Part 12: Health and welfare
It has often been said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. After the war in Europe had ended, a wind of change swept across Britain and one of the ways in which this expressed itself was with a radical shake-up of social welfare provision.
The situation at the time was that patients had to pay for treatment. Access to doctors, dentists, opticians and hospitals was limited to those who could afford it or workers who paid National Insurance Contributions. Most…