Medicine - Public Health Flashcards
(25 cards)
‘Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population’
- James Chadwick
- 1842
- Highlighted terrible conditions under which poor people were living in.
- Suggested this was caused by limiting economic growth.
Broad Street Pump
- John Snow (father of epidemiology)
- 1854
- Proved cholera was a water-borne disease
- Deaths from an outbreak were centered around the pump
- Deaths stopped when handled removed
Causes of Liberal Reforms
- Demands of the British Empire
- Social Reformers
- Politics
Politics
Causes of Liberal Reforms
- Rise of socialism in Britain
- Rival conservatives promised changes
- 1900, Labour Party formed
- Labour: 2 seats in 1900, grown to 29 by 1906
- Liberals became more left-leaning to fight the threat of Labour
Social Reformers
Causes of Liberal Reforms
- Charles Booth & Seebohm Rowntree provided proof of dreadful living conditions
- B researched poverty in London; published Life and Labour of the People of London in 1902
- R studied causes of poverty in York
- 1901, R published Poverty; A study of Town Life in 1901.
- Found approx 30% of population living below poverty line.
Demands of the Empire
Causes of Liberal Reforms
- Boer War
- Almost half of recruits unfit to fight
- As high as 69% in poor areas
- Army had to lower minimum height req.
- Committee on Physical Deterioration set up to investigate problems - influenced Liberal programme of reform.
Liberal Reforms - Children
- 1906 Free School Meals; 158k per day by 1914. Permissive
- 1907 Free School Medical Inspections; free, compulsory medical checks
- 1908 Children and Young Persons Act; illegal for parents to abuse/neglect kids, borstals for young offenders so they didn’t have to go to adult prisons, measures difficult to enforce.
Liberal Reforms - Elderly
1908 Old Age Pensions Act; over 70s recieved 5s a week. Claimed by 650k in the first year. (raised taxes, unpopular amongst the rich)
National Insurance Act
1911
Part 1: sickness benefit of 10s for 13 weeks, then decreased to 5s for 13 weeks then stopped. 16m covered.
Part 2: unemployment benefit of 7s 6d for 15 weeks. 2.5m insured. Mostly skilled men.
1848 Public Health Act
- permissive
- allowed towns to set up a local Board of Health, employ a local medical officer, organise rubbish and sewage removal
1848 Public Health Act - Limitations
- Not mandatory
- Temporary; Board of Health ended in 1854
- Chadwick difficult to work with
- Unpopular local tax increases
- High cost of improving conditions locally
When was the 1848 Public Health Act disbanded?
1878
1875 Public Health Act
- Mandatory
- Authorites had to: provide clean water, dispose of sewage and ensure only safe food was sold
- Search for “nuisances” and act to fix them
River Pollution Prevention Act
- 1876
- Illegal for companies to dump waste, incl. chemicals, into rivers
Artisans’ Dwelling Act
- 1875
- Gave local governments power to demolish slum housing
Great Stink
- 1858
- Hot summer revealed excrement to be revealed on Thames’ shores.
- Caused incredibly bad smell near parliament
- Showed diposing waste in Thames was not safe
Act of Parliament (after Great Stink)
- 1858
- Act passed in a record 18 days to provide £3m for a new sewer system.
- Bazalgette chose to design it.
Building of the Sewers
- Made of large oval shapes out of brick
- Most of the 2000km of sewers built by ‘65
- mainly used gravity but 4 pumping stations also built between 1864 and 1875
- 2 treatment works to deal with sewage not sent to sea
- By 1875, £6.5m spent
Beveridge Report
Published in 1942 by Beveridge
Wanted to address the 5 problems of:
1. Want
2. Disease
3. Ignorance
4. Squalor
5. Idleness
National Health Act
- 1946
- NHS Bill
- Doctors would work for the gov. rather than privately.
- Paid a salary rather than per patient
- Doctors not allowed to buy/sell practices and with them lists of patients
National Health Act - Opposition & Resolution
- BMA, represented 51k GPs and hospital doctors threatened to boycott NHS
- Consultants could work part-time for NHS and use private beds in NHS hospitals to treat private patients
- Agreed that doctors would still recieve a fee for every patient regardless of how many times they visited
NHS - Causes
- WW2
- Beveridge Report
- Remaning Problems in the 1930s
Remaining Problems in the 1930s
Causes of the NHS
- Unemployment over 3m
- System of 1911 failing
- Increasing infant mortality rate in place affected most by depression
- 1934, 4 million insurance policies where people owed payments
WW2
Causes of the NHS
- EMS showed that an effective medical service could be set up even in wartime, so why not during times of peace.
- Evacuation of children to countryside shocked middle-class.
- Rations actually improved the diets of the poor in society.
