ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the new social measures, Mr. Bevan said slight conflict over the National Health Service never worried him very much because, as a credulous idealist, he knew the truth would survive, and that as the medical profession came to know its provisions they would support it. The National Health Service moved to centre stage, it having become the most popular of these reforms ahead of nationalising the commanding heights of the economy. The task facing the Labour Government, with an inheritance of pre-1945 thinking on the structure, was to move from Beveridge's recommendation for a comprehensive and universally available service to an administratively practicable service philosophy and funding of medical care. Only the Socialist Medical Association approved. These were but opening shots in 'the war' to come, and the Minister spent the rest of the year listening to the conflicting views of various pressure groups before being replaced in December 1943 by a new Minister of Health.
