BMJ  2006;333:660 (23 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7569.660

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Where are the medical voices raised in protest?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Aneuran Bevan, having to create the NHS in the face of medical opposition, famously claimed to have stuffed consultants' mouths with gold, splitting the medical profession and giving himself the leverage to create the health service he envisaged. The GPs continued to resist Bevan's plans over concerns that he might try to make their profession salaried, but on the appointed day the NHS appeared as promised. The health service was founded on the principle (or "concordat") that the government would fund health care but leave its operational running to the doctors.

Doctors say they no longer have the will or power to stop reforms

Nearly 60 years later we find ourselves with a government committed to changing Bevan's NHS to a form its founder would surely struggle to recognise. The medical professions—such hard negotiators during the NHS's creation—have become the ones we look to first to preserve what is . . . [Full text of this article]

Centre for Public Policy and Management, Manchester Business School ian.greener@mbs.ac.uk

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Jackson, D M. (2006). NHS reorganisations: who's kicking whom, who's protesting? Will and power.. BMJ 333: 752-752 [Full text]  
• Forni, L. G, Signy, M., Venn, R. M (2006). NHS reorganisations: who's kicking whom, who's protesting? Where are the medical voices raised in protest: fit for the future?. BMJ 333: 752-753 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

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Where Are The Medical Voices Raised in Protest: Fit For The Future?

Mark Signy, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Sep 2006 [Full text]

Cost of protest

Jayaprakash Ayillath Gosalakkal
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2006 [Full text]

medical voices

alex macleod
bmj.com, 25 Sep 2006 [Full text]

Failure of the medical voice

Rod Storring
bmj.com, 27 Sep 2006 [Full text]

Lost voice of the medical profession

peter j mahaffey
bmj.com, 2 Nov 2006 [Full text]

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