As a raft of health reforms are laid out in front of a public already feeling the pinch and health professionals and industry across the board consider their options, it is worth considering how significant the proposed changes are in the grand scheme of things. The trials and tribulations of health services in the UK are documented in the timeline below.
Regardless of the ethics or economics of the proposed reforms, there is no denying that people’s longevity and health in the UK far exceeds that present at any previous time in history.
The Public Health Act of 1975 was enacted to combat the spread of diseases such as cholera and typhoid which were rampant in urban areas due to filthy living conditions. Even so, this Act primarily attempted to prevent disease by, for example, putting an end to raw sewage flowing down the streets, rather than providing measures to help treat those that were ill.
It was not until the emergence of the welfare state, after the Second World War, that we see the birth of the NHS. In 1942 Lord Beveridge identified the five evils of society: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.
To tackle these evils proposed a series of measures which would ensure the co-ordination of public services. There was a cool response by the government to this somewhat obscure intergovernmental report, but it was met a very popular public reception with more than 70,000 copies sold. It was to be eight years before this idea became a reality championed by Clement Attlee’s Labour government. The NHS was finally established on 5 July 1948. But as the wealth of historical archive footage and interviews attest, it was far from easy then.
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