ice cream by the shovel full. Loved it. Roy
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I will have to look on catchup TV .I can remember having my tonsils out at Derby Royal Infirmary in the 1950's , picking up an infection and not having any visitors. A horrible experience I don't like to think about.
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