WALT: Why was the NHS set up in 1948 and what was its significance?

1. WALT: Why was the NHS set up in 1948 and what was its significance? DLG

2. WALT: Why was the NHS set up in 1948 and what was its significance? WILFs: Can tell the story of how and when the NHS was set up (D)... Can describe and explain the motives behind the setting up of the NHS (C)... Can compare and contrast health care before and after the setting up of the NHS (B) Can explain why the setting up of the NHS was a struggle and why some groups opposed the NHS (A) Can assess the significance of the NHS to health and health care in Britain using the 4Rs (A*)

3. What was the NHS

4. What was the NHS • The UK's National Health Service (NHS) came into operation at midnight on the fourth of July 1948. It was the first time anywhere in the world that completely free healthcare was made available on the basis of citizenship rather than the payment of fees or insurance premiums. The service has been beset with problems throughout its lifetime, not least a continuing shortage of cash. But having cared for the nation for half a century, most Britons consider the NHS to have been an outstanding success. • Only 50 years ago, health care was a luxury not everyone could afford. • Life in Britain in the 30s and 40s was tough. Every year, thousands died of infectious diseases like pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and polio. • Infant mortality - deaths of children before their first birthday - was around one in 20, and there was little the piecemeal healthcare system of the day could do to improve matters. • Against such a background, it is difficult to overstate the impact of the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS). Although medical science was still at a basic stage, the NHS for the first time provided decent healthcare for all - and, at a stroke, transformed the lives of millions. http://www.educationforum.co.uk/originsnhs.htm

5. Opposition

6. FOR– Sort these arguments into order of importance. Explain why your top point is the most important. - AGAINST It allows for equal good health among the rich and the poor. It will reduce the amount of deaths dramatically. Many thought that the NHS would cost too much. Doctors did not want to be employed by the government as they would not be able to sell their services. They thought they would lose money. Many felt that the NHS would lead to a state where people expected something for nothing. The soldiers who fought in the war would get all their treatment funded. The government knew there were large numbers of civilian casualties who would also need increasing care. The recruits for the war were often unfit for fighting due to poor health. Local authorities and charities ran the 3000 British hospitals. They did not want to give up the authority. Many feared that the government were interfering too much in people’s lives and that they would know everything about everyone. The National Insurance scheme wasn’t working and a new scheme was needed.

7. 1) The Daily Sketch (February, 1948) The State medical service is part of the Socialist plot to convert Great Britain into a National Socialist economy. The doctors' stand is the first effective revolt of the professional classes against Socialist tyranny. There is nothing that Bevan or any other Socialist can do about it in the shape of Hitlerian coercion.

8. (2) Aneurin Bevan, speech in the House of Commons (9th February, 1948) We have provided paid bed blocks to specialists, where they are able to charge private fees (Labour MPs shout "shame"). I agree at once that these are very serious things, and that, unless properly controlled, we can have a two-tier system in which it will be thought that members to the general public will be having worse treatment than those who are able to pay.

9. (3) Michael Foot, the editor of Tribune, was one of those who criticised Aneurin Bevan for his decision to allow specialists to have paid beds in National Health Service hospitals. The idea that specialists should have pay-beds was a concession. It was a direct departure from principle introduced only for the purpose of encouraging specialists to come into the Service and preventing them from setting up their private nursing homes. So the great day came - 5th July 1948. On the day itself three-quarters of the population had signed up with doctors under the scheme. Two months later, 39,500,000 people, or 93 per cent were enrolled in it. More than 20,000 general practitioners, about 90 per cent, participated from the scheme's inception.

10. (4) In her book My Life With Nye, Jennie Lee describes how one woman responded to the introduction of the National Health Service. There was a strict rule in Nye's Ministry that any unsolicited gifts sent to him should be promptly returned. On one occasion, and only one, an exception was made. Nye brought home a letter containing a white silk handkerchief with crochet round the edge. The hanky was for me. The letter was from an elderly Lancashire lady, unmarried, who had worked in the cotton mills from the age of twelve. She was overwhelmed with gratitude for the dentures and reading glasses she had received free of charge. The last sentence in her letter read, "Dear God, reform thy world beginning with me," but the words that hurt most were, "Now I can go into any company." The life-long struggle against poverty which these words revealed is what made all the striving worthwhile.