Mecine di Flashcards
Explain new surgical technologies in the modern period
Microsurgery: allowed the transplant of organs
Robotic surgery: ensures more accurate surgery and better prosthetic limbs are produced
X-rays: surgeons can find and reduce cancerous tumours
What are the three parts of NHS
Hospitals
Additional services such as ambulances
GPs and dentists
What were some impacts of the NHS (positive and negative)
Women and children had access to free treatment
Poor could afford medical care
More patients had access to specialist doctors
Government didn’t have enough to spend on upgrading hospitals
GPs resisted the NHS
Increase in waiting lines
How did access to care improve?
NHS Gave free healthcare to all so people were no longer turned away
Hospital role changed: now only for treatments
How did treatments improve?
Deaths by infectious disease fell significantly
Chemical treatments were available like magic billets
What were issues with treatments?
- difficult to develop vaccines against some viruses
- new diseases continue to appear
- lifestyle factors have caused an increase in illness such as heart disease
How did the government take action to improve public health?
- there was an increased understanding of causes of disease
- there was an increased understanding of methods of prevention such as compulsory vaccines, passing laws and communicating health risks
- vaccination campaigns for diseases like polio or HPV
- government lifestyle campaigns and government legislation
Explain Flemings discovering of penicillin
- Fleming worked on the battlefield hospitals to improve treatment
- He noticed something unusual about a dirty Petri dish - one of them developed some mould which appeared to have killed off bacteria growing in the dish
- Fleming tested the mould and identified it as penicillin
- he did not pursue funding to perform any further tests because he didn’t believe it could work to kill bacteria but he did publish his findings
Explain how Florey and Chain developed Pencillin
- they tested their extracted pencillin on infected mice and the results showed the infection was being killed
- it was difficult to produce penicillin in large quantities so they set to growing as much as possible
- they tried it out on an infected patient
- it showed to be effective in fighting infection
What factors enabled the development of penicillin?
- Technology
- Attitudes: finding a solution was important
- Science
- individuals: development didn’t cost money as Fleming didn’t patent it
- institutions: the US government agreed to fund the research
What is penicillin used for?
- to prevent infection
- encouraged scientists to look for other moulds that could be used for similar things
- confidence in medical treatments rose
- however some bacteria are resistant to penicillin
What was the role of RAP
- located 200m within the frontline so closest to it
- wounded men would walk or be carried
- it was to give immediate first aid and get as many men to go back fighting
- didn’t deal with serious injuries
What was the role of the Dressing stations
- where possible they were located in abandoned buildings, dug outs or bunkers to offer protection
- or tents were used
- they would either walk there or be carried in stretchers
What were the casuality clearing stations
- located further away from the frontline to provide safety but accessible by ambulance wagons
- woukd specialise in operating critical injuries
- the wounded were divided into a triage to help staff make decisions about treatment (the walking wounded, this in need of hospital treatment and those who were going to die)
Describe what FANY did
- in 1916 the FANYS became the first women to drive an ambulance
- they were used to transport wounded soldiers by ambulance
- they also drove supplies to the frontline
- had a mobile bath unit
- set up cinemas to help morale
