origins of the NHS

• The Source shows slum housing in Glasgow in around 1910, well before the NHS was founded
• The situation for many poor people in the early 20th century was miserable, with malnutrition, filth, and little room
• The idea that such people could fully support themselves and pay for healthcare if needed was not realistic
• The government's involvement in people's lives has increased significantly compared to the past
• William Beveridge's report on how Britain should provide public services after the war was commissioned


  1944
• Beveridge report


  Recommended the government should care for people from cradle to grave
• Labor party won the general election, promising to enact many of Beveridge's recommendations

  1945
• The Labor party won a landslide victory, with 48% of the vote and 393 MPs</b>
• Establishing the NHS


  1. Guaranteed free healthcare for all, free at the point of delivery

  2. Welfare payments for the disabled and unemployed

  3. Clearing and rebuilding of slums

  4. Pensions and care for the elderly

  5. Free schooling to age 14
• Minister in charge of establishing the NHS


  Aneurin Bevin, from a poor working-class community in South Wales
• Bevin believed governments had a duty to help the poor and sick, laying the foundations for the welfare state
• Provisions of the welfare state


  • For children: clinics, cheap/free milk, foods, school dinners, dental care, spectacles
  • For adults and families: free GPs, hospitals, medicines, family allowances, sick pay, unemployment pay, training, pensions
  • For the elderly: retirement pensions, care homes, home help, Meals on Wheels, funeral cost help
• The NHS creation was connected to poor health and housing, limited previous insurance schemes, and the impact of the war
• Some opposed the NHS, fearing loss of local authority/voluntary hospital powers and increased government involvement
• The NHS coincided with major medical technological developments, which some saw as too expensive
• The NHS remains tremendously popular in Britain, but arguments over funding and running persist