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The Politics of Health Reform from a Medieval Perspective

The Politics of Health Reform from a Medieval Perspective

Lecture by William Ayliffe

Given at the Tudor Health Reform Symposium, June 2011 at Gresham College

Is the National Health Service medieval? Is this an insulting claim to make? Insulting to modern hospitals or those of the Middle Ages?

Professor William Ayliffe considers modern health reform from the perspective of Tudor medical practice. He provides an overview of some of London’s most important medieval hospitals, including St Bartholomew’s, St Thomas’ and St Mary’s Bethlem, and compares our own healthcare systems with those of the Tudors, in terms of cleanliness, dignity to patients and even hospital architecture.

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