Discuss how healthcare in UK has improved during the 20th century.
Discuss how healthcare in UK has improved during the 20th century.
During the Boer War (1899-1902) the Army medical corps discovered that over half of those who volunteered to serve in the army failed the simple medical test, because they were physically unfit to fight. Their ill-health was the result a generally poor standard of living, malnutrition, ill-health and squalid living conditions applicable to the majority of the population. After the war, a government committee looked at the reports of doctors who had examined the young men. They proposed a series of reforms of medical services, especially for children the future soldiers if Britain were to fight a war against Germany. This led to individual investigations by Charles Booth and Benjamin S. Rowntree into the poverty in Britain. Both did their own research into the poor living conditions and poverty. They stated that illness and old age were greater causes of poverty, than moral weakness a…(short extract)
