Modern Public Health Flashcards
All 19 cards in this deck
Give two lifestyle factors now known to affect a person's health.
Smoking and poor diet (also alcohol and lack of exercise).
When was the NHS set up, and what did it provide?
- Treatment from GPs and hospitals funded by taxes and free at the point of delivery, so accessible to all.
Name two government lifestyle campaigns used to prevent illness in modern Britain.
The '5 a day' healthy eating campaign and anti-smoking / stop smoking campaigns.
Who was Charles Booth and what did his survey show?
A businessman whose Life and Labour of the People in London (1889) showed about 35% of people in London's East End lived in poverty, caused by low wages, illness and old age.
Who was Seebohm Rowntree and what did his survey show?
A York businessman whose Poverty: A Study of Town Life (1901) found about 28% of people in York lived below the poverty line, too poor to stay healthy.
Why was the Boer War (1899–1902) important for public health?
About 40% of volunteers were rejected as unfit to serve, alarming the government about the nation's health and helping to bring about the Liberal social reforms.
What did the 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act do?
It allowed local councils to provide free school meals for poor children, paid for out of the rates.
What did Part 1 of the National Insurance Act 1911 provide?
Insured workers paid weekly contributions and in return received free treatment from a doctor and sick pay (10 shillings a week for men) for up to 13 weeks. Their families were not covered.
What did evacuation during the Second World War reveal about public health?
City children arrived in the countryside dirty, underfed and ill, which shocked people and increased support for government action on poverty and health.
What were the 'Five Giants' identified in the Beveridge Report (1942)?
Want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.
True or false? NHS treatment has been completely free ever since it was created.
False. Charges for prescriptions, dental care and glasses were brought in during the early 1950s because the NHS cost far more than expected.
Give two issues facing healthcare in Britain in the 21st century.
Any two: an ageing population; the rising cost of new drugs and treatments; lifestyle diseases such as obesity; choosing what the NHS should fund.
True or false? In the early 1950s Richard Doll's research showed a link between smoking and lung cancer.
True. It alerted people to the need to change their lifestyle and led to government action on smoking.
True or false? The Beveridge Report of 1942 was unpopular with the British public.
False. It was a bestseller, selling over 100,000 copies in its first month, and people expected the government to act on it.
True or false? The NHS was created by Churchill's Conservative government.
False. Labour, led by Clement Attlee, won the 1945 election and set up the NHS in 1948, with Aneurin Bevan as Minister of Health.
What did the Liberal government introduce in 1908 for the elderly?
Old age pensions, paid from taxes to poorer people over 70 (up to 5 shillings a week).
What did the Liberals introduce in 1907 for schoolchildren's health?
School medical inspections; free treatment for the illnesses they found followed later, from 1912.
How did government act on housing after the First World War?
The 1919 Housing Act made councils build homes for working families ('homes fit for heroes'), and large-scale slum clearance followed in the 1930s.
Give one concession Aneurin Bevan made to win doctors over to the NHS.
Any one: hospital consultants could keep treating private patients, including in 'pay beds' in NHS hospitals; GPs stayed self-employed, paid for each patient on their list rather than becoming salaried state employees.