Birth of the National Health Service | The early history of the NHS
How We Worked Then | Medicine
Doctors, patients and chemists share their memories of medical treatment before the NHS.
CHANNEL | Radio 5
FIRST BROADCAST | 05 March 1991
DURATION | 13 minutes 52 seconds
FIRSTBROADCAST
1991
Synopsis
In this programme we hear from people who lived and worked in the 1920s and 1930s. Patients recall how each doctor's visit cost five shillings, so sending for a medical practitioner was not done lightly. Doctors tell of doing minor operations on kitchen tables and chemists talk about how the available medications were generally either ineffective or dangerous.
Did you know?
Five shillings is the equivalent of 25p in today's currency. To put that in context, in 1931 a widow's pension was 10 shillings(50p) a week and the minimum wage for agricultural workers was £1-11s-3d (just over £1.55p).
Contributors
Associated subjects
Illness | Medical Care | NHS | Poverty | UK Politics | Welfare State
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