Was Asked This Nhs Q By My Grandson Today......

[trt]

He is 17+yrs and there was something on the TV about when the NHS started in 1948.
He asked, 'What did people do when they were sick before the NHS started'?

I couldn't give him a full answer, simply, because I didn't know, so what did happen?

[Mamyalynne]

I recall my Gran saying she had to pay the GP, often she would query the amount as too high.

[Jackdaw33]

...or you could be 'on the panel', where the doctor was paid by the local relief board, but at a lower rate than private patients.

[silliemillie]

Yes, you had to pay, so many people never went to the Doc as they couldnt afford it and subsequently died.

[Mamyalynne]

Also weren't there savings clubs, like the Hospital Saturday Fund and others that could cover if you needed treatment?

[jennyjoan]

Well TRT - my mother took a massive abscess in her breast "that time ago" - doctor was called out and paid. However in order for mother not to pay any more money he called next door neighbour to instruct her how to care for mother and when neighbour saw the abscess - collapsed.

You did pay.

[trt]

Jenny, a change of Q for you.

Is that your dog in avatar and is it a Maltese?

[jennyjoan]

Ach the wee man is Maxie and according to very very very bad last owner (extremely ill treated unbelievable) - he is supposed to be half Bichon Frieze and Schitzu (sp).

Lovely natured dog but still a hallion in he won't do "recall" Bad boy LOL

[trt]

OIC Jenny, he looks so much like my daughters Maltese who is due pups in the next 10 days, and I am having one I hope :-)

[baza]

As my dads job had private health care i was born in a private nursing home, that was in 1948.

[Bathsheba]

Aaw Mamya,....how lovely to see The Hospital Saturday Fund mentioned! I still call it that in spite of the funny looks I get :)

@trt....a new puppy? That'll keep you busy ;)

Baths
x x x

[trt]

Yes Baths, but will have to get a dog walker when its time, and its time I went to bed, nighty night xxx

[trt]

Just been told that

[trt]

I found this info if anybody is interested

http://www.socialist.net/health-services-before-nhs.htm

[masma]

When my mum went into labour with me,1947, my brother was sent to get a lady from the next road who charged 2/6 to deliver a baby. Mum said doctors were more expensive. Mrs Pears also charged the same to lay someone out!

[Hypognosis]

By all accounts, Nye Bevan borrowed the idea from workers' cooperatives, in the South Wales valleys. The mining and steel communities had high rates off illness and the concept of "group insurance" was not long in coming to them. Health bills come in big lumps but workers, in general, are only "drip-fed" their pay. Anything which can spread one-off costs over a lifetime has to help.

Under the private system, the internet is awash with "folk remedies", health advice, weight-loss products, "detoxification" and all manner of quackery which, I might add, gets away with charging nearly the same rates as properly qualified medical practitioners.

Disclaimer:- Some folk remedies do work but I do not know which ones. I apologise, in advance, for lumping them in with quackery but it's just a list of "things which are not professional medicine".

[Hypognosis]

@trt

Before grandson goes to socialist.net, make sure you brief him about the full ramifications of Marxism, in case he scrolls beyond the end of that potted history (useful, as it was).

[Peter Pedant]

You paid - for a home visit around a guinea ( 21/-)
GP routinely had 20% bad debts.
and did much more - operations on the kitchen table were common,
and for deliveries the GP when called by the midwife would give an anaesthetic and then deliver the child

Lloyed George 1911 I think introduced the 'panel' - shilling a week and the family was treated but drugs had to be paid for I think. Where did the money come from ? big constitutional crisis - budget crisis - three elections within a year. The Germans by this timehad had socialised medicine for thirty years - one of Bismarck's reforms

During the war there was the emergency medical service - where all the hospitals were forced to co operate in treating bomb casualties and these were carted around the country in hospital trains. ( see the english patient) and so and so .... altho he might have got the idea from welsh wales, there was a ready made system in place to be nationalised in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan

Paid for by direct taxation - care from cradle to the grave ( !!) - what changes will there be for hospitals ? 'only that they wont have to sell charity flags'.

the estimated cost ( £ 120 m / y ) was exceeded in the first year. and the estimated cost was predicted to go DOWN ( what ? ) and rose from then.

prescription charges were introduced ( a bob a go ) and Harold Wilson a junior minister ( who harold wilson ? ) resigned over it at the time ....

the first time the minister of health became a cabinet post was 1962 I think ( Enoch Powell )

[ I was only there for the last one ]