One of the key challenges of the post war years was the need to repair, and the most notable area under scrutiny was health. The provision of health services to that point had been by the network of voluntary hospitals, which the war had put under severe strain. The creation of the NHS, and the challenge it made to that culture of local responsibility did not sit comfortably with the Leagues of Friends.
None the less it soon became clear that the Leagues of Friends were still very much in demand, and with the recommendation of the British Hospital Association, to set up Leagues of Friends or similar organisations centred at individual hospitals, a conference to which 175 league of friends groups were invited was held on 24th March 1949 and the National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends (N.A.L.H.F.) was formed. The main purpose was made clear by the following objective proposed at a meeting on the 5th of May 1949 by a certain Captain J.W. Price:
“To mobilise, encourage, foster and maintain, the human love of the people of this Country, in the giving service to supplement the healing work of the staff and the State, and always ensure a humanising supplement to the work of the hospitals”
Over 60 years have passed and the Leagues of Friends still remain true to their purpose, as the mobilisation of love in communities remains core to their activities.
How we support The Deal Victoria Memorial Hospital
From the funds we raise and thanks to your generosity, we have been able to buy much needed equipment for the hospital. Apart from our regular expenditure on the items shown below, we have been able to supply the items listed in the following tables.
Regular annual expenditure is made on the following items:
| Subscriptions | Courtyard garden maintenance |
| Nurses courses | Patient Christmas presents & festivities |
| Reference Books | Slippers for patients |
| Chilled water throughout the hospital | Fish tank maintenance |
| Newspapers for patients | …and more! |
Supporting Expenditure in 2017
Our total expenditure in 2017 on equipment and support activities was £33,906 including:
| Wound care centre | 11,001 |
| Hoists, Screens & thermometers | 8,048 |
| Ward room TVs | 6,664 |
| Nurses rest break benches | 1,188 |
| MIU teak benches | 656 |
| COPD Booklets | 650 |
| Trolleys | 577 |
| Finger Pulsometers, electric scales | 417 |
Supporting Expenditure in 2016
Our total expenditure in 2016 on equipment and support activities was £48,586 (inc £7,194 regular) including:
| Pico diagnostic ENT microscope | 9,454 |
| Tympanometer | 8,000 |
| Audiometer | 6,250 |
| Rehabilitation chairs | 3,798 |
| Tympanic thermometers x 32 | 3,711 |
| Portering chairs | 2,933 |
| Vital signs devices | 1,510 |
| Fitness cycle | 1,500 |
| Drop arm chairs | 1,436 |
| Puls oxymeters x 8 | 1,119 |
| Keeler Practitioner rechargeable desk set | 600 |
| Rehabilitation games equipment | 488 |
| Hospital flagpole | 335 |
| Bariatric chair | 139 |
| Nurses fridge | 119 |