Public Health Flashcards
What was the Public Health Act 1848 a result of?
The findings of Edwin Chadwick’s report The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population and cholera epidemics.
What did the Public Health Act 1848 establish?
The General Board of Health for 5 years, allowing towns to set up local boards.
What powers did local boards have under the Public Health Act 1848?
They could employ a medical officer, remove rubbish, and build sewage systems.
What event in 1858 led to changes in public health legislation?
The Great Stink caused by a hot summer that exposed excrement and rubbish in the Thames.
What was the outcome of the smell in Parliament during the Great Stink?
It led to an act to provide money for a sewer.
What did the Public Health Act 1875 make local authorities responsible for?
Supplying clean water, sewage, public toilets, good housing, street lighting, and quality of food.
How did the Public Health Act 1875 change compliance?
It was no longer voluntary; all areas had to comply.
What significant infrastructure was completed in 1875?
Bazalgette’s Sewer, a large sewage system taking waste to the Thames.
What was the cost of Bazalgette’s Sewer?
£6.5 million.
What did the 1907 Public Health – Education Act establish?
School medical services run by local government.
How many medical inspections did school children receive under the 1907 Act?
Three medical inspections during their school years.
What could school boards do under the 1907 Act?
Act against parents who sent children to school in poor condition.
When was the school medical service available?
Not available until 1912, and some local governments failed to provide it.
What did the 1908 Public Health - Old Age Pensions provide?
Pensions for people over 70 with an annual income of £21 to £31.
How many people were receiving pensions by 1914?
1 million people.
What was a limitation of the 1908 Old Age Pensions?
Many pensioners had no birth certificate to prove their age.
What was the issue with the pension amount provided?
It was below the poverty line established by Booth and Rowntree.
What did the 1909 Public Health Labour Exchanges do?
Helped the unemployed find work.
How many labour exchanges were operating by 1913?
430 labour exchanges.
How many people were being provided with work daily by 1914?
3,000 people a day.
What was a criticism of the Labour Exchanges?
They only found temporary and low-paid work, not reducing poverty.
What did the 1911 Public Health - National Insurance Act provide?
Medical care and sickness benefit for workers who became ill.
Who was excluded from the National Insurance Act?
Children and all women.
What were the Five Giant Evils identified in the 1942 Beveridge Report?
Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
What did the 1946 Public Health NHS Act result from?
The Beveridge report and was set up by Aneurin Bevan.
What did the NHS Act provide?
Care ‘from the cradle to the grave’, paid through taxation.
When did the NHS begin?
In 1948.
