The English Health Service: Its Origins, Structure, and Achievements

This volume describes and evaluates the origins and 10 years' performance of England's National Health Service (NHS). The unplanned growth of medical care is traced from the poor laws of the 1830's through the compulsory health insurance of 1912 to the present arrangement. The conditions existing prior to enactment of the National Health Service and allegedly necessitating its introduction are characterized as "deplorable" on the testimony of the Collings Report. The proclaimed objectives of the NHS were to increase the supply of medical services and to rationalize the system. As achievements of the NHS the author cites geographical redistribution of physicians and, to a lesser extent, hospital facilities; an increase in the number of physicians and apparent improvement in their financial security; and at least no deterioration in doctor-patient relationships. The author condones the shortcomings of the NHS in part because of the shortage of all kinds of resources to