There was dissatisfaction for the system in the 19th century it was said to be pushing more people into poverty even while it helped those who were in it already.
Reforms by the liberal government in 1906 saw the end of the poor law, work houses were officially abolished in 1929 by the local government act. The remaining responsibilities for the poor law were given to local authorities before final abolishment in 1948.
The main focus of this essay is the NHS and how it has been affected by the government and social policy movements.
The national health service was founded in 1948 and it is the largest organisation in europe it was described as ‘labours most intrinsically soialist proposition’ Prior to 1948 hospitals were institutions that charged people who required their services. The only way that the poor could receive health care treatment was to rely on charitable institutions. Such as ‘royal free hospital’ where doctors volunteered their services for free.
‘ Despite economic hardship in the only recently post-war Britain, the NHS became a reality on 5th July 1948, at the lead of , the Health Minister for the Labour government. And even though the political climate at the turn of the 21st century is a much more conservative one, the socialistic ideals of the institution are still a great source of national pride.’
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It is still obvious today that health can be affected by social class; evidence shows that people from lower social classes are more likely to suffer from ill health. An explanation for this could be that poverty leads to ill health issues because of poor nutrition, housing and the environment.
Medical care in the nineteenth century was mainly voluntary or private. The NHS was seen by many people as the ‘core of the welfare state’.It was dedicated to providing the U.K with healthcare, free at the point of delivery.
This means it is possible to visit a hospital or doctors surgery and receive treatment free of charge, although there is charge for prescriptions and dental
care has to be paid for, children and the unemployed do not have to pay these costs. To gain access to healthcare you must be registered with a doctor, homeless people have trouble doing this because without an address it is difficult to sign up to a surgery.
Healthcare should be free at the point of service because no one should be stopped from receiving healthcare just because they cannot afford to pay for treatment. Charges for healthcare treatment were first introduced by the Labour Government in 1950, and the charges were increased by the conservative government in 1979, it was in 1988 that free eye tests were removed.
After many years new medical breakthroughs have meant improved health and a greater life expectancy for the population. In 1987, Margaret Thatcher introduced a number of reforms based on the liberal economic principle that says greater competition equals greater efficiency. The right wing prime minister bought massive changes to the country but she was unable to go far in dismantling the NHS despite her dislike for the welfare state. Margaret Thatcher’s theme was ‘the NHS is safe with US’
More recently when the labour government was ran by Tony Blair he went further that Thatcher would have dared but has bought hope to the NHS, at the time of writing it was agreed that the NHS was in crisis with the long waiting lists for certain operations and the shortage of beds within hospitals. NHS direct was introduced and this is where patients with minor problems can be given advice over phone, often saving them a visit to the doctor’s surgery or hospital. Part of the new labour ideology is that anything that is to be built is to be built with private money. Like for example in Coventry, instead of improving the two hospitals that already existed it was decided that they were both to be demolished and a new one would be built using private finance which the government would then lease from the private company, although this entailed big staff cuts and the hospital was very difficult to access, the government insisted it was the best way to go.
Less controversial was the recent budget that Gordon Brown announced when he was chancellor, he stated that funding for the NHS would be doubled and this would be paid for by an increase of 1p in the pound added on to national insurance. A survey showed that even 54% of anti tax conservative supporters approved of the budget.
Originally liberals were concerned with individual freedom and limiting the role of government
‘Critiques of the emerging inequality and terrible conditions of miners, factory workers, and the poor in cities let to a strong critique of the new order resulting from the industrial revolution. Socialism tried to provide a critical analysis of the new industrial capitalism and to provide an alternate model of society based on collective ownership of the means of production’
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The modern socialist movement largely originated in the late 19th century working class movement. In this period, the term 'socialism' was first used in
connection with social critics who criticized capitalism and private property. Socialism focuses mainly on collectivism and empowerment. Socialism is collectivist, and socialist believe peole should be understood socially and collectively rather than as individuals. Socialists are commited to the removal or atleast the reduction of disadvantages that arise within their society.
In 1951 social houses for working class families were provided and the National Health Service was established bringing free health care to everyone for the first time. This still remians today in most circumstances although now the government is starting to cut down on the amount they spend on NHS services by making people who are obese or people that smoke pay for their treatment. There is also the option for patients to go private although that is at the patients discretion, when being treated privately, the quality of service is at a much higher standard but is also very expensive, for example BUPA this a service which provides private healthcare for patients that are willling to pay the high fees. So most people chose to be treated by NHS, although its normally upper class people who will go private.
The Liberal Democrats however, believe in a free and open society, They have concern for the freedom, dignity and the well-being of people as individuals rather than as a society, they aim to adopt power and diversity and to nurture creativity. They believe that the role of the state is to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives. The liberal democrats believe that all people should share the same basic rights regardless of there social class or culture. They also believe in ensuring the public services are of the highest quality. They ensure that the public services are responsive to the people that they serve. The liberal democrats ideal provision would be that all health care should be free to everyone, this would include free prescriptions, dental care and free eye tests, ensuring that the health of the state is at the highest posible level, this would ensure that the lower classes will not be disadvantaged with regards to healthcare, but some argue, that if this was the case then taxes would be raised causing an uproar from the upper classes as they would be paying more tax just so the lower classes can get the free healthcare that they cannot afford. They would want to make dental care free of charge and ensure that all social classes are able to afford adequate healthcare to ensure a healthy lifestyle and longer life expectancies.
The ‘‘New Right’’ perspective critises the
‘changes to social policy and change in society which have resulted in the growth of devient family and household types’.
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The Conservatives believe that to end problems in society, social policy should be geared towards encouraging people to live in traditional family strucures. ‘New Right’ generally agrees with the conservative party on a lot of issues.
Over the last decade the NHS has been is a state of near permanent revolution, the governments NHS reforms have had a bad effect. Instead of being an organisation based on co-operation the NHS is increasingly being split into a series of competing businesses, who compete not only witheachother but with the government-subsided independent sector treatment centres.
The ‘‘New Right’’ perspective on the NHS was that the government was largely in control of the size of the budget and the medical profession was in control of how the budget was spent. Complaints about this system were made ‘crystallised’ when the conservative government was elected in 1979. Glennerster (1991) argues that it would not have mattered which party had gained power in the 1980’s because
‘social expenditure would have had to have been checked, as the state did not have the capability to continue to fund increasing social payments at the rate sustained throughout the 1960's and early 1970s, furthermore he shows that the movement to reign in the 'cost explosion' in welfare expenditure had clearly begun under the previous Labour administration.’
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Money Spent on the NHS has to be controlled. The ‘New Right’ questioned that continually increasing the state funding for the NHS causes it to become inefficient, as keeping a proper account of how their budget is spent is difficult and it did not provide the services in which the public want. The ‘New Right’ criticise the NHS by stating that it has shown inflexibility and inability to adopt advanced methods of treatment. They also state that the NHS suffers from major problems in medical emigration. The ‘New Right’s ideal provision would be that the NHS should become privatised and people should pay for their treatment. Just like people nowadays have to pay for their eye tests and their dental treatment. Their ideal provision would make sure that all NHS services would come with a charge and this would have an affect on the poor as they would suffer from ill health as they would not be able to pay for their health services.
Overall the conservative party and the liberal democrats have had a great influence on the public services and the NHS in particular. The liberal democrats want all NHS services to be free and currently the majority of them are, where as the conservatives believe that people should pay for their treatment, currently it is only eye tests dental and prescriptions that carry a charge. The ‘New Right’ has had an influence on how much money is spent on NHS each year because they have bought the yearly expenditure down. By charging people for certain treatment the NHS is making money which means more money can be spent improving the quality of the healthcare.
References:
Bibliography:
Beckett, Francis, Clematlee, 2001, politico’s