Nobody tells you the useful stuff until you need it.

The Sick List was made by a small group of people who have spent far too much of the last twenty years in and out of hospitals. We met the way people sometimes do when they keep turning up in the same places: on wards, in waiting rooms, in treatment units, during long admissions and repeat visits. Some of us stayed in touch with each other afterwards, and with nurses we got to know along the way.

We know this stuff because hospital has been a recurring part of our lives for a very long time. Between us, there are long-term illnesses, repeat admissions, treatment days and stretches where hospital starts to feel far too familiar. It is not expertise any of us particularly wanted, but when you have spent years living in and out of wards, you learn the details nobody thinks to tell you.

You learn which clothes are manageable with a cannula in, why a three-metre charging cable can feel like a small miracle, why the towels never seem remotely designed for an adult human being, and what you actually want somebody to bring from home when you are tired, uncomfortable and thoroughly fed up.

The frustrating thing is that most of that practical knowledge only reaches you after you have needed it. We wish something like The Sick List had existed when we first started doing the hospital circuit — something that said, plainly, this helps, this does not, pack this, leave that at home. So eventually we made it ourselves. Not because we have all the answers, but because we have been there, we know how hard the small things can make an already difficult day, and we wanted the next person to have a slightly easier time of it.

Nobody remembers the hamper. Everybody remembers the person who brought the three-metre cable.

This is not a list of things you have to buy. Quite often the best answer is ‘bring the one they already own’, and where that is true we say so. Every recommendation explains why something helps, so you can choose another brand, find a cheaper version or fetch the right thing from home instead.

Nurses we know have given us practical input here and there about ward routines and what is realistic at a bed space. That is informal advice from people we trust, not an NHS endorsement, clinical panel or medical approval. The Sick List is patient-made practical help, not medical advice, and the ward looking after you always comes first.

Some links earn The Sick List a small commission if you buy through them. Recommendations are not chosen because they pay us. They are chosen because we genuinely think they are useful. Any commission helps pay for the site and does not cost you anything extra.

It was written from the ward beds, not the boardroom.