History of the National Health Service

The name National Health Service (NHS) is used to refer to the publicly funded health care services of England, Scotland and Wales, individually or collectively. Northern Ireland's services are known as 'Health and Social Care' to promote its dual integration of health and social services.

For details of the history of each National Health Service, particularly since 1999, see:

• History of the National Health Service (England)
• History of NHS Scotland
• History of NHS Wales
• History of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland

The NHS was one of the first universal health care systems established anywhere in the world.^[1] A leaflet was sent to every household in June 1948 which explained that

It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone — rich or poor, man, woman or child — can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few special items. There are no insurance qualifications. But it is not a “charity”. You are all paying for it, mainly as tax payers, and it will relieve your money worries in time of illness.^[2]

— Central Office of Information, for the Ministry of Health

The NHS in Scotland was established as a separate entity with its own legislation, the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947, from the foundation of the NHS in 1948. Northern Ireland likewise had its own legislation in 1948. Wales, however, was managed from England and treated much like an English region for the first 20 years of the NHS. In 1969, responsibility for the NHS in Wales was passed to the Secretary of State for Wales from the Secretary of State for Health, who was thereafter just responsible for the NHS in England.