Saturday Fund
On 6 January 1873 Sampson Gamgee raised the suggestion that 'everyone should work overtime for the hospitals on a particular annual Saturday afternoon, to be called "Hospital Saturday"'. This new scheme called the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund was inaugurated on 15 March 1873 with John Skirrow Wright as Chair and Sampson Gamgee as Honorary Secretary, and was the first British scheme for raising money for all voluntary hospitals in an area. By 1879 the collection had dwindled and it was decided to replace them with a fixed weekly contribution of 1d. On 29 December 1891 the fund was incorporated as a limited non-profit company and was able to hold property, and in 1892 Tyn-y-coed, a stone house on a 33-acre (130,000 m2) site near Llandudno in North Wales, opened as a convalescent home after its purchase price was donated by two Birmingham sisters, Henrietta and Sarah Stokes. Further homes were opened around the country.
In 1895 the BHSF started an ambulance service with four custom-designed cycle ambulances, based on a stretcher held between two bicycles. These were low cost devices which could be kept at police stations around the city and did not need assigned staff or horses.
The period after the 1960s saw a merger of similar funds around the country and later, in 2001, the merger of the Hull-based The Health Scheme (THS) with BHSF.
On the first Saturday, 15 March 1873, the amount raised was £4,700 from a population of 355,000, an average of 2 3/4d. per head. This figure had increased to £400,000 by 1938. In addition to donations to the Queen's, General, Children's, Women's, Eye, and Dental hospitals, the fund implemented convalescent homes around Britain and an ambulance service. Today it continues as a national non-profit health insurance service.
Read more about this topic: Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund
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