The Public’s Health and Parliament: The Creation of the National Health Service in Great Britain (1945–1948)

This article analyzes the parliamentary debate which led to the establishment of the National Health Service in Great Britain. The article begins with the victory of the Labour Party at the election in 1945 and then describes the bill on the National Health Service, presented in Parliament by the Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan. During the analysis of the parliamentary discussion, the interventions of the main Labour proponents and Conservative opponents are reported (the speeches of proponents Clement Davies and William Beveridge were important for the Liberals), trying to highlight the political and ideological reasons for and against the government provision. The questions most discussed in Parliament concerned the purchase and sale of medical practices, the fate of the voluntary hospitals, and, in particular, the basic salary option for the doctors. Although the short parliamentary course of the bill ended successfully in November 1946, the political battle continued in the following months, with strong opposition from the British Medical Association. Despite that, the new health organization came into force in Great Britain, as expected, on 5 July 1948, after an agreement signed between the Labour government and the British Medical Association.