CARING FOR THE SICK: change+continuity

• Hospitals


  Before the 16th century, hospitals were for travellers, pilgrims, the elderly, and a few sick people for food, shelter and prayer. By the early 16th century, many people went to hospital with wounds and curable diseases such as fevers and skin conditions, and they didn't spend very long in the hospital before being discharged, suggesting they got better.
• Patient in a 16th-century hospital

  • Good diet - the restorative effects of food were still important, as many people didn't have access to a lot of food that was good for them
  • Visit from a physician - hospitals had contracts with doctors, who would visit the patients sometimes as often as twice a day, to observe the symptoms and prescribe treatments
  • Medication - many hospitals had their own pharmacies and an apothecary to mix the medicines
• Dissolution of the monasteries

  Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church in 1533 and created the Church of England. In 1536, he disbanded certain religious institutions, such as monasteries and convents, and confiscated their land. Since the vast majority of hospitals were connected to the Church, very few were able to stay open after the dissolution of the monasteries.
• Saint Bartholomew's hospital in London, which was founded in 1123, only survived because Henry VIII re-founded it himself in 1546
• Some smaller hospitals opened to fill the gap left by the dissolution of the monasteries, funded by charities but there was a big change in the amount of medical treatment provided by hospitals
• Many hospitals reopened without the religious sponsors. However it took a long time for the amount of hospitals to return to what it had been before the dissolution of the monasteries