Healthcare before the NHS Jeannie Duckworth, Austin Macauley  ISBN 978-1784558147  £7.99 The establishment of the NHS in 1948 coincided with the epidemiological transition, something most have now forgotten and which this book reminds us of.  Death from infectious disease, for which there was very little effective treatment available even if you could pay, was common. Children of all social classes commonly died in infancy and mothers in childbirth.  Richer families had better prospects of survival, but not much.  Epidemic illness swept through the population repeatedly. The limited health service established by the 1911 National Insurance Act only extended to workers, not […]
Read More