'A healthy country is a strong and prosperous one'. These words, spoken by a GP during Health Services in Britain's commentary, encapsulate the sense of national pride that, despite its shortcomings, the National Health
Service (NHS) has evoked since its inception in 1948. As the subject of a film
jointly sponsored by the Commonwealth Relations Office, Foreign Office and
Colonial Office, the NHS becomes a marketing tool in the promotion of Britain
and its institutions overseas.
Taking one of the families on his list of patients, the GP commentator
describes in turn how each of the three family members benefits from the NHS's
wide range of services. From the father's sudden need for major surgery to the
birth and subsequent development of the couple's daughter, a strong narrative
thread engages the audience on a personal level and provides a convenient
chronological framework by which to illustrate the comprehensiveness of the
service.
The film offers today's viewers a snapshot of the state of healthcare in
Britain in the early 1960s. Tuberculosis is in decline as a result of new drugs
which, we are told, have "completely altered the outlook for patients." Advances
in rehabilitation therapy for war pensioners at one of 21 limb fitting centres
are detailed, reminding us that that WWII is still a recent memory and that
there are many maimed ex-servicemen to demonstrate the human cost of war.
Warnings of a gradually increasing proportion of older people in the population
and the associated "grave social and economic problems" this brings foreshadow
the acute awareness of this demographic change today.
Despite its brevity, the film achieves a fairly exhaustive survey of the NHS
and its services. Lesser-known benefits are showcased alongside more obvious
ones. For example, ten days after giving birth the mother returns home with her
new baby to be met at the door by the home help provided by the local authority
to help new mothers with domestic chores. Where does the father feature in all
of this? The fact that a female friend, and not her husband, accompanies her
home from hospital betrays contemporary attitudes to gender roles.
In its conclusion, the film makes special mention of family doctors, who are
heralded as "the frontline troops in the constant fight against disease." The
postwar implementation of the NHS marked an important milestone in the history
of British social welfare.
Katy McGahan
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