Edinburgh has a history of providing free medical care to the poor. In first meeting of the
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in 1681, the Fellows drew up a scheme to provide free medical care for the poor of Edinburgh. By the eighteenth century, Edinburgh remained overcrowded, disease-ridden, and overflowing with the poor. In 1705, the Fellows at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh unanimously agreed to continue providing medical aid for the poor by two Fellows per year at their new premises in Fountain Close. This "Dispensary" service continued at Fountain Close until 1729 when it transferred to the new "Physicians’ Hospital or Infirmary for the Sick and Poor." A Dispensary for the Infant Poor had already been established in London in 1769, although it did not survive, and the idea expanded. By 1776, Dispensaries had been established across England. Edinburgh's public dispensary was founded in 1776 by
Andrew Duncan and provided the impoverished in the city with free
medical advice. It opened in West Richmond Street in 1783. ==References==