The NHS founding principles: we have known for a long time that ill health is linked to external causes

In the first report from the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS, Crisp and colleagues consider how the founding principles of the NHS still apply today and provide a strong foundation for building an NHS for the future.1In discussing the changes that have occurred in society since the 1940s, they say, “In addition we now know that most ill health can be linked to external causes.”1I joined the NHS in 1958 and we already knew that then. My medical father campaigned and worked on the plan for the NHS in the 1930s and the link was also known and understood by his colleagues.2 One of many betrayals was Andrew Lansley’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act which pushed public health back to local authorities with funding ringfenced for a year only.3 The funding was then cut by 26% and is one factor among other deliberate policies that have…
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