What was life like before the NHS?

[Tatami]

The NHS turned 75 yesterday. It got me thinking about what was life like before the NHS. I'm most interested in the 1920s and 30s, when my Grandmothers would have been born. Would my Great-Grandmothers and their generation most likely have given birth at home, paid a midwife or just relied on the wisdom of a relative or friend? They weren't at all wealthy. Were working men given priority for any free or charitable care? Is there a good book or any records where I can find out more? Thank you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06bj8sd A short listen for you here

Thank you!

There's lots on Google but, to my mind, the most evocative accounts are by Harry Leslie Smith. Born in Barnsley in 1923, he became a prolific social historian in old age after his wife died.

Do look up his online memoirs. Here's a starter: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/04/coalition-attacks-nhs-return-britain-age-workhouse

Awful.

Harry Lesley Smith spoke (in his 90s if I recall) at several rallies and conferences and published in several newspapers a utterly harrowing account, remembering watching his sister waste away from tuberculosis.

One of the biggest successes has been coordinated public health interventions to deal with things like polio, tuberculosis and universal access to maternity care.

My mum remembers when my gran was expecting my aunt, her third sister, and having to run to the doctors with a silver coin once labour began, and they were reasonably well off.

One of the things I think the NHS has badly mismanaged however is it drawing a clear and appropriate line between free at point of use, and personal responsibility. For example providing free transport, keeping people in for social reasons, in my opinion has contributed significantly to the dissolution of neighbourhoods and communities. In1930 there was a benefit to be on good terms and knowing everyone in your road, and a willingness to help out... Can you imagine if someone from 8 doors down knocked and asked for a lift to an appointment these days?

Great minds.....

I actually heard him speak in person at one of the NHS rallies.

Watch "call the Midwife"

My mum remembered my grandma and her neighbours putting money together if one of the children needed to see the doctor. If they couldn't raise it between them then no doctor.

I spent a while chatting to me grandmother before she died, and she talked about life before the NHS.

She had a miscarriage and her OH biked off to get the doc, who arrived, looked at her and asked if they could afford hospital. They could not; doc told them to expect that she would bleed to death during the night.

My grandmother had a lifelong hearing impairment as her mastoiditis went untreated as a child (there were also no antibiotics) then. She was born in 1920.

In the modern era there was a lot they could have done to preserve her hearing.

Although the war did a lot for that generations long term health - rationing forced you to eat healthily. The PTSD from your wartime exploits however was less good.

My grandad is 94. He told me a story once about how at 6yrs old he walked around with a broken leg for around 6 months before his mother finally scraped enough money together for a doctor.

Very few adults had all their own teeth.

I think more was taken care of at home. My ggm and teenage g-aunt took care of my premature gm who was expected to die, they fed her with an eyedropper. These days she would have had a ng tube in a premature baby unit.

When I was a student nurse, we were shown a documentary about the inception of the NHS that included people talking about life before it. The one thing that's always stuck with me was a hospital orderly talking about a man coming to view his brother's body after death. He said that the brother asked if his late sibling had his false teeth in, the orderly replied that he wasn't to worry, he had his teeth in so he looked like himself. The brother responded "oh no, I'm not worried about that, they're my teeth, he borrowed them to come into hospital, I want them back!'.
Obviously, dental care isn't free now as it was when the NHS first began, but it shows the effect that poverty had on the ability to access healthcare

I'm in my 50s. I remember my gran telling me how she cried with joy knowing that her daughter (my mum) would be able to give birth to her children with proper medical care and in a hospital.

I remember my grandmother saying that when her son was killed as a child she had been sent a bill for the ambulance and she was very traumatised by that.

In that era in our Herefordshire village, all the babies were born at home, and many were delivered by my totally unqualified/untrained grandmother who had left school at 12.

A friend's uncle died when he was a child because he stood on a nail and it got infected.
His brother was always traumatised by this and now doesn't go out of the house due to fear.

My grandmother said it was awful and that there were many tragic stories.

My great grandmother used to attend to other women with their home deliveries. She had 13 children herself, so knew about labour and delivery.

The Ian Hislop program a few years back. He was chatting to somebody who said that the minute the NHS started, their doctor had a queue of women with prolapses. They'd been suffering in silence for years.

My mum. Born 1923 remembered this being take. To the fever hospital from school for isolation and only one coming back- she later understood they had diphtheria and her friend died.

that’s how bleak things were in about 1930 ….

we also have photos of my dad as a teen with his rickety bow legs .

trouble is my mum and dads generation are gone and people don’t believe these things were real. I know advances in health care aren’t all nhs and the twins were treated as well as they could have been I think but still.

@MokaEfti..."Call the Midwife" took place on the late fifties and early sixties, the NHS started in 1948 so that wouldn't be a good point of reference.

Yep.
mu gran ( born 1899 ) had 2 sets of twin sisters. Astoundingly sue to care at home as above they all lived.
however the precious only son died age 3 of an infection. The girls always all felt it would have been better if it had been them. Ingesting to muse on the fact that the gap in the family wasn’t covered up too.

Read The Citadel by AJ Cronin. It's a novel but it's drawn from his own pre war experiences as a doctor. It's about the ethics of medicine and was widely thought to have influenced the foundation of the NHS

@Chaoticserenity
Good point, but I remember some early episodes where they referenced the amazing new NHS. Or am I mistaken? I seem to recall people saying you don't have to pay etc etc. Perhaps it was the very first episode or something. I must admit, I didn't watch much of it.