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Article ID: CBB000930674

The British National Health Service 1948--2008: A Review of the Historiography (2008)

Social History of Medicine
Volume: 21
Pages: 437--460

Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: The NHS at 60: Perspectives on Health Care Systems
Language: English

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Health care Social welfare Historiography Public health Hospitals and clinics Government agencies 20th century, late National Health Service (Great Britain)

This article surveys historical writing on the British National Health Service since its inception in 1948. Its main focus is on policy-making and organisation and its principal concerns are primary care and the hospital sector, although public health, and psychiatric and geriatric care are briefly discussed. The over-arching narrative is one of transition from paternalism and technocratic planning to market disciplines and a discourse of choice, and of the ceding of professional autonomy by clinicians to managers and to the state. These issues are discussed in a chronological survey of policy-making from Bevan's `creation' to the Blair era. Later sections consider evaluations of the service, starting with Webster's thesis that the NHS has been subject to prolonged under-funding, particularly under Conservative stewardship, then moving to assessments of the Thatcher, Major and Blair reforms. Much of the historical literature on the NHS is contentious and opinions are sharply divided on the reform era since the 1970s and the trajectories this has set for the future. Keywords: National Health Service; historiography; primary care; hospitals; welfare state; policy; financing

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Article Moscucci, Ornella (2008) The NHS at 60: Perspectives on Health Care Systems. Social History of Medicine (p. 433). unapi

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