ABSTRACT

The election of a Conservative Government in 1979, with Mrs. Thatcher as Prime Minister, perhaps signalled the demise of 'post-war consensus'. Changes in government have almost inevitably been associated with changes in social policies including policies on health, often based on manifesto promises. Significant changes, the introduction of National Health Insurance and the National Health Service (NHS), were associated with reformist, 'left of centre', governments. The 1979 Government believed in the virtues of the market, that the market is the best mechanism for producing and distributing resources. The first major Government publication on health care in 1979 was that of the Royal Commission. The mounting public and professional concern in the latter half of 1987 eventually drew a response from the Government. The publication of Working for Patients provoked a number of concerns about the operation of the internal market.