The Hospital Plan for Scotland 1962

1. The Hospital Plan for Scotland 1962

2. Why this topic • Offers an insight to an interesting area of economic and social history • Offers an insight into the political history and political economy of the time • Part of wider debates on healthcare legislation • Links in with my own previous studies • Helps explain the Labour government’s (1997 – 2010, more so c.2003) legislation on foundation hospitals • Helps make an understanding of current healthcare legislation

3. The Origins and implementations of the Hospital Plan for Scotland • How different were the healthcare systems of Scotland to England? • What were the aims of The Hospital Plan for Scotland and to what extent were they achieved? • There are other questions raised by historians like Harvie. They have relevance, but do not directly relate to hospitals.

4. The Historiography • Whilst historians do refer to The Hospital Plan for Scotland, there has never been an academic project on this specific subject • Context: Healthcare was not the main issue of the day – Soviet and American relations (Wilson, Crossman especially) • This reform is sandwiched between the creation of the NHS (1948) and other reforms, especially the NHS Reorganisation Act (1973) • Helen Jones: Studying healthcare allows for an important reflection on the health and development of society and the effectiveness of government • Michael Hill: Reforms of the welfare state were done to reassert government control • Charles Webster: Part of the NHS reform legislation, hospitals make up one of three parts to the NHS (Hospitals, Local Government and General Practice) • The conflict between ‘Edinburgh and London’ (Stewart) and ‘Scotland is a more proletarian nation and has a different healthcare system to England’ (McRae) • The Vale of Leven Hospital

5. Sources • Secondary reading offers questions, but few answers. • These might be journal articles, websites or textbooks • Gives a general insight into healthcare • Useful to see the tradition of debate • Highlights sources which could be used • Gives context to other issues of the past • Useful to compare and contrast the service in Scotland and England • Primary sources • Government white papers – shows what the government thought • Command Papers and reports – gives a deeper assessment of requirements and objectives • Hansard – uncovers detail which might be missed and any political opposition • Public speeches – how it was addressed to the professional services • Autobiographies and memoirs – shows what the politicians really thought. They don’t have collective responsibility. • Architectural plans of new hospitals – shows how the hospitals were to be built and redesigned • Minutes of meetings from the hospital and health board meetings • Not the census. This isn’t about people, but buildings and how they were managed. • The two government assessments of how the plans were doing • Further government reports and command papers • Newspaper and other published material about the Plan eg, BMJ • Obituaries • The Hospital Plan (England)

6. Bibliography (secondary reading) • Healthcare systems in Liberal democracies ed. Anne Ward • Improving the common weal: Aspects of Scottish healthcare 1900-1984 ed. Gordon McLachlan • Christopher Harvie: No Gods and precious few heroes • Michael Hill: The welfare state in Britain: A political history • Helen Jones: Health and Society in twentieth century Britain • Morrice McCrae: The NHS in Scotland: 1900-1950 • John Mohan: The NHS as a command bureaucracy? • John Stewart: The NHS in Scotland 1947-1974: Scottish or Brittsh? • Charles Webster: Health services since the war, The NHS: A political history