www.chronology.org.uk

A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related Services in Britain: 1066 - 1999.

ISBN 1 900273 06 3 

Salus populi suprema est lex 

Cicero, c.BC 60

The chronology he has constructed will be of great value to  research workers who needs a broad view of the legislative and organization developments at the time of interest to them.  This is the penultimate version; a revision has now been produced and a limited number of copies is available from the Faculty of Public Health Medicine.   The main difference is that it includes more information on Scotland.  The Faculty has placed the improved version online as a simple text some 400 pages long.  It takes a while to download, but while it cannot be searched on line, it can be printed out.  

On this site, individual 'pages' may be of substantial length, and may take 30 seconds or more to download.  

At least a dozen people a day are visiting this site.  You are welcome to use the material here.  Acknowledge as appropriate in anything you write.  The idea of the timeline is to help writers and research workers, and to do so freely.   To save your printer time you are advised NOT to print the pages, but to copy just the material you want.  Draw the attention of your librarian to the existence of the site, so that they may book mark it. 

We have added a search engine specific to this site, to help you to find what you need,.  which you will find at the top of every page.  Choose your phrase carefully, or you will have many hits. As it is an 'external' search system, it will only take you to the section that you require; you will still have to find the year entry applicable.

FOREWORD 

Public health legislation used to be one of the key components of any undergraduate or postgraduate course in public health. Today it is hardly mentioned, although there has been recent debate about the possibility of a new public health act. I remember quite a number of years ago, coming across a paper prepared by Michael Warren, covering some of the legislation relevant to public health, and realising what a limited view I had of legislative developments, and how valuable a clearly presented account was to anyone concerned in teaching public health. 

Over the years Michael has progressively added to and extended his review, culminating in this new publication which has the almost unbelievable scope of 1066 to the present time. Although I have always had an interest in history, I would feel daunted at even attempting a minute amount of what Michael has achieved. This publication provides a unique opportunity to see the development and thought that has influenced legislation. What were the key issues at particular periods of time? What were the priorities for action? And how in retrospect can we learn the lessons that could be linked to both “good” and “ bad” legislation? 

There is no other publication that provides the comprehensive, detailed and critical account of development and legislation relevant to public health, allowing us to see the decisions that have influenced what we have today. We are deeply indebted to Michael for his longstanding commitment to this topic, and to ensuring accuracy by going back to original documentation and sources; and finally for such a clear presentation in this chronology. It will provide us all, whatever our current work may be, with a rich resource and the solid historical basis for present day practice and possible future legislation.

Professor James McEwen

President, Faculty of Public Health Medicine  

This site has been constructed for Michael Warren by Geoffrey Rivett.  We wish to make it user friendly and would welcome feedback to help further development.  It was last revised on  06/01/03 . 

For current developments in the NHS, go to Geoffrey Rivett's book on the history of the NHS, 

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