[Public health services and healthcare workforce in Bakar of the 18th and 19th century]

Abstract

This review article draws on scarce and poorly studied archival information and several published articles to describe the development and organisation of public health services in the town of Bakar over the 18th and 19th century. For a short while at the turn of the 19th century, Bakar established a hospital run by two physicians and one surgeon to treat patients affected by the so called Škrljevo disease, an endemic type of syphilis. As the century went on, the number of healthcare providers increased by two more physicians, four surgeons, and three to six licensed midwives. There was also a town pharmacy, that worked all that time. As a busy port, the town also provided well-organised maritime sanitary services. As its economy changed over the two centuries to come to a halt after an initial boom, which resulted in a severe drop in population from 7600 to 2000 people, public services deteriorated, including public health. Maritime services suffered the hardest blow, while the workforce gradually came down to one or two physicians and surgeons and several midwives.