Bath dispensaries: health-care for the poor before the NHS

Before the NHS, Dispensaries were the main, if not the only, source of non-residential medical care for the poor.

Here Michael Whitfield describes the dispensaries of Bath from the early 19th century, and draws some comparisons with the national picture. Included is an Index of all the practitioners noted in the text.

About the Author

Michael Whitfield was senior lecturer in General Practice in the University of Bristol.  In his retirement he has devoted himself to the history of medical practice in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bristol.

He is the author of nine other ALHA Books (see inner back cover); and of The Dispensaries: Healthcare for the Poor Before the NHS: Britain’s Forgotten Health-care System (Author Books 2016).