In the summer of 1916, a mother wrote to the staff of Haywards Heath King Edward VII Memorial Hospital:

"I am aware of the great kindness extended to me from all concerned... Especially from matron and sister.

They took care of me in every respect and did all in their power for my poor boy. I feel so grateful that I hardly know how to express myself. Let me remain – a brokenhearted mother.”

Her son had been a soldier in the First World War and her gratitude for the care and support of nursing staff is unequivocal.

Our high regard for nurses has not diminished over the years but the way healthcare is administered has changed enormously.

In 1998 – the 50th anniversary of the NHS – nearly 15,000 patients passed through the doors of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

The average length of stay was five days in the annual budget for the body which administers the hospital, the Mid Sussex NHS trust, what about £50 million.

A snapshot of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in 1935 shows there were 598 patients. The average stay was nearly 3 weeks and the total income for the year was £6,567,14s and 8d

The Memorial Hospital, off Butlers Green Road, opened in 1912 as a permanent tribute to King Edward VII who died in 1910.

It was a community hospital in the true sense. Money for the new building, which replaced the Eliot Cottage Hospital in Ashenground Road, came from generous donations from the people of Haywards Heath.

The needs of the hospital were closely linked to town centre traders with groceries, bakers and chemist providing essential supplies in a rotation system.

Run by a Board of Governors, it operated through a combination of patients fees, donations, fundraising events and voluntary subscriptions which paid for the running costs and staff wages.

Lena Woolcock (nee White) worked as a nurse at the Memorial Hospital from 1933-35. She had to be back at the nurses home by 10:30 each night and was expected to work long hours with half a day off each week.

Her salary as a first year student nurse was just £20 a year, with her meals and accommodation provided free.

She described the matron in those days as "a bit of a war horse.”

The main hospital corridor had a black strip along each side and the matron insisted on the nurses walking down the middle and never on the black borders.

Daily ward inspections involve the finger test by the matron along the furniture and woe betide any of the nurses if dust was found!

At Christmas, each patient was given a stocking containing an apple, an orange and other small gifts.

Nurses, joined by some of the GPs, toured the wards carol singing.

The sheer volume of cases undertaken by hospitals today has made such a personal touch is virtually impossible.

Statistics for the interwar years show the average hospital stay was around 18 days. – enabling nurses to build up a rapport with their patients.

People in the Memorial Hospital were cared for by GPs, who came in from all over the area, and a small team of consultants and surgeons who did most of their own administration.

Dr John Pendered who came into practice as a GP in Haywards Heath in 1950 recalls: "major surgery was carried out by consultants from Brighton on three or four days a week. GPs were expected to give the anaesthetic for their patients as well as looking after them post operatively.”

There were fewer surgical techniques, now routine such as: hip replacements and open-heart surgery and the pressure for beds was not as great.

Before the introduction of the NHS in 1948, the cost of a hospital stay in the early 1940s amounted to three guineas a week for those patients without insurance.

This undoubtedly acted as a deterrent to poor families who tended to seek medical help at a more advanced stage of illness.

Dr Pendered believes people saw the arrival of the NHS as a great boon and not as a right.

“Those patients who had previously only afforded a doctor in a dire emergency continue to wait until they were seriously ill before sending for help, well some of those who were better off were more demanding."