Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Leeds and Sheffield: Economic, Social and Political Change
- 2 Hospital Provision: Voluntary and Municipal
- 3 Patients and Access
- 4 Specialization and the Challenges of Modern Medicine
- 5 Finance
- 6 The Politics of Hospital Provision
- 7 Co-operation, Competition and the Development of Hospital Systems
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Introduction
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Leeds and Sheffield: Economic, Social and Political Change
- 2 Hospital Provision: Voluntary and Municipal
- 3 Patients and Access
- 4 Specialization and the Challenges of Modern Medicine
- 5 Finance
- 6 The Politics of Hospital Provision
- 7 Co-operation, Competition and the Development of Hospital Systems
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
At the beginning of December 1946 the Sheffield Hospital Contributors' Association met for its one hundredth quarterly meeting. The association invited a number of local dignitaries to the meeting and also the Minster of Health, Aneurin Bevan, MP. Mr Bevan was, unfortunately, unable to attend but wrote urging the contributors to welcome, not fear, the new service. For:
what is it we are taking away from the Hospitals? – not their independence, not their special characters and their treasured local associations, but only their anxieties – above all, their anxieties about money, and the difficulties that will disappear when each Hospital no longer stands alone. And at last we are to have a Hospital service in the true sense; from our present chaos of 3,000 Hospitals – some of them superlatively good, some by no means faultless, and almost none organically linked with their neighbours – we intend to create a single great service … they will still be, not ‘State’ Hospitals, but your Hospitals – it will be your service and for you, with our help, to make of it what you can and will.
In these few lines Bevan encapsulated many of the perceived characteristics of the pre-National Health Service (NHS) hospital system – financial anxiety, individualism and a chaotic lack of organization. Yet he also had to recognize some of its strengths – independence, voluntary effort and a sense of commitment and ownership.
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- Information
- Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014