A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

of medical prescriptions from the apothecaries‘ assistants to the chemists
and druggists. At the time, 90 per cent of the prescriptions written in
doctors‘ surgeries were dispensed by the assistants. 176 When the transfer
occurred, the Pharmaceutical Society experienced considerable pressure to
formulate a byelaw admitting the assistants to its register to nullify the
threat to their livelihoods. It was then that the Society‘s belief that Section
4(b) was permissive and not mandatory was to be tested 177 and this will be
discussed in the next chapter.
Politics, Public Welfare and the National Insurance Act (1911)
Prior to Lloyd George‘s National Insurance Act (1911) sickness benefits
were largely provided by friendly societies mainly located in the north of
England. Their membership of about 4,250,000 was drawn mainly from
skilled industrial workers, who paid between 4d. and 8d. per week. For this
they received about 10s. per week when ill, plus treatment from a doctor,
who had a contract with the friendly society. On death the member‘s estate
received about £15 to cover funeral expenses.
The contracted doctors were paid either a salary or a capitation fee
and this was often an important part of their income. Their relationship
with their patients was unusual. Normally a doctor could decide whom he
wished to treat and equally a patient could select his doctor. Where there
was a friendly society contract, it was the Society that matched up the
176 Anderson Stewart, „Jubilee of the National Insurance Act‟, 33.
177 Society of Apothecaries‟ Archive, Box 9, E/4/4/1/1, Letter Uglow Woolcock to Mowbray Upton, 8
Jan. 1914.
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