An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” — Benjamin Franklin

One of the most treasured of all institutions in the UK and the crowning achievement and legacy of the post-WWII period known as “the post-war consensus”:

To some extent the Second World War changed peoples attitudes. The need to treat large numbers of civilian casualties from bombing raids gave people access to health care they had never experienced before. The state had also controlled almost every aspect of people’s lives during the conflict, so the idea of government looking after citizens’ health did not seem strange. Government ministers noticed that as a result of rationing, the health of the poor had actually improved.

Post-war consensus
In the years immediately after the Second World War there was a period in British politics now known as the ‘post-war consensus’. Historians use this term because for the most part, the major political parties agreed on the country’s main priorities and generally co-operated in trying to achieve them. Top of the list was post-war recovery, but another priority was the welfare of the people, directly involving the National Health Service (NHS).

Origins of the NHS ~ The National Archives