How Important Did Edwin Chadwick Improve Public Health In The 19th Century

In order to understand current health delivery services changes and formulate predictions, one must thoroughly comprehend the three developmental eras of the health care system. The evolution of our current health care system began in 1850, and has metamorphosed in three time periods, 1850 to 1900, 1900 to World War II (WW II), and WW II to 2009. Significant distinct and overlapping trends in disease prevalence, availability of health care resources, social organizations, and the public's knowledge and perception of health and illness and technology.

In the preindustrial era, 1800s, the United States fell behind other countries in health services. There was no medical training until around 1870 (Shi & Singh, 2013). Medical training began with students training under the supervision of physicians. Physicians saw patients by making house calls. Health care was delivered in a free market (Shi & Singh, 2013). No one had insurance so costs were out of pocket. For most Americans, this was a problem and some rural areas relied on folk medicine to heal the sick. The medical institutions during this era were not sanitized properly and nurses were not trained to practice safety and hygiene care. The government provided facilities for elderly, chronically ill patients, and clinics that offered free care.

The National Health System began in 1948 with the aim to provide free health care for the English thus removing health access inequities. This essay considers two strengths of the NHS, being free health and locally responsive health care and two weaknesses being the financial burden and unprecedented pressure on health care resources.

Later, findings from a series of reports including report from Royal commission on National Health Insurance in 1926; The Sankey Commission on Voluntary Hospitals in 1937; and reports from British Medical Association (BMA) in 1930 and 1938, all collectively indicated that inadequacy existed in the pattern of the services (Christopher, 2004; Webster, 2002). Evident were reports of conflicting care and duplication of work between the municipal and voluntary hospitals (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). Additionally, world war had a huge impact on the health services and the conditions in which hospitals, theatres, radiology and pathology department operated was very poor. Thus, no machinery existed that supported running of a coordinated healthcare system, hence a need for unified, simplified and cohesive system was felt (Smith, 2007). Furthermore, Royal Commission’s report suggested that funding for the health services might benefit from general taxation rather than its basis on insurance principle (Christopher, 2004). However, it was not until the Beveridge report in 1942, which provided a huge drive and momentum for a movement of change in the health services. And within subsequent years seen were the proposals for NHS drawn through the White Paper in 1944, then in 1946 the National Health Service Act and at last in 1948 the establishment of the NHS

Public health may have remained a pool of disease was it not for the reforms made in the middle ages Though the town authorities tried their best, London was probably the most unsanitary town in England. Slowly, however, rules were made and enforced. In 1301 four women butchers were fined for throwing the blood and guts of slaughtered animals into the street. By 1370, 12 teams of 'muck' collectors combed the streets for animal and human excrement - money could be made out of it by selling it to local farmers (which helped further spread the various diseases…)

Before the National Health Service (NHS) came into force in 1948, there was the Poor Law which was introduced in 1601 and was paid for by imposing property taxes. In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act was brought in and was designed to reduce the cost of looking after the poor, and to encourage poor people to work. In 1942 Sir William Beveridge unveiled the Welfare Foundations, the plan offered care to all from birth through to death. The NHS was established as a result of the 1944 White Paper. The 1946 NHS Act came into effect on the 5th July 1948, and was founded by Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan. 1962 saw the publication of the Porritt Report, which raised concerns about the NHS being separated into three parts – hospitals, general practices and local health authorities. Enoch Powell’s 1962 Hospital Plan approves the development of district general

P2: Describe the Origins of Public Health Policy in the UK from the 19th Century to the Present Day.

This essay will compare the 19th, 20th and 21st century in relation to the main public health strategies used in United Kingdom. It will also compare the similarities and differences of the living conditions in towns and cities between the three named centuries above.

In this article I am going to describe the key features of public health strategies as they relate to current times in the UK.

John Simon was professionally a physician, but he became famous for him dramatic reforms of the public health system. He was the first medical officer in the UK’s central government, and he influenced public health by improving public vaccination systems. He also was the founder of the water supply cleaner and made sewers more effective.

The immunisation of diphtheria in the 1930 were a failure because of the dislocation between central and local Government (Williams 2013). Vaccination were local Government responsibly and not the central Government, the local government were not receiving money from the central government for the immunisation program (Williams 2013). During the World War 2 the Central Government recognised that vaccination were important in case of academic outbreak (Williams 2013). Also In the Second World War, in 1939 an emergency medical service was created to help the casualty of the war (Rivett 2015). This lead toward the Government commissioned a report into way that Britain should be rebuilt after the World War Two (BBC 2014). William Beveridge was not happy that he was appointed chair of the 1941 committee to improve Britain's system of social insurance (Byrne 2012). Beveridge wanted to be in charge of the front line to help defeat the Nazis (Byrne 2012). Beveridge after realised the potential of the task and knew he could shape a social transformation (Byrne 2012). A year later in 1942 William Beveridge published a report called ‘Social insurance and allied services’ (BBC 2014). The Report suggested that the government should find ways of fighting the five 'Giant Evils' of 'Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness' (BBC 2014). The first of Beveridge’s proposal came into effect in 1945, when

This essay will inform you on how health status in Britain has changed, or not changed since the 19th century and how it has developed throughout the years. It will evaluate the differences on three key factors. It will include social developments on the changes in attitudes towards children, political development’s on factory acts and health and safety legislation and lastly scientific developments on surgery and anaesthesia.

The hygiene movement helped in the avoidance of communicable diseases, diseases for example cholera, tuberculosis and water illnesses in large part by modifying the people surroundings. In the 1850s, John Snow assisted in recognized the importance in data collection and documentation. His actions terminated an outbreak of cholera in a district of London. Using the same methodology Ignaz Semmelweis, applied it to restraint fever of childbirth a major source of maternal mortality. The reason that this was happening was that after physicians worked on the death bodies, usually they did not wash their and delivered babies and contaminating both, the mother and the baby.

In the early 1800s, both in Europe and in the United States, physicians with formal medical training began to stress the idea that germs and social conditions might cause and spread disease, especially in cities. Many municipalities created "dispensaries" that dispensed medicines to the poor and offered free physician services. Epidemics of cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and yellow fever, and concerns about sanitation and hygiene, led many city governments to create departments of health. New advances in studying bacteria were put to practical use as "germ theory" became the accepted cause for illness. It was in the face of epidemics and poor sanitation, government-sponsored public health, and healthcare that private healthcare began to systematically diverge.

Public health power influences are constantly growing. During the twentieth century majority of the expansion happened for public health power, because of the federal government’s position in primarily focusing on protecting the public in food and drug safety, environmental protection, and occupational health and safety, and many others. The Federal government influence stretched higher levels when the federal government purchase a major part of personal health care services through the Medicare and Medicaid titles of the Social Security Act after 1965 (Turnock & Atchison, 2002).