ABSTRACT
Early advances in health in the United Kingdom (UK) came about not as a result of healthcare, but as a result of improvements in housing and social conditions in the nineteenth century. The UK National Health Service (NHS) was established in 1948. The NHS became reality on 5 July 1948 in an atmosphere of post-war austerity, and healthcare competed for scarce resources with other key areas, especially rehousing, which was the responsibility of the same Government minister as health. The 1960s were generally an optimistic decade in the UK and advances in healthcare fed this optimism. The UK NHS remains one of the most centrally managed and financed healthcare systems in the world. All residents of the UK are eligible for healthcare coverage under the NHS. The UK public would identify strongly with the Canadian value of healthcare provided free at the point of care.
