Impact of NHS
- Created by: grace_mcmeekin
- Created on: 06-05-17 13:29
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- Impact of the NHS
- Impact on Public Health
- Life expectancy increased: 1948: M = 65.8 F = 70.1 1979: M = 71 F = 77
- Better healthcare led to increased affluence
- 1948-79 there was a general improvement in health of the nation
- Improvement not universal: Morrison Report 1979 = hospitals received 70% of funding and other services e.g GPs received much less
- Regional inequalities still existed e.g. lots spent in London
- Impact on Women
- Reproduction
- Decline in birth rate
- Women born 1920 had 2 kids
- Women born 1966 had 1.3 kids
- NHS education and contraceptive pill = fewer babies
- Side effects of the pill increased risk of stroke and cancer
- 1968-78: 1.5 million abortions, NHS doctors could refuse to participate in termination
- 58% abortions = private
- Decline in birth rate
- Childbirth
- NHS made childbirth in hospital the norm
- 1950s 60% women gave birth in hospitals
- 1978 97% women gave birth in hospitals
- According to a survey, 70 - 90% women in hospital given episiotomy
- Led to pain when sitting in 68% of cases and longer recovery time
- Feminists said medicalisation shifted power from women to men
- NHS made childbirth in hospital the norm
- Women and work
- NHS created greater opportunity for women in work
- BUT not equality
- New state funded 'caring professions'
- Women more caring than men so able to find work
- 1948- govn. recruited 54,000 female nurses
- Generally women restricted to lower paid and lower status jobs in 1950s and 60s
- Even worse for black women
- NHS created greater opportunity for women in work
- Reproduction
- Impact on mental health
- 1957 - govn. concerns that mental health not being treated effectively
- 1957: Royal Commission on Mental Illnesses and Mental Deficiency
- Argued mental illnesses routinely stigmatised
- Mental health hospitals operated like prisons
- 1959 Mental Health Act
- New terminology: insane = mentally ill ect.
- Decisions about treatment of mentally ill made by mental health tribunals not judges
- New open door policy = patients could attend voluntary treatment sessions in daycare centres
- 1959 Act = move away from residential care to out-patients or drop-in care
- 1962 Hospital Plan proposed 50% reduction in hospital beds for people with mental illnesses by 1975
- By 1975 only 15% of day care places needed were available
- By 1975 only 33% hospital places needed were available
- By 1975 only 15% of day care places needed were available
- Health and Class
- Middle class tended to benefit more than Working class
- Middle Class
- 50% GP surgeries in middle class areas built before 1900
- Middle class areas received £4.98 per head per year
- Study in 1972 showed middle class areas tended to have per capita budgets 24% higher than working class areas
- Working Class
- 80% GP surgeries in working class areas built before 1900
- Working class areas received £3.19 per head per year
- Black Report 1980: working class women twice as likely to die in childbirth than middle class women
- Women and unskilled working class mens were twice as likely to die before 65 than middle class professionals
- Expansion of Treatments
- Significant increase in demand
- June 1948 = 6.8 million prescriptions
- September 1948 = 13.6 million prescriptions
- 1949 - 64 = 'pharmacological revolution'
- More and more medicines available
- Drug costs increased: in 1964 NHS spent 250% more on drugs than in 1951
- Vaccinations increased scope of NHS provision
- Before 1939 only vaccination given routinely was smallpox
- In 1964 there was vaccinations against diphtheria, TB, polio, whooping cough and tetnus
- Significant increase in demand
- Impact on Public Health
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