The Politics of Pay Beds

In 1976 the Labour Government introduced a Bill into the House of Commons which proposed the separation from National Health Service hospitals of accommodation and facilities used for the private practice of medicine. When this measure received the Royal Assent in the same year it marked the culmination of a two year struggle over an issue which had been effectively contained for more than 20 years. Despite the fact that the continued existence of private practice within the framework of the National Health Service (NHS) had been a source of controversy within the Labour Party since the inception of the NHS, it was not until the mid-1970s that it came to the forefront of political debate and the phasing out of pay beds in NHS hospitals was unequivocally accepted by the Labour Party as a priority for government action. It is the purpose of this article to provide an account of the pay beds issue since 1946 and, arising from this, to explain why the introduction of legislation to provide for the withdrawal of private practice from NHS hospitals was accorded priority by the Labour Government in the mid-1970s. Pay beds have a long history in Britain

Coalition government · Commons · Government (linguistics · House of Commons · Legislation · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Law · Public Administration

• The Quiet Time? Pay-beds and Private Practice in the National Health Service

  Clifford Williamson•Social History of Medicine•2015

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