Sickness in the Workhouse (PDF)

by Alistair Ritch

Sickness in the Workhouse illuminates the role of workhouse medicine in caring for England’s poor, bringing sick paupers from the margins of society and placing them centre stage.
England’s New Poor Law (1834) transformed medical care in ways that have long been overlooked, or denigrated, by historians. Sickness in the Workhouse challenges these assumptions through a close examination of two urban workhouses in the west midlands from the passage of the New Poor Law until the outbreak of World War I.
By closely analyzing the day-to-day practice of workhouse doctors and nurses, author Alistair Ritch questions the idea thatmedical care was invariably of poor quality and brought little benefit to patients. Medical staff in the workhouses labored under severe restraints and grappled with the immense health issues facing their patients. Sickness inthe Workhouse brings to life this hidden group of workhouse staff and highlights their significance within the local health economy. Among other things, as the author notes, workhouses needed to provide medical care for nonpaupers, such as institutional isolation facilities for those with infectious diseases. This groundbreaking book highlights these doctors and nurses in order to illuminate our understanding of this significant yet little understoodarea of poor law history.
ALISTAIR RITCH was consultant physician in geriatric medicine, City Hospital, Birmingham, and senior clinical lecturer, University of Birmingham, UK, and is currently honorary research fellow,History of Medicine Unit, University of Birmingham, UK.