Home Remedies to the Creation of the NHS   by  Rhiannon Phillips

Our speaker this month was Rhiannon Phillips of the Gwent Archives. She covered the topic by outlining the sources available at the Archives- with the earliest items being from 1655. At that time medical care was both rare and too expensive for the majority of the population, which had to rely on advice and help to be found sometimes in Parish Registers and sometimes even in cooking recipe books.

As time progressed Friendly Societies began to appear which, for a small regular subscription, would try to provide help in the case of illness or death. Otherwise the answer was through the health services of the Workhouses or even the so called lunatic asylums such as Pen-y-Fal at Abergavenny.

As the nineteenth century neared its end Medical Aid Societies came to the front and concentrated more on giving medical assistance when needed for the payment of a small subscription. Particularly important was the Tredegar Working Men’s Medical Aid Society, founded in 1890. It started for employees of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company but rapidly expanded so that by the thirties it was covering 95% of the local population for medical care. Aneurin Bevan became a committee member in 1924 and the chairman in 1930.

When Bevan became the Minster of Health in 1945 and fathered the formation of the NHS in 1948 he based much on the experience gained at Tredegar. They were fortunate in inheriting many hospital buildings from various sources to ensure a good start to the project.