when did the ambulance service start in the uk
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom The National Health Service Act 1946 gave county and borough councils a statutory responsibility to provide an emergency ambulance service, although they could contract a voluntary ambulance service to provide this, with many contracting the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or another local provider. The last St John Division, (the original designation of a local unit, now called 'branches'), to be so contracted is reputed to have been at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, where the two-bay ambulance garage can still be seen at the branch headquarters. The Regional Ambulance Officers’ Committee reported in 1979 that “There was considerable local variation in the quality of the service provided, particularly in relation to vehicles, staff and equipment. Most Services were administered by Local Authorities through their Medical Officer of Health and his Ambulance Officer, a few were under the aegis of the Fire Service, whilst others relied upon agency methods for the provision of part or all of their services.”
Children's hospital Prior to the 19th century hospital reforms, the well-being of the child was thought to be in the hands of the mother; therefore, there was little discussion of children's medicine, and as a result next to no widespread formal institutions which focused on healing children. There were however centres which focused on helping abandoned children and offering care in hopes that these children might survive into adulthood. Some examples include orphanages, dispensaries, and foundling hospitals. Florence's Hospital of the Innocent (Ospedale degli Innocenti) was originally a charity based orphanage which opened in 1445; its aim was to nurse sick and abandoned infants back to health. A later example and better established institution whose goal it was to help rehabilitate infants was the Foundling Hospital founded by Thomas Coram in 1741. Foundling hospitals were set up to receive abandoned infants, nurse them back to health, teach them a trade or skill, and integrate them back into society. Coram's foundling hospital was revolutionary because it was one of the United Kingdoms first children charities.[4] Moreover, it was largely made successful by the powerful people who donated money to the hospital.[5] Coram's hospital would eventually be faced with the fact that the number of infants needing care outweighed their hospitals capacity. In order to accommodate the number of children in need, there were attempts to set up similar hospitals throughout the UK; they ultimately were unsuccessful due to the lack of funding.[5] Simultaneously, dispensaries which were also funded by donations were being opened in order to provide medicine and medical attention to those who could not afford private care. Dispensaries and foundling hospitals were the earliest forms of what would later become children's hospitals. The establishing of the Foundling Hospital by Thomas Coram was a direct response to the high infant mortality rate in London, England. Although foundling hospitals acknowledged the high infant mortality rate, infant mortality would not be addressed in a wide spread way until the early 19th century when children's hospitals would begin to open in Vienna, Moscow, Prague, Berlin, and various other major cities throughout Europe.[6]