The path to the creation of the National Health Service

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.