A Very Short History of NHS – One Sentence Per Decade

A Very Short History of NHS – One Sentence Per Decade

Here are the key Acts of Parliament or reports in each decade, and lead political parties, which have moulded what we see today.

1910s

First state-funded healthcare – National Insurance Act 1911, Lloyd George (Liberal). Working men could, for the first time, receive part state-funded healthcare, choosing a GP from a ‘panel’ of doctors

1940s

Start of NHS – NHS Act 1946, with NHS starting on 5th July 1948 (Aneurin Bevan) (Labour)

1950s

Normalising mental health – Mental Health Act 1959 (Conservative)

1960s

Modernising hospitals and ‘swinging sixties’ – Hospital Plan (1962) (Conservative); NHS Family Planning and Abortion Acts 1967 (Labour)

1970s

Reorganisation – NHS Reorganisation Act 1973 (Labour)

1980s

Inequalities in healthcare, and NHS management – Black (1980) and Griffiths Reports (1983) (Conservative)

1990s

Internal market – NHS and Community Care Act 1990 (Conservative)

2000s

Internal market, targets and scandals (Shipman, Bristol and Alder Hey) – Health and Social Care Bill (2001) (Labour)

2010s

Competition – Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Conservative)

2020s

Covid-19 and Integration – Health and Care Act 2022 (Conservative)

Summary

That is an extremely short history of the NHS. If you want to know more, see below.

Other resources

The Health Foundation have an extremely good timeline here.
The Nuffield Trust has a detailed history of the NHS here.
The BBC has historical charts here.