medicine factors: government

Question 1

medieval - medicine

Answer 1

Mayor of Coventry:

• 1421 Mayor proclaimed every man clean the street in front of their house or they get a 12 penny fine
• waste collections sold to farmers
• waste disposal locations and dung hills
• all toilets and waste banned from rivers to allow clean water

Question 2

early modern - medicine

Answer 2

The Great Plague:

• public entertainment banned
• cats and dogs killed
• no strangers allowed in towns without a certificate of health
• rubbish cleared from the streets
• locking up of patients for 40 (quarantining)

Question 3

19th century - medicine

Answer 3

Public Health in towns:

• poor law commission with Edwin Chadwick provided statistical evidence of ill health and poverty - lead to “clean party”
• 1848 - public health act, water supplies and sewage
• 1858 - government turned to Bazalegette to build 83 miles of sewers in London removing 420 million gallons of waste per day
• 1866 - sanitary act - local government responsible for sewers, water and street cleaning
• 1875 - housing act would redevelop slums and rebuild poor housing
• 1875 - public health act, housing, disease, water, sewage, food supplies, street lights and rubbish collections

Question 4

20th century - medicine

Answer 4

The NHS:
-since 1948 the Labour Government set up the NHS, hospitals are free at point of delivery and welfare state ensures we get free health care from cradle to grave paid for via direct taxation.
-life expectancy increased from 66-83 for women and 64-79 for men since 1948
Post WW2
-since WW2 the government passed the “Clean air act” after 12,000 died from the smog in 1952
-council houses and tower blocks built with central heating, bathrooms and fitted kitchens