Old wisdoms

doi:10.1136/bmj.39595.468634.47

BMJ 2008;336 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39595.468634.47

Editor's Choice

Old wisdoms

Jane Smith, deputy editor, BMJ

jsmith@bmj.com

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

The NHS will be 60 this July. The anniversary will provide anexcuse for a bit of nostalgia—those black and white picturesof tidily dressed men, women, and children in orderly queues—butalso for much analysis about the role and survival of a comprehensive,universal, centrally funded, free-at-the-point-of-use healthcaresystem in the 21st century.

Our contribution to that analysis begins this week with thestart of Tony Delamothe’s six-part series on the NHS at60 (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39582.501192.94). In his first articlehe looks at how "the socialist dream came to be dreamt in thefirst place." Although the NHS derived its immediate impetusfrom the second world war and the election of a Labour governmentwith a mandate for radical change, the idea of a national healthservice had been around for much longer. As Delamothe explains,although the aspirations were widely shared, the arguments overthe detail, and . . . [Full text of this article]