GCSE > History > Pearson IGCSE > GCSE History: Medicine and Health in Britain (1000-Present) Topic Summaries > Modern medicine > Modern public health
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Summary table
  • Social reforms: the Liberal government from 1905–1914 passed a series of reforms to improve public health. This was partly in response to the Boer War where a third of army volunteers were rejected due to poor health. 
  • Investigations by social reformers such as Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree revealed the extent of poverty in urban areas, highlighting the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and health.
  • These reforms included free school meals (1906), medical checks in schools (1907), the National Insurance Act (1911), and the Clean Air Act (1956 and 1968).
  • The Beveridge Report of 1944 recommended comprehensive social welfare reforms, leading to the creation of the Welfare State, which aimed to eliminate the ‘five giants’ negatively impacting people’s lives.
Five Giants New Labour Response
Want Providing benefits to the poor
Disease Establishing the NHS in 1948
Ignorance Raising the school leaving age to 15
Squalor Slum clearance programmes
Idleness Weekly family allowances
  • The National Health Service (NHS), established in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan (Minister for Health), provided free healthcare at the point of use, paid for by National Insurance contributions. This greatly improved access to treatment regardless of income.
    • Before the NHS, healthcare was expensive and highly limited. This was evidenced by high infant mortality rates.
    • The combination of the NHS, modern pharmaceuticals, high-tech hospital treatment, and innovations like antibiotics and vaccines represents one of the most significant periods of change in healthcare in British history, offering a level of care and prevention unimaginable in previous eras.
    • In the long-term, life expectancy increased, which has caused strains on the NHS. In the twenty-first century, public healthcare faces challenges including rising costs, choices regarding treatment options, and pressures on NHS resources due to an ageing population and chronic illness prevalence.

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