Tales before and after the NHS

The doctor would want 1/6 every time he visited you. The parents could not afford to pay...Therefore death would happen. Thoughtful doctors who studied the poor set up some surgeries in various parts of the town so that the patients could visit them, instead of having to go to the doctors' private houses.  These surgeries were empty old shops...painted a very dark brown...because this would not show the dirt.
Albert Paul -  Poverty, Hardship but Happiness

The Doctor was a notable horseman and rode to visit his patients. He was mostly paid for his services with gifts of fruit, vegetables, eggs or even a truss of hay. There was no health service then, only the sick fund that was run at the Bull Hotel.
Doris Hill - Growing up in Ditchling

I remember the new National Health Service in 1948, because I went down with scarlet fever, and I remember my grandmother saying its lucky the Health Service is here, otherwise we would have to pay for the doctor. I always remember being confined to the house, in a room on my own, with a thick blanket over the door with some carbolic on it or something.

My grandmother looked after me as my Mum went out to work full-time. I never came home to an empty house and still can't get used to it now.
Alan Jeal - Back Street Brighton