The National Health Service In England

This chapter considers the various reasons which help to determine whether the record of the Health Service is one of progress and success. Some of the more important ones become explicable only when it is understood how far reaching the effects of the Second World War on the British economy were. The whole fabric of organized medical care, public and private, suffered particularly. Inevitably, the highest priorities in medicine were reserved for the military and civil defence forces. Even as early as June 1943, the standard of medical care available for the civilian population was, in the judgment of the War Cabinet, dangerously low.