Factors leading to improved medical treatment in hospitals

Question 1

What factor lead to improved medical treatment?

Answer 1

1. Attitudes and beliefs in society
2. Government
3. Role of individuals

Question 2

How did the role of the government lead to improved medical treatment?

Answer 2

• They acted on pressure from the social reformers and ordered the local Poor Law Unions to use funds from local rate-payers to build new hospitals and asylums for people who needed medical care.
• This was a major step for the government who had previously had a laissez-faire attitude towards their people

Question 3

How did the role of attitudes and beliefs in society lead to improved medical treatment?

Answer 3

• Concern for the poor was fashionable in 19th century
• Social reform was spreading across Britain
• Workhouses, meant to house the unemployed, were becoming full of sick and disabled people, who were unable to work and support themselves
• The social reformers pressured local authorities and the government to improve matters

Question 4

How did the role of individuals lead to improved medical treatment?

Answer 4

• Pasteur’s Germ Theory led to hospitals being more aware of the link between dirt and disease so the became cleaner
• New methods of sterilisation were introduced-Lister and carbolic acid
• Florence Nightingale’s work in the training of nurses improved the standard of care in hospitals