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Recuperative holidays
Recuperative holidays, where the emphasis is on rest, fresh air and good food but
regular medical and nursing attention are not required, totalled 8,467 in 1949, the first full
year in which the service was provided. There was a considerable increase in the following
year but since then, apart from 1959, there has been a steady reduction in the demand for
the service. One reason is that doctors in child welfare centres and general practitioners no
longer refer very young children, especially those under two years, for recuperative holidays
unless the circumstances are quite exceptional.
The risk of infection among babies has always been a problem in placing mothers with
very young children. This has been minimised by the use of private accommodation, where
only one or two mothers with such children are received for recuperative holidays at any
one time. This accommodation is kept under close surveillance by a medical officer.
Private accommodation is also largely used for holidays for adults.
It has been the Council's policy for social as well as medical reasons not to send patients
with a history of tuberculosis to the same homes as non-tuberculous patients. Although
these patients may be non-infective and the tuberculosis quiescent, experience has shown
that their presence in ordinary homes may upset other patients. The homes approved to
take tuberculous patients are grouped as follows:
Group I—Approved to take adult patients with active or quiescent tuberculosis
Group II—Approved to take a tuberculous person accompanied by his/her family.
A few homes are placed in both groups, on the clear understanding that at any one
time the patients in residence must be in only one of these groups.
For the purposes of the Council's recuperative holiday scheme for tuberculous patients,
it is not thought safe to differentiate between a case of known active pulmonary tuberculosis
and what may be thought to be a quiescent case in a patient who has recently been ill
enough to need a recuperative holiday on medical grounds. The proprietors of some homes
will not accept patients with known active pulmonary tuberculosis and their wishes are
observed.
The Council maintains a recuperative holiday home at Littlehampton, Sussex, for 36
children from 3 to 8 years of age and leases another home at Bognor Regis, Sussex, for
44 children from 8 to 15 years old. Children who cannot be accommodated in these
homes and all adults are placed at the Council's expense in homes under private ownership
or maintained by voluntary organisations. For the first fourteen weeks of 1962 Roland
House, Littlehampton, was used exclusively for children from homeless families in Welfare
department establishments. This proved beneficial both to the children and to their families,
who were relieved from the need of caring for them in difficult circumstances for a short
period during which they would find it easier to search for a new home for the family.
Similar arrangements were made in subsequent years and some 200 children benefited
each year.