Category: Frimley correspondence

Doctors’ views on gratitude

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to present some of my work on the gratitude expressed in the Frimley correspondence to GP trainers and trainees from West Middlesex Hospital, whose two days away were delightfully themed around ‘happiness’. It was a nice way to hear some stories of gratitude from the frontline.

We had a lively discussion about whether patients are morally obliged to feel grateful. Lots of the delegates were uncomfortable about the word ‘moral’, although most agreed that patients had lots to be grateful for. The overwhelming majority felt that patients should be grateful for the NHS in general, rather than specific practitioners.

‘Yours gratefully…’: the Frimley Sanatorium correspondence

Frimley Sanatorium, established in 1905, was the country outpost of the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest. Its purpose was to provide a healthy environment for patients who were deemed capable of making a good recovery from TB. After a few years it was realised that follow-up records were vital for understanding the impact of the changing treatment regimes at Frimley. It fell to the Lady Almoner at the Brompton Hospital to persuade patients to keep in touch with the hospital after they were discharged.

Miss Lily Constance Marx, appointed in 1920, took this duty very seriously. She maintained contact with hundreds of patients through the course of her long career.