Following Labour’s victory in the 1945 General Election, Aneurin ‘Nye’
Bevan was appointed Minister of Health (and housing) by Prime Minister Clement
Atlee. Nye Bevan discarded previous compromises to provide a public health
service and took new proposals to Cabinet. The proposals included a system
based on regions and taking all hospitals into public ownership. The National
Health Service began on July 5, 1948. When health Secretary Aneurin Bevan
opened Park Hospital in Manchester it was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan
to bring good healthcare to all. For the first time hospitals, doctors, nurses,
pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under one umbrella
organisation to provide services that are free for all.
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| Liverpool workhouse infirmary from the south, c.1925. |
Before the National Health Service was set up in 1948, if you needed
hospital treatment and were unable to pay for private treatment, your options
were to try to obtain treatment either at a voluntary hospital or at a public
hospital run by the local authorities. Voluntary hospitals in Liverpool had been
in existence since the setting up of the Liverpool Infirmary (later the
Liverpool Royal Infirmary) in 1749. The nineteenth century saw a number of new
voluntary hospitals set up, such as the David Lewis Northern Hospital and the
Royal
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| David Lewis Northern Hospital, as seen from Great Howard Street |
Southern Hospital. Voluntary hospitals were able to offer only limited
free treatment; patients were expected to pay what they could afford or to
reimburse expenses at a later date.
Liverpool had a number of workhouses such as Toxteth Park, Mill Road and
Belmont, run by Poor Law unions, which were public bodies, to care for the
destitute. During the latter part of the nineteenth century the level of
medical care provided for workhouse inmates increased. The hospital wings of
these workhouses increased in size and patients were admitted to the workhouse
hospitals for treatment rather than being admitted as workhouse Inmates. The
workhouses often changed their name to ‘institutions’ after about 1913 to
reflect this change in role and also because the name ‘workhouse’ carried a
stigma. In 1930 the Poor Law unions were abolished and medical care for the
poor became the responsibility of a local Public Assistance Committee. The
workhouses officially became known as hospitals at this time or shortly
thereafter but the association with the workhouse remained and some people
would have been reluctant to ask for free care at these hospitals for this
reason.
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| Liverpool Royal Infirmary 1908 |
In 1948 both the voluntary and public hospitals came into the ownership
of the National Health Service and were put under the management of local
hospital management committees under the Liverpool Regional Health Board. A
reorganisation of the National Health Service in 1974 saw Liverpool hospitals
come under district health authorities as part of the Liverpool Area Health
Authority, in turn part of the Mersey Regional Health Authority. Between 1991
and 1995 Liverpool hospitals became independent NHS trusts.
The National Health Service Act 1946, which set up the NHS, contained a
provision that NHS services should be provided free of charge, but in 1949
legislation providing for a prescriptions charge was passed by the Labour
Government through the NHS (Amendment) Act 1949. Although the power is
introduced in 1949, the charge itself is not introduced until 1952.
The City Of Liverpool was fortunate, in that it had a large number of
hospitals catering to the needs of its population, Sadly, many of these
hospitals no longer exist, although some, but few of the buildings remain.
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| St Pauls Eye Hospital |
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| Stanley Hospital |
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| The Hahnemann Homeopathic Hospital in Hope Street 1888 |
Below is a list of Liverpool Hospitals and related organisations
together with their dates of operation’
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, 1915-1984
Belmont Road Institution/Hospital, 1909-1950
Later Newsham General Hospital.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, 1915-1984
Belmont Road Institution/Hospital , 1909-1950
Later, Newsham General Hospital.
Bootle Borough Hospital, c1898-1976
Broadgreen Hospital, 1931-1989
DavidLewisNorthernHospital,1833-1975
Fazakerley Hospital, 1902-1974
Fazakerley Sanatorium, 1920-c1950
Home for Incurables, 1875-1885
Later Liverpool Home for Incurables/Home for Invalid Women/
Princes Park Hospital.
Home for Invalid Women, 1948-1969
Also Home for Incurables, Liverpool Home for Incurables,
Princes Park Hospital.
Liverpool Area Health Authority, 1844-1986
Liverpool City Sanatorium for Tuberculosis, 1919
Liverpool Dental Hospital,1879-1970
Liverpool Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary, 1820-1978
Liverpool Hahnemann Hospital and Homoeopathic Dispensaries,1871-1976
Royal Southern Hospital, 1841-1980
Sefton General Hospital, 1950-1986
Earlier Smithdown Road Infirmary
Smithdown Road Workhouse/Institution/ Infirmary,1860-1950
Later Sefton General Hospital.
Sparrow Hall Hospital, 1920-1943
St Paul’s Eye Hospital, 1872-1992
Walton Workhouse/Institution/Hospital, 1898-c1998
Women’s Hospital, Catharine Street, 1870-1996
Liverpool Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, 1864-1928
Liverpool Infirmary for Children,1857-1920
Later Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital
Liverpool Maternity Hospital, 1826-1995
Liverpool Royal Infirmary, 1749-1983
Liverpool Stanley Hospital, 1867-1965
Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Crown Street, 1995-2002
Mill Road Hospital/Maternity Hospital, 1857-1994
Newsham General Hospital, 1950-1988
Earlier Belmont Road Institution.
Princes Park Hospital, 1969-1986
Earlier Home for Incurables/Liverpool Home for Incurables/
Home for Invalid Women.
Rainhill Asylum/Hospital, 1851-1981 Serving Liverpool
Royal Liverpool Babies Hospital, 1924-1975
Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital, 1920-1990
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| The second Infirmary, Brownlow Street, 1824-1890. |
Sources
LRO,
Liverpool Record Office
NHS Reforms
Document
History programme administered by the Wellcome Trust
and the British LibraryBy Robert F Edwards
