question about the origin of NHS in UK, please

[steve2470]

Hello all nice DU'ers in the fair green land of UK !,

I read somewhere that the devastation of WW2 was a huge contributor to the genesis of the NHS. Is that correct ? Thank you for your patience, as always.

Steve

[MADem]

1. Here's a link of material to peruse while you're waiting for UK to wake up and weigh in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/nhs/

[steve2470]

2. thanks MADem

you were in UK or born there ? That's a great link.

[LeftishBrit]

3. There was a report as early as 1920, the 'Dawson Report', which recommended publicly funded

universal healthcare. But it was essentially ignored until the 1940s.


The NHS idea was not purely due to WW2, though the war did have an influence. Partly, this is because the dangers and disruptions of the war created an impetus to build something better than before, resulting in the election of the progressive Attlee government in 1945; and indeed of the 'postwar consensus' between the parties on the full-employment state and the importance of public services in a mixed economy. More directly, the war and the threat of air raids had led to the establishment of government-run Emergency Medical Services, which were a precedent for government-run peacetime medical services.

Here is a link to a brief summary of the history of the NHS:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/NHShistory1948.aspx

[steve2470]

4. thanks for the info !

I know I can use Google/ DuckDuckGo for an answer, but I always like to get direct feedback from UK DU'ers. Thanks again.

Steve

[dipsydoodle]

5. Part of its intent

when introduced in 1948 was to help give our children a healthy upbringing following the reduction in our population size due to loss of life in WW2.