History of healthcare

This is a page of resources relating to the history of the SHA and of socialism and health generally. General websites are at the bottom, specific items in reverse chronological order at the top. Some of the material carries no date, so I have attempted to deduce a likely date.

The archives of the Socialist Health Association and the Socialist Medical Association (we changed our name in May 1981) are held in the Hull History Centre archive of Politics and Pressure Groups, from which some of this material is taken. I have corrected the spelling and punctuation where necessary.  If you have material which could be included here please let me know. Unless otherwise stated the copyright for material on this site belongs to us. You are welcome to reproduce it so long as you give us the appropriate credit.

• Inspiration, Ideology, Evidence and the National Health Service David Hands
• Main parties’ 2010 manifesto policies on health and social care
• Dr David Kerr 1923-2009 Secretary of the SMA Obituary by Tam Dalyell
• I’ve Never Found Doctors to be a Difficult Bunch’: Doctors, Managers and NHS Reorganisations in Manchester and Salford, 1948–2007
• General Election briefing NHS Confederation 2005
• Dr Jonathan Miller’s Radio 4 series Delivering healthcare in the twenty-first century
• The Patient’s Charter for England 1991-1999
• Public accountability in today’s health service Guy Daly 1996
• Feasible Socialism The National Health Service past, present and future by Dr Julian Tudor Hart (SHA 1994)
• Health Service Wildcat
• Dr David Widgery 1947 – 1992. Widgery’s writing
• Report Of The Inquiry Into London’s Health Service, Medical Education And Research Tomlinson 1992
• Two Paths for Medical Practice Julian Tudor Hart Sept 1992

• Briefing for Prospective Parliamentary Candidates September 1991

• The state and the profession: the politics of the double bed Rudolf Klein 1990

• Medicine and Labour The Politics of a Profession  Dr Steve Watkins  1987

• The Aids monolith 1987

  

• National Health Service Managment in the 1980s – Stephen Harrison
• Griffiths Report October 1983

Performance Evaluation and The NHS: A Case Study In Conceptual Perplexity and Organizational Complexity Rudolf Klein 1982

• The Production and Reproduction of Scandals in Chronic Sector Hospitals 1981
• The SMA and the Foundation of the National Health Service Dr Leslie Hilliard 1980
• What’s Good about the NHS  NHS Consultants Association 1980
• The Black Report: Inequalities and Health 1980
• Royal Commission on the NHS 1979
• Dr David Stark Murray, Obituary 1977.
• David Ennals speech to the Socialist Medical Association 27 March 1977
• Open letter to David Ennals New Society 16 December 1976 Richard Wilkinson
• Medical Care: Who gets the best service? 1971
• Dr Herbert Bach 1913-1971
• The Inverse Care Law, Dr Julian Tudor Hart, Lancet 1971 pp 405-412
• WHY A NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE? the part played by the Socialist Medical Association D. Stark Murray 1971
• PROPOSALS FOR REFORM – Campaign for a Democratic Health Service 1969
• Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Allegations of Ill – Treatment of Patients and other irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. 1969
• Pickles of Wensleydale 1885-1969
• The SMA Casuaty Centre at the Vietnam demonstration 27 October 1968
• Enquiries into Allegations Concerning the Care of Elderly Patients in Certain Hospitals 1968
• Something for Nothing: A Birthday Celebration 1968
• Somerville Hastings FRCS MP 1878-1967 .
• A New Look at Medicine and Politics Enoch Powell 1966
• Aneurin Bevan – a collection of materials 1945-60
• Origins and early history of the Society for Social Medicine (1930-57) Professor John Pemberton
• Henry Sigerist “the world’s greatest medical historian.” 1891-1957
• Guillebaud Report 1956
• Death in the Air 1956
• Join the Fight Against TB SMA c. 1955
• The Drug, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries 1954
• ‘The Battle for Health‘ A Political History of the Socialist Medical Association, 1930-51 by John Stewart. Extracts from the text
• Dr. Christopher Addison 1869-1951
• Pioneer Health Foundation, and Guardian story about it 1926-1950 The Peckham Experiment by Innes H. Pearse, Lucy H. Crocker
• I was ashamed of the state of medical care before the NHS
• Your Very Good Health

  

• The start of the NHS 1948
• BMA opposition to the NHS South Essex January 1948
• Dentistry and National Health Service Act 1947
• Medical Policy Association Briefing on the BMA referendum November 1946
• National Health Service Act, 1946
• Making Medical History Charles W Brook 1946
• Now for Health D. Stark Murray and L. C. J. McNae The WHAT, WHY and  HOW of   the   National   Health   Service 1946
• NHS Bill 1946
• New Views On the Health Service 1945 Stark Murray
• The New Chapter August 1945
• A Health Service for the People May 1945
• Medical Policy Association SMA Briefing (?Winter 1944)
• Your Health Mr Smith 1944? Stark Murray
• Hospital Management in Peace and War Somerville Hastings 1944
• Control of the Health Services SMA August 1944
• Mr Willink’s Lost Opportunity MPU April 1944
• A NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE White Paper February 1944
• Healthcare Reform before the NHS
• Wandsworth Health Services December 1943
• Labour Party notes for discussion groups on National Service for Health October, 1943
• Pharmacists in Health Centres, and dentistry September 1943
• Memorandum Concerning the Optical Profession 1943
• Highlands and Islands Medical Service film 1943
• Now or Never Stark Murray June 1943
• The Development of the Health Services Somerville Hastings Feb 1943
• The Beveridge Report November 1942
• Future of Medical Practice Somerville Hastings July 1942
• The Future of Medicine Stark Murray 1942
• SMA Policy Summary July 1942
• Health for all David Stark Murray 1942
• Birth of the National Health Service BBC Collection 1942 onwards
• A scheme for a state medical service Labour Party May 1942
• The Co-ordination of a National Medical Service August 1941
• Health and Shelters November 1940
• Problems of the Post War Medical Practitioner June 1940
• From Panel to Public Service Somerville Hastings 24/2/1940
• Labour and the Hospitals November 1938
• Happiness in the Hospital October 1937
• Hospitals in the Wrong Places 1936
• Food Health and Income John Boyd Orr 1936
• The Spanish Civil War – members of the SMA were deeply involved in activities around the war, and in particular in Spanish Medical Aid 1936
• Socialist Medical Association of Great Britain Constitution 1936
• The Evolution of a State Medical Service Somerville Hastings 16/3/1935
• The Socialist Doctor 1932-34
• A National Maternity Service November 1934
• Health Service debate 1934 Labour Party Conference
• A State Health Service Labour Party 1934
• For Socialism and Peace  1934
• ‘Malnutrition in England’ University College Hospital Magazine 1934 – John Pemberton
• Can we Afford to Leave the Nation’s Health to Private Enterprise Somerville Hastings April 1931
• For a Healthy London – election leaflet March 1931
• Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee 1929
• The Future of Medical Practice in England Somerville Hastings Jan 1928
• Interim Report on the Future Provision of Medical and Allied Services 1920 (Lord Dawson of Penn)
• Nurse Training at Plaistow Fever Hospital 1919
• A Few Reasons for Advocating a State Medical Service Scheme 1912
• Paper by Dr Esslemont – State Medical Service Scheme 2/10/1912
• A National Medical Service 1912
• A Nation Insured by Chiozza Money January 1912
• National Insurance Act 1911
• Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow 1821 – 1902

  

“medicine is a social science and politics nothing but medicine on a grand scale.”

• Charles Booth: Inquiry into the life and labour of the people in London (1886-1903)
• Charity Organisation Society: Chronology 1868-1912
• Rev Henry Hawkins 1825-1904
• Extracts from B. Seebohm Rowntree, Poverty: A Study of Town Life 1901

• England’s First State “Imbecile Asylums”

• Tredegar Medical Aid Society 1890
• Sir Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) Inquiry into the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Great Britain1842 (PDF files on a Japanese website)
• William Budd and typhoid fever 1811-80
• The Destitute Sick (1832-67)
• Virchow’s Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia 1848
• 1848 Public Health Act and its relevance to improving public health in England now (BMJ Paywall)
• Poor Law Commission 1834-1847
• The Condition of the Working Class in England Frederick Engels 1845
• Report of the Poor Law Commissioners on an enquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain Foreword 1842
• 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act
• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
• The Speenhamland System 1795
• John Hunter 1728-1793
• Where a great proportion of the people are suffered to languish in helpless misery, that country must be ill-policed and wretchedly governed: a decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1770
• Dr William Harvey
• Poor Law 1601

British Health Ministers

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General Resources (and those covering more than 100 years)

• 60 years of the NHS – Ordinary people tell the story
• 60 years of the NHS in Scotland
• Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament related to mental health policy and to other matters
• Antiqua Medicina
• British Medical Association -outline history
• British Society for the History of Pharmacy
• Bulletin of the History of Medicine
• Centre for History in Public Health
• Centre for the History of Medicine Birmingham
• Centre for Medical History (Exeter)
• A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related Services in Britain: 1066 – 1999
• Collection of materials on Public Health in Britain 1691-1956 (This is a Japanese site. The texts are reproduced as pictures in PDF files, but there is some wonderful material – particularly relating to the work of Edwin Chadwick)
• Classical Islamic Medicine
• Development of the London Hospital System 1823-1982
• England’s first State “Imbecile Asylums” 1774-1900
• Financing health care in Britain since 1939
• History and Policy
• History and public-management reform
• Key dates Health and Nursing Great Britain 1000 – 1899
• Labour Health Policy
• Labour History Group
• Lost Hospitals of London
• Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
• MedHist – part of the Wellcome Library
• The Metropolitan Asylums Board 1867-1930
• National Library of Medicine (USA)
• NHS at 60 The real history of the struggle for a national health service
• NHS History – Geoffrey Rivett’s site
• Origins of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
• Origins of the National Health Service
• People’s History Museum
• People’s History of the NHS
• Social Work History Network
• Society for the Social History of Medicine
• Storming the Citadel: from romantic fiction to effective reality – General practice in the valleys: Julian Tudor Hart
• The NHS: from post-war to post-crash 1948-2010
• UK Centre for the History of Nursing & Midwifery
• Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine
• Working Class Movement Library