Only minority of doctors supported idea of state funded health service in 1945

BMJ 1998;317:82 ( 4 July )

Letters

Only minority of doctors supported idea of state funded health service in 1945

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EDITOR $---$ Macpherson has given a valuable account of how the NHS was finally launched 50 years ago after nearly three years ofbitter negotiations, but at one point he tries too hard to betactful about the attitude of most doctors at the time.¹ Itwould be less than honest not to challenge his statement that"in 1945 most doctors probably supported the principle of a statefunded health service." The evidence is all the other way. Throughoutthe years 1945-8 it was quite clearly a minority, not a majority,of the medical profession that supported this principle.

As so often, it was not so much what was proposed (broadly supported by all political parties and by the Lancet) that aroused such an outcry but intense fear of where it might lead. Eightof us, medical students at the time, signed a letter which started,"We are puzzled by the refusal . . . [Full text of this article]