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

out of the existing Poor Law Board. 120 According to Dunbabin, it was a
concern about the rates that led, between 1869 and 1871, to the creation of
the Local Government Board Act. In the preceding years, rates had been
levied by a number of agencies and between 1841 and 1868 the rates had
been subject to a two fold increase. While the major burden fell on the
urban areas, there was a general call for reform of local taxation, as well as
for a consolidation of the various demands for payment. 121
During a good part of the nineteenth century, the administration of
local services had developed by enhancement and continuing adjustment in
the way that they were managed locally and yet supervised by central
government. 122 This evolution was sustained beyond the end of the century,
as the whole programme had an influence on legislation that was
formulated during the early years of the twentieth century. This was
particularly true of the way in which medical services, which are of
particular interest in this thesis, were provided and paid for. The
infirmaries that had been attached to workhouses, providing they were
suitably equipped, became municipal hospitals serving the whole
community and patients were expected to contribute to their treatment
according to their means. Local Authorities though, eager to limit their
outgoings, tended to leave the voluntary hospitals that were financed by
charity to continue to operate as previously. 123 Medical treatment at home
120
M. Maltbie, „The English Local Government Board‟, Political Science Quarterly, 13,2, (1898) 236.
121
J. Dunbabin, „British Local Government Reform: the nineteenth century and after‟, The English
Historical Review, 92, 365, (Oct. 1977) 783.
122
Maltbie, „The English Local Government Board‟, 237.
123
E. Snell, „The Local Government Act, 1929, from a medical point of view‟, Supplement to the British
Medical Journal, 2, 3593, (16 Nov. 1929) 222.
327