In the aftermath of the Second World War, non-medical professionals working in hospitals developed a heightened sense of professional identity. They began to press for less medical control and some form of state registration, a movement which incurred opposition from some doctors. Others, such as Theodore Fox (1899-1989), editor of the Lancet, believed that some degree of ‘self-government' was essential if the medical community was to hang together. In 1956, he argued that ‘our greater medical profession will run better if we go as far as is reasonably possible towards granting full professional status to every kind of person in it'. In 1960, the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act recognised the autonomy of 8 core professions - chiropody, dietetics, medical laboratory technology, occupational therapy, orthoptics, physiotherapy, radiography, and remedial gymnastics. By the mid-1970s, there were at least another 30 occupations allied to medicine. In this illustration, a physiotherapist is talking to elderly patients about the dynamics of the knee joint.

Pen and ink with gouache by Julia Midgley, Liverpool 1998.