20th Century

The Liberal Reforms (1906-1911)

Introduced free school meals, school medical checks, and the National Insurance Act (sick pay).

Blood Groups

Discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1901; it made blood transfusions safe for the first time.

Marie Curie

Discovered Radium and Polonium; her work led to Radiotherapy for cancer treatment.

Alexander Fleming

Discovered Penicillin by accident in 1928, but he didn't have the money to turn it into a "mass" medicine.

Florey and Chain

The scientists who purified Fleming's Penicillin; the US Government funded mass production in 1941 for D-Day soldiers.

WW1 X-Rays

Marie Curie developed mobile X-ray units ("Little Curies") to help surgeons find shrapnel on the battlefield.

WW1 Plastic Surgery

Harold Gillies developed skin grafts to help soldiers with facial injuries, later improved by Archibald McIndoe in WW2.

Beveridge Report (1942)

Identified the "Five Giant Evils" (Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness) and called for a "Cradle to Grave" system.

Aneurin Bevan

The Minister for Health who overcame opposition from doctors to launch the NHS in 1948.

The NHS (1948)

Made healthcare free for everyone at the point of use; life expectancy rose from 66 to 77 by the year 2000.

DNA

Discovered by Crick, Watson, and Franklin in 1953; it allowed doctors to understand genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis.

The Thalidomide Scandal (1961)

A morning sickness drug caused 10,000 babies to be born with limb deformities; it led to much stricter drug testing.

Transplant Surgery

Christiaan Barnard performed the first Heart Transplant in 1967; though the patient only lived 18 days, it was a huge breakthrough.

Keyhole Surgery

Developed in the 1980s; using fibre-optics and tiny tools to perform surgery through small incisions, reducing recovery time.

MRI and CT Scans

Tech from the 1970s/80s that allowed doctors to see inside the body without surgery.

Smoking and Cancer

Richard Doll proved the link between smoking and lung cancer in 1950; led to the first government anti-smoking campaigns.

AIDS Crisis (1980s)

A new global epidemic; the government used shock tactics ("Don't Die of Ignorance") to promote public health awareness.

Human Genome Project (1990-2003)

The international effort to map all human genes; it opened the door to "personalised medicine."

The "Nanny State"

Modern criticism of government health campaigns (sugar tax, smoking bans) by those who think the government is too controlling.

Antibiotic Resistance

The "superbug" problem at the end of the 20th century (MRSA) caused by the overuse of antibiotics like Penicillin.