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The origins of the
National
Health Service can be traced back to the aftermath
of the First World War when Britain saw the beginnings
of a national healthcare system.
The army medical services had shown what could be
achieved through organisation and by 1919 the Ministry
of Health was set up to regulate health throughout the
country. Lord Dawson was also called upon to write a
report on how healthcare could be better organised.
The Local Government Act of
1929 saw poor law hospitals
taken over by local authorities
which now became municipal
hospitals treating ratepayers
rather than paupers alone.
However, the quality of care
varied widely from region to
region. Nonetheless the 1930s
did see some improvements in
sanitation; there was an
increase in the number of
doctors and more drugs were
coming onto the market.
Mortality rates fell as a result
but it was not a uniform fall
and healthcare still varied
enormously from region to
region.
The Second World War further changed attitudes in the
country towards healthcare. There was a need to treat a
large number of civilian casualties at the same time and
this emergency medical service gave an indication of
what could be achieved by a healthcare system that was
properly organised.
The general consensus in British politics during the
period when the country was at war saw the major
political parties working together to look at ways to
establish a solid post-war recovery.
William Beveridge was commissioned by the wartime
government to produce a report into ways in which the
country could be rebuilt once the war was over. In 1942
he produced his report in which he wrote that he wanted
post-war Britain to concentrate on eliminating what were
known as the five ‘giant evils’; namely want, disease,
squalor, ignorance and idleness.
When the Labour Party surprisingly came to power in
1945, with
Clement Attlee replacing
Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, he announced
that a welfare state, as outlined by Beveridge, would be
introduced with a National Health Service at its heart.
This would provide free healthcare for all. The new
Minister of Health
Aneurin Bevan, whose responsibility it was to
introduce the NHS promised a system whereby medical care
would be given to the population free on delivery and
from the cradle to the grave. It aimed to cover the
entire population and would be funded through taxation,
so the population would pay for it according to their
means.
There was opposition to the move, particularly from
charities, churches and local authorities who didn’t
want the state taking control of healthcare. Doctors
were anxious that the government would even want to
intervene in how they were treating patients and they
also feared that they would be paid less if they were
not allowed to charge for their services.
As doctors were an essential
part of the NHS without which it
could not operate, the
government was forced into
compromises to keep them
satisfied. GP surgeries were
allowed to remain private
businesses that could be bought
and the practices were given
contracts to provide healthcare.
So on July 5 1948
the National Health Service was
born, it began without any
great changes to what was
already in existence, but now
the poor also had access to free
reliable healthcare which they
previously could not afford,
thus preventing them from
seeking help from often
medically negligent sources.
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