No Bevan, No NHS 1986
The 5th July 1948, marked the end of of a tireless and extremely ambitious movement to bring satisfactory health care to each and every resident of the United Kingdom. It was on this date that Park Hospital in Manchester, was opened by the then health secretary Aneurin Bevan. Opticians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and doctors were for the first time brought together, under ‘one umbrella organisation, to provide services that are free for all at the point of delivery’ (nhs.uk, 2015)
The Second World War had left a considerable impact, in its wake - homelessness, disease and casualties. Directly, it had led to the establishment of an Emergency Medical Service. Its task was to oversee the treatment of civilian bombing casualties. At this point, existing authorities such as local councils, ran the hospitals. This was within a regional framework, with each role being decided on by the Ministry of Health. The war however did not create new welfare services, but it did ‘create the political will to change the basis on which these services were offered’ (Webster, 2001) Comprehensive proposals were further pushed forward by the publication of the Beveridge Report in 1942 on Social Insurance and Allied Services. It identified the main issues that were faced by British society and endorsed the idea of a comprehensive health service. Two years later, the White Paper, ‘A National Health Service’ (February 1944) was published. The paper summarised the overall
In 1928, a national health insurance scheme was proposed but not implemented because it would have required businesses to provide contributions to health insurance for their employees (Evolution of Government Involvement in Health Care, n.d). Another national health insurance scheme was proposed in 1938 but it was also rejected (Evolution of Government Involvement in Health Care, n.d; Hilless & Healy, 2001). The next proposal was the 1945 Pharmaceuticals Benefits Act. This Act was not implemented because the Australian Medical Association challenged it in the High Court of Australia and it was decided that parliament had “exceeded its constitutional power” (Hilless & Healy, 2001). In 1946, under the Hospital Benefits Act, the Commonwealth began to subsidise public hospitals under the condition that patients would not be charged (Evolution of Government Involvement in Health Care, n.d; Hilless & Healy, 2001). This act is similar to the current Medicare system.
This assignment will be describing the structures of health and social care within the British Welfare state. This includes looking at the roles of different sectors, agencies, professions and the distinction between health and social care. It will then analyse the relationships between both health and social care and its wider historical, ideological and social context. Lastly, it will compare structures and contexts of health and social care within two nations of the United Kingdom.
It also proposed a national health service that would be free of charge and available to all. In 1948 Aneurin Bevan launched the NHS “The NHS was created out of the ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth.” (nhs.uk). The core principles of the NHS were that it should meet the needs of everyone, be free at the point of delivery and be based on the need for treatment rather than the ability to pay. The NHS provided a completely free service until 1951 when fees for prescriptions, dental treatments and eye treatments were introduced, today the service still remains free to use and the fees for such things are something that can be squashed if you are above or below a certain age or in receipt of a particular benefit. Becoming a welfare state meant that there was now a minimum standard of living that each person in Britain should not fall below with benefits being issued for unemployment, sickness, retirement and maternity on the basis that everyone contributes to
The NHS came around in July 5, 1948. The Health Minister Aneurin (also known as Nye) Bevan purely nationalised the existing system across the UK. The groundbreaking change was to make all services freely available to everyone. Half of Scotland’s landmass was already covered by a state-funded health system serving the entire community and directly run from Edinburgh. Additionally, the war years had seen a state-funded hospital building programme in Scotland on a scale unknown in Europe. This was combined into the new NHS. Scotland also had its own individual medical tradition, this is centred on its medical schools rather than private practice. The legislation that empowered the UK to have the NHS is National Health Service Act (1948), this despite opposition from doctors, who maintained on the right to continue treating some patients privately. The NHS ensured that Doctors, hospital, dentists, opticians, ambulances, midwives and health visitors were available, free to everybody. This Reason why we have health services is because it developments a view that health care was a right, not something given unreliably by charity, also two-party’s agreement that the existing services were in a mess and had to be sorted out, it stopped financial difficulties for the voluntary hospitals and After the second world war it ensured the creation of an emergency medical service as part of the war effort
Doctors were unwilling to join the NHS at first and this lead to a shortage of GP’s but with practice mangers being appointed and a change in the training of nurses, hospitals
This essay will examine how the development of the Welfare State and the NHS changed the lives of the people of Britain since its introduction in 1948. To enable me to do so, I will analyse and evaluate the key relevant aspects that happened during that period.
From the 1950s onwards the scale and quality of the treatment provided by the National Health Service (NHS) improved, and between 1948
The report lead to the creation of the Welfare State that includes the National Health Services (NHS). The Beveridge report was not fully implemented by the coalition government until after the general election of 1945 that gave victory to the Labour party. The new prime minister, Clement Attlee, announced he would introduce the welfare state outlined in the 1942 Beveridge Report. The report include the establishment of a National Health Service in 1948 with free medical treatment for all. A national system of benefits was also introduced to provide 'social security' so that the population would be protected from the 'cradle to the grave'. The new system was partly built on the national insurance scheme set up by Lloyd George in 1911. People in work still had to make contributions each week, as did employers, but the benefits provided were now much greater (Bbc.co.uk, 2016).
In line with the majority of other developed countries, the United Kingdom (UK) has offered its citizens a universal health care system that is free at the point of service. Funded primarily by taxation, the system is popular and efficient. However, along with most other health care systems around the world, it faces a series of challenges if it is to maintain viability, in the twenty-first century. These issues include; long waiting times, an aging population, funding challenges and the increasing cost of technology.
Later, findings from a series of reports including report from Royal commission on National Health Insurance in 1926; The Sankey Commission on Voluntary Hospitals in 1937; and reports from British Medical Association (BMA) in 1930 and 1938, all collectively indicated that inadequacy existed in the pattern of the services (Christopher, 2004; Webster, 2002). Evident were reports of conflicting care and duplication of work between the municipal and voluntary hospitals (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). Additionally, world war had a huge impact on the health services and the conditions in which hospitals, theatres, radiology and pathology department operated was very poor. Thus, no machinery existed that supported running of a coordinated healthcare system, hence a need for unified, simplified and cohesive system was felt (Smith, 2007). Furthermore, Royal Commission’s report suggested that funding for the health services might benefit from general taxation rather than its basis on insurance principle (Christopher, 2004). However, it was not until the Beveridge report in 1942, which provided a huge drive and momentum for a movement of change in the health services. And within subsequent years seen were the proposals for NHS drawn through the White Paper in 1944, then in 1946 the National Health Service Act and at last in 1948 the establishment of the NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) was started in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan, the minister of health at the time. It was based on three core principles that still underpin the NHS today. It was set up to ensure that everyone could have access to healthcare, despite their financial circumstances (NHS 2013a). Although the NHS has achieved what it set out to do, it is now in major financial difficulty, with debt that could reach £1bn by the end of 2014 (Campbell 2014).
The (NHS) the National Health Service in uk was launched in 1948. (History of the NHS time line 2014). The idea was that good health care should be available to all regardless of wealth.
Until 1905 this was the only form of welfare available. But in 1906 a Liberal government came to power and decided that a larger section of society and not just the extreme poor were in need of public services. An important social survey was carried out and the results were quite bleak. It showed that a third of the population of London was living in extreme poverty, facing a daily struggle just to survive. Conscription for the military during the Boer war(1899-1902) showed up another large problem. A very large number of young men were shown to be not fit enough for military service. This indicated poor public health and this was a serious concern to the
The National Health System began in 1948 with the aim to provide free health care for the English thus removing health access inequities. This essay considers two strengths of the NHS, being free health and locally responsive health care and two weaknesses being the financial burden and unprecedented pressure on health care resources.
World War Two, a harsh period of time in the 1930s-1940s, filled with controversial arguments, political battles, fights to the death, but most importantly, medical advancements. Did you know that without the research and discoveries made during World War Two, our medical programs would probably be lacking the information we have today? It’s very true, and in my opinion, the war strengthened our medical abilities, and it really put our world to the test. New medicine had been discovered, while old medicine had been improved; horrible medical experiments performed by the Nazis occurred during this time; but most importantly, World War Two has affected our medical programs that we have presently. These