This free course, Medicine transformed: On access to healthcare, shows that, in the early 20th century, access to care was unequally divided. The rich could afford care; working men, women and children were helped by the state; others relying on their own resources.

Learning outcomes:

• Describe the wide range of methods of promoting health, preventing disease and providing care that were available to patients of different social groups and classes.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the inequalities of services – in terms of both quality of care and access to different services – open to different social groups and classes.
• Assess the significance of the roles of central and local governments, the private sector and voluntary associations in providing medical services.
• Understand the concept of ‘medicalisation’ and assess the degree of power doctors had over people's lives in the early 20th century.