1945 clear political census. Attles labour government with health

NHS creatio n 1945 clear political census. Attles labour government with health minister Bevan who created NHS The national health service act 1946 – universal healthcare, comprehensive, curative, preventative, mental and physical healthcare, hospital care, dental care, opticians. Would be free at the point of delivery, paid through tax Nationalised instead of regional system. Local authority, voluntary and private hospitals were merged into one system. 1948 – 3,100 hospitals Development of NHS – 1951-79 was reformed under successive governments. Conservative Macmillan introduced 1962 hospital plan – 90 new hospitals, redesign of 134 and refurbishment of 356 1970-74 conservative government secretary of state for social services – NHS reorganisation act 1973 – introduced new management but also increased costs 1974-76 Labour minister of health established resource allocation working party – identified areas of health deprivation and allocating additional resources NHS 1948 – before then, doctor support was hard to attain, made compromise e.g. doctors could still work privately and so BMA supported system Early NHS – initially tripartite system of hospital services, primary care and community services but Creation didn’t lead to equal provision across country as it inherited existing health infrastructure which was unequally distributed.Impact on public health        Life expectancy increased   1948 - 65.8 years for men, 70.1 years for women  1979 – 71 years for men, 77 years for women  NHS had a large impact on the attitudes of British people towards healthcare and the role of the state, and on educating people about public health   Merrison Report (1979) – argued hospitals received 70% of NHS funding, whereas other services e.g. GP surgeries received much less  Within hospitals, surgery and general medicine received much more money than services dealing with mental illness and geriatric medicine  Investment in hospitals tended to create regional inequalities – e.g. a lot of the investment in hospitals introduced in the 1962 Hospital Plan was spent in London   Health and class               MC tended to benefit more from the NHS than the WC as investment in WC areas lagged  

WC areas: 80% of GP surgeries were built before 1900 

MC areas: 50% of GP surgeries were built after 1900 

Black Report (1980) indicated the gap between the WC and MC grew between 1949-72  WC women twice as likely to die in childbirth  Unskilled working men twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 65 as MC professionals   Inverse care law (1970) – In Wales where working miners had regular, serious medical needs related to their jobs but healthcare was difficult to access due to the small number of GP surgeries.However, in London, MC professionals had relatively few medical needs healthcare was widely available 

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