Creative Outlooks - Aneurin Bevan - Says Yes to the NHS
Mar, 21 2025
In the modern era the NHS is on the brink of collapse but there was once one man who created the NHS and is the subject for this month’s ‘Creative Outlooks’. Please watch this 5 minute 21 second film – Aneurin Bevan Founds the NHS – Letters for the Ages as an introduction to this spearheading champion of the health service –
It was 80 years ago in 1945 when Labour won a landslide victory for the Labour Party providing enough majority to allow the implementation of the party’s manifesto commitments to introduce a programme of far reaching social reforms dubbed collectively as the ‘Welfare State’. It was particularly difficult to see these being fulfilled following the aftermath of the war.
The new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee appointed Bevan as Minister of Health this gave him the authority and responsibility to institute a new and comprehensive National Health Service, the housing shortage was also under his remit. He was 47 at the time of his position.
As Minister of Health he served this position from 1945 -1951. Kick starting the NHS needed some innovative ideas and the free National Health Service paid directly through public money needed an inspirational moment to channel it forward. Bevan had noticed the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in his hometown, where residents would pay a subscription to enable all subscribers and their dependants to have free access to medical services such as nursing or dental care. This system proved so popular that 20,000 people supported the organisation during the 1930s.
It was 5th July 1948 when Bevan’s National Health Service Act 1946 began. This special appointed day found Bevan receiving keys to the hospital at a ceremony at the Park Hospital, Trafford. This was a momentous day in medical history and he openly expressed his political views on such a movement –
“The National Health Service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people as terms of reproach. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society.”
As mentioned in the video he experienced a conclusion to his time in office partly due to his health which seemed ironic at the time that a man who created the NHS fell to it’s mercy when his own health was in decline. But his legacy remains intact.
Bevan's most significant legacy is the National Health Service. Bevan foresaw that it would always be the subject of public debate, warning that "This service must always be changing, growing and improving; it must always appear to be inadequate." However, seven decades after it was founded, a 2013 opinion poll conducted on behalf of British Future found that the NHS was more popular than at its creation, and more popular than the monarchy, the BBC, and the British Armed Forces.
Ten years ago Welsh actor Michael Sheen gave a speech in which he described Bevan as a mythical creature, stating ‘He had cast iron integrity and a raging passion’. This quote embodied itself further into Sheen when he portrayed him in Tim Price’s play NYE last year. Now the play is getting a 2025 series of performances at the National Theatre and Wales Millennium. To book tickets simply visit the following website link –
https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2025/nye25
In 2024, a new health centre opened in Tredegar, Bevan's hometown. Named "The Bevan Centre", it provides primary care and some secondary care to those in the catchment area of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
This was a man who not only introduced a pioneering and innovative health service but he also gave millions of people a refuge during the war era. As time went on people began to appreciate the National Health Service more and more. It became a place of help at a time of crisis, a beacon of light in a darkened world. Now more than ever we need to save the NHS not just for the nation of Britain but for the legacy of Aneurin Bevan, the founder and creator.
^Alex Ashworth CCG Art Blogger
