Now the National Health Service has always been controversial.
Even before its inception there were those who branded it as an opportunity for the workshy, and opportunist elements in society to take advantage of a service free at the point of need which would be funded through national taxation.
And in its first full year there was a huge demand seen in the number of free prescriptions issued for medicine and spectacles and in the rise in the cost of the NHS from £327.8 million in 1948-49 to £430.3 million by 1953-54.*
But that I suspect indicated just how much of a need there was from people who had not been able to afford even basic health care.
Moreover when the figures were adjusted for inflation the cost was less alarming and when judged as a % of GNP spending actually fell from 3.51% in 1948-49 to 3.24% in 1953-54
And set against this was the clear improvement in the nation’s health and a reduction in the levels of everyday pain as well as deaths from infectious diseases.
So deaths from TB were down from 25,649 in 1943 to 4,480 in 1958, diptheria from 1,371 to 8, whooping cough from 1,114 to 27 and measles from 773 to 49.
All of which is a backdrop for today’s talk at Chorlton History Group by Martin Rathfelder, Director of the Socialist Health Association, The National Health Service in Manchester: its past, present & future: GPs and Primary Care*
Martin has been “been interviewing and recording older members of Chorlton
Good Neighbours to get their memories of going to the doctor in their
childhood, particularly before the NHS was created.
And will give some background on how the GP system has changed over the years bringing this up to date by outlining the future shape of primary care with clinical commissioning groups in central and south Manchester.”
The November meeting of the History Group (Thursday November 7th 1.30pm) will be on the History of the disabled people’s movement in Manchester by
Mark Todd & Bernard Leach
* *Source Report of the Guillebaud Committee Parliament. Report of the committee of enquiry into the cost of the national health service. (Chairman: CW Guillebaud.) Cmd 9663. London: HMSO, 1956, quoted from National Health Service History, Geoffrey Rivett, http://www.nhshistory.net/Chapter%201.htm#Reviewing_the_NHS
And in its first full year there was a huge demand seen in the number of free prescriptions issued for medicine and spectacles and in the rise in the cost of the NHS from £327.8 million in 1948-49 to £430.3 million by 1953-54.*
But that I suspect indicated just how much of a need there was from people who had not been able to afford even basic health care.
Moreover when the figures were adjusted for inflation the cost was less alarming and when judged as a % of GNP spending actually fell from 3.51% in 1948-49 to 3.24% in 1953-54
So deaths from TB were down from 25,649 in 1943 to 4,480 in 1958, diptheria from 1,371 to 8, whooping cough from 1,114 to 27 and measles from 773 to 49.
All of which is a backdrop for today’s talk at Chorlton History Group by Martin Rathfelder, Director of the Socialist Health Association, The National Health Service in Manchester: its past, present & future: GPs and Primary Care*
Martin has been “been interviewing and recording older members of Chorlton
Good Neighbours to get their memories of going to the doctor in their
childhood, particularly before the NHS was created.
And will give some background on how the GP system has changed over the years bringing this up to date by outlining the future shape of primary care with clinical commissioning groups in central and south Manchester.”
The November meeting of the History Group (Thursday November 7th 1.30pm) will be on the History of the disabled people’s movement in Manchester by
Mark Todd & Bernard Leach
* *Source Report of the Guillebaud Committee Parliament. Report of the committee of enquiry into the cost of the national health service. (Chairman: CW Guillebaud.) Cmd 9663. London: HMSO, 1956, quoted from National Health Service History, Geoffrey Rivett, http://www.nhshistory.net/Chapter%201.htm#Reviewing_the_NHS
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