With a high incidence of ill-health and accidents in the coalfield there was a need for medical treatment. Often those who were ill or injured could not afford to pay.
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Before the First World War working class medical care was provided through charity and the Poor Law.
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Colliery companies also ran medical schemes that employed doctors to treat their workers and their families. These medical schemes were paid for by deductions from the miners’ wages.
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To improve their medical provision, coalfield workmen also contributed to schemes such as Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital and Mountain Ash and Penrhiwceiber Hospital.
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In 1943 Talygarn House, a rehabilitation service for injured mineworkers was opened. By 1964, 3,000 patients had been treated, nineteen out of every twenty of them returning to the mining industry.