McKee and his colleagues should be commended for the excellent article of the effects on European citizens of current economic policies in Europe Clin Med August 2012 pp 346-50). Conditions common in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as poor housing, inadequate sanitation, child labour and unsafe work practices, are now far less common and life expectancy has increased enormously in all European countries. Beveridge's 'Five Giants' of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness1 persist, albeit in ways less immediately obvious. The medical profession has always been concerned with improvements in levels of health and reduction of illness and disability.
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