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Science, Politics and the Public Good pp 184–202Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Labour and the Origins of the National Health Service

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Abstract

As a consequence of a recent flurry of research initiatives, the early history of the National Health Service has been charted in meticulous detail.1 Notwithstanding increasing availability of documentation in the public records, or greater elaboration of the narrative, interpretations have remained remarkably consistent with the classic study produced by Eckstein in 1958. Eckstein’s authority has been further enhanced by Addison’s account of the wartime background to the welfare legislation of the 1945–51 Labour administration.2

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Notes

  1. H. Eckstein, The English Health Service, its Origins, Structure and Achievements (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958); F. Honigsbaum, The Division in British Medicine… 1911–1968 (London: Kogan Page, 1979); J.E. Pater, The Making of the National Health Service (London: King’s Fund, 1981); R. Klein, The Politics of the National Health Service (London: Longman, 1983); D.M. Fox, Health Policies, Health Politics, The British and American Experience, 1911–1965 (Princeton University Press, 1986). Honigsbaum is exceptional among these studies in drawing attention to the activities of left-wing organisations.

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  2. P. Addison, The Road to 1945 (London: Cape, 1975).

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  3. Literature pertinent to the perspective of this review includes: R. Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969); V. Navarro, Class Struggle, the State and Medicine (Oxford: Robertson, 1978) albeit marred by inaccuracy; I. Gough, The Political Economy of the Welfare State (London: Macmillan, 1979).

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  4. B. Webb, Our Partnership, ed. B. Drake and M.I. Cole (London: Longmans, 1948) pp. 316–491; N. & J. MacKenzie, The First Fabians (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977); H.V. Emy, Liberals, Radicals and Social Politics, 1892–1914 (Cambridge University Press, 1973); J.R. Hay, The Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906–1914 (London: Macmillan, 1975); M. Freeden, The New Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 1978); R. McKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour Party 1910–1924 (Oxford University Press, 1974).

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  5. Minute Book of the State Medical Service Association 1912–1918, Socialist Medical Association Archive, Brynmor Jones Library, Hull University. D. Stark Murray, Why a National Health Service? (London: Pemberton, 1971) pp. 7–19. Honigsbaum, pp. 54 and passim.

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  6. Our Partnership, p. 470, 6 March 1911; B. and S. Webb, The State and the Doctor (London: Longmans, 1910); ‘The Working of the Insurance Act: Interim Report of the Committee of Enquiry instituted by the Fabian Research Department’, The New Statesman, 14 March 1914.

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  7. N. and J. MacKenzie (eds), The Diary of Beatrice Webb, vol. III (London: Virago, 1984) pp. 274–82, 290–1; K. Morgan, Consensus and Disunity. The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918–1922 (Oxford University Press, 1979); M. Cowling, The Impact of Labour 1920–1924 (Cambridge University Press, 1971).

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  8. K. & J. Morgan, The Political Career of Christopher, Viscount Addison (Oxford University Press, 1980).

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  9. B. Moore and C.A. Parker, ‘The Case for a State Medical Service Restated’, The Lancet, 1918, ii, pp. 85–7, 20 July 1918. Labour Party, The Organisation of the Preventive and Curative Medical Services (1918); Labour Party and TUC, The Labour Movement and Preventive and Curative Medical Services (1922). Labour documents of this vintage are not cited by Eckstein.

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  10. Consultative Council on Medical and Allied Services, Interim Report on the Future Provision of Medical and Allied Services, Cmd. 693 (HMSO, 1920), discussed in C. Webster, ‘Designing a National Health Service 1918–1942’ (unpublished).

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  11. Webster, ‘Health, Welfare and Unemployment during the Depression’, Past and Present, number 109, 1985: pp. 204–30.

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  12. P. Coe and M. Reading, Lubetkin and Tecton: Architecture and Social Commitment (London: Arts Council, 1980) pp. 140–4; Finsbury Borough Council, Finsbury Health Centre (Finsbury, 1938).

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  13. Gollancz, Left Book Club: G.C.M. M’Gonigle and J. Kirby, Poverty and Public Health (London, 1936); W. Hannington, The Problem of the Distressed Areas (London, 1937); H. Sigerist, Socialised Medicine in the Soviet Union (London, 1937). See also such related Gollancz publications as C.E. McNally, Public Ill-Health (London, 1935). Penguin: A. Bourne, Health of the Future (Harmondsworth, 1942); D. Stark Murray, The Future of Medicine (Harmondsworth, 1942). These Penguin Specials by members of the SMA were backed up by such Pelicans as M. Spring Rice, Working-Class Wives (Harmondsworth, 1939).

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  14. For further details, see Webster, Problems of Health Care: The British National Health Service before 1957 (HMSO, London, 1988) Chapter II, section (ii).

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  15. Medical Planning Research, ‘Interim General Report’, The Lancet, ii, pp. 599–622, 21 November 1942. Medical Practitioners Union, The Transition to a State Medical Service (August, 1942).

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  16. Medical Planning Commission, ‘Draft Interim Report’, British Medical Journal, i, pp. 743–53, 20 June 1942. Note on MPC Report by Dalrymple Champneys, MH 80/1.

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  17. R(44) 13th mtg, 4 February 1944; notes on Attlee’s response to the White Paper, January 1944; Woolton to Churchill, 1 February 1944; Attlee to Woolton, 1 February 1944; Attlee to Churchill, 10 February 1944; Woolton to Eden, 10 February 1944: CAB 124/244. War Cabinet, M(44) 17th mtg, 9 February 1944, CAB 65/41. P. Addison, The Road to 1945 (London: Quartet, 1977) pp. 239–42.

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  18. Hastings, ‘Public Health’, in H. Tracey (ed.), The British Labour Party, 3 vols. (London: Odhams, 1948), ii, pp. 130–41, p. 137.

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  19. Pater, pp. 105–64; K.O. Morgan, Labour in Power 1945–1951 (Oxford University Press, 1984) pp. 152–63; Webster, Problems of Health Care, Chapters IV and V.

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Authors
  1. Charles Webster
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wolfson College, Oxford, UK

    Nicolaas A. Rupke

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© 1988 Nicolaas A. Rupke

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Webster, C. (1988). Labour and the Origins of the National Health Service. In: Rupke, N.A. (eds) Science, Politics and the Public Good. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09514-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09514-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-09516-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-09514-8

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