In July 1948 the National Health Service (NHS) was
launched as a way of making good healthcare available to all,
regardless of wealth. It was the first time, anywhere in the world,
that free healthcare was available to all citizens.
Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan, a former Welsh miner who became
a Labour politician, fought passionately for the NHS. In parliament
on February 9 1948 he said "take pride in the fact that,
despite our financial and economic anxieties, we are still able to
do the most civilised thing in the world: put the welfare of the
sick in front of every other consideration".
In July that same year hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists,
opticians and dentists were brought together under the umbrella of
the NHS - making healthcare free for all
Throughout the 20th Century, the Maudsley Hospital
pioneered the development of new treatments including the
introduction of clinical neuroscience in the 1950s partly led by
Denis Hill, a senior lecturer at the Maudsley and the Institute of
Psychiatry (IoP), as well as the use of group talking therapies
which is still practiced today.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, with the threat of
air-raids, the Maudsley closed and staff dispersed to two
locations: a temporary hospital at Mill Hill School in north London
and Belmont Hospital in Sutton, Surrey. Staff returned to the
Maudsley site in 1945 and three years later the Maudsley joined up
with the Bethlem Royal Hospital to become partners in the newly
established NHS as a postgraduate psychiatric teaching hospital.
The Maudsley's medical school became the IoP.
This merger saw the introduction of more community-based
services and a gradual expansion of the south London catchment
area.
