This website looks at the creation of the NHS and the history of health and medicine in Kent since prehistoric times. It is a survey that stretches up to the present. The website does not attempt to to provide an exhaustive study of the subject but is written to help you understand more clearly the reasons for change in our own time. It is a study in development that focuses on how different factors have affected health and medicine in Kent, with references to national and international developments.

Throughout the website a number of key questions reccur. They are based on investigations that encourage you to seek historical explanations for change and continuity.

With any development study there are different factors which appear in explanations from time to time. These factors sometimes cause things to change rapidly, sometimes they have quite the opposite effect. As you progress through this website it will become clear how important these factors have been and how important they will continue to be.

The study of history is about building a knowledge of the past but it is also about developing critical awareness. Through this study in development you will gain a greater understanding of the factors that you will have to assess when decisions have to be made on the contemporary issues of the provision of health care services today.