Impact of the NHS

Question 1

What was the impact of the NHS on public health?

Answer 1

• Life expectancy increased.
• Improvement in healthcare was not uniform.

Question 2

Why did life expectancy increase?

Answer 2

Due to the combination of better healthcare and increased affluence.

Question 3

Why was improvement in healthcare not uniform?

Answer 3

• Merrison Report (1979) argued that hospitals received around 70% of NHS funding, whereas other services received much less.
• Lot of the investment led to regional inequalities.

Question 4

Example of regional inequalities:

Answer 4

Lots of the money from the 1962 Act went on London hospitals and neglected the North.

Question 5

How did life expectancy increase?

Answer 5

1948: 65.8 years for men and 70.1 years for women
1979: 71 years for men and 77 years for women.

Question 6

How did treatment reflect society?

Answer 6

• Men received better treatment than women.
• Middle-classes received better treatment than working class
• Hospitals received more funding than GPs.

Question 7

What was the impact of the NHS on women?

Answer 7

• Greater control over their fertility.
• Abortion became more common after 1967 (1.5 million abortions 1968-1978)
• The NHS made childbirth in the hospital a norm for British women.
• NHS created greater opportunities for women in the workplace.

Question 8

What was the decline in birth rates?

Answer 8

Women born in 1920 had two children on average, whereas women born in 1966 had 1.3 children on average.

Question 9

What statistics demonstrate how the NHS made childbirth in the hospital a norm for British women?

Answer 9

1950s - 60% of women gave birth in a hospital.
1978- 97%

Question 10

What was the impact of the NHS on mental health?

Answer 10

• 1959 Mental Health Act addressed concerns that the NHS was not dealing with mental health effectively.
• Between 1967 and 1981 there were 25 separate enquiries into misconduct and abuse at psychiatric hospitals in the UK.

Question 11

What did the 1959 Mental Health Act do?

Answer 11

• Introduced new terminology: patients referred to as ‘mentally ill’ rather than ‘insane’.
• Removing judges from the process.
• Introducing an open door policy.

Question 12

Why was removing judges from the process important?

Answer 12

Decisions to force treatment on people with serious mental health problems would be made by mental health tribunals instead.

Question 13

What was an open door policy?

Answer 13

So that most patients could attend voluntary treatment sessions in daycare centres, rather than being compelled to stay in hospital long term.

Question 14

What were the limitations to the improvement in mental healthcare?

Answer 14

By 1974:
- Only 15% of the drop in care places were available
- Only 33% of hospital beds needed were available.
- As a result, people with mental health issues tended to be treated by non-specialists.

Question 15

How did budget allocations favour middle-class areas?

Answer 15

• Hospitals in some middle-class areas received an annual budget of £4.98 per head, whereas working class areas budgets were set at £3.19 per head.
• 1970s: Some middle class areas had budgets 24% larger than working class areas.

Question 16

What did the Black Report (published in 1980) state?

Answer 16

• Working class women were twice as likely to die in childbirth compared to middle class women.
• Unskilled working men were twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 65 as middle-class professionals.