Ida Bromley

The old wards were larger and contained a whole range of patients; the better were at one end and the newly-injured were at the other. The better patients would go to the shops for the bed-bound patients. Those patients that were up in wheelchairs would all have lunch together at tables on the ward and the new patients would learn from the older ones. They could also see straight away, just by looking across the room,  that they were going to get better. They were there for a long time on the same ward and there was a real sense of community. Today by contrast the facilities are so much better, but patients at the same stage are grouped together in smaller wards, split between different consultants and with no sense of how they might progress.