question about opposition to the founding of the NHS

[steve2470]

Hello all,

I hope all you DU Brits are doing lovely. Question: when the NHS was founded, was there a lot of opposition from doctors ? Or was it that the devastation wrought upon the UK during WW2 was so profound that any public opposition by doctors was seen as "selfish" ? I'm not slighting doctors here whatsoever, but it does seem in the USA that some of the opposition to universal care comes from some doctors based upon financial reasons and not so much ideological reasons. Of course, there are some doctors and doctors' groups who recognize the ultimate value of universal care.

Just curious. Not trying to start problems, of course.

Steve, another DU Anglophile

[Denzil_DC]

1. There was, from some in the medical profession, at least.

There's a famous quote from Aneurin Bevan, father of the NHS, about how he overcame opposition, in particular from hospital consultants:

I stuffed their mouths with gold.

The deal he struck was that they were able to continue with private practices while being paid handsomely for their NHS work. That continues to this day.

[T_i_B]

2. The British Medical Association was ferociously opposed to the NHS

The language they used to oppose the creation of the NHS was not far off the sort of gibberish you hear from teabaggers. I think the head of the BMA at the time might have been an aspiring Tory politician himself which did not help matters.

Fortunately for Britain, the man in charge of creating the NHS was Aneurin Bevan, who was probably the greatest British politican of the 20th century.