Alcohol for theraputic purposes in the UK is nothing new.
When I was a student in the NHS we had a patient who had terminal cancer and was prescribed a whisky each night. After three or four months the pharmacy queried the volume the ward was ordering. A couple of years later we had a patient of 99 and 11 months who had come in to give his daughter in law a break. We were strictly ordered by our consultant to preserve him and that meant a brandy each night. Indeed the consultant who was very much against sleeping pills advocated a shot of alcohol if his patients had sleeping problems.
My father's German agent who had what we now called a portfolio career. This included running the family pharmaceutical wholesalers. His licence included permission to sell items included sect(the German champagne) and brandy.
Finally I can remember having the 'baby blues' after our daughter was born. The ward sister immediately said that she knew what I needed and bustled off. She returned with a large glass of Bristol Cream Sherry which worked wonders
The only difference between then - experiences between 40 and 60 years ago is that today for an individual, the family might be encouraged to bring in the alcohol or it would be part of the unit's amenity provision which would be funded by a Christmas raffle or something similar.
As you say
Santé
Ginny
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