Last month, the NHS celebrated its 75th anniversary. Since its formation, the NHS has played a key role in politics. Here, Dr Emma Peplow, Head of Oral History, explores how important the NHS was to voters and politicians on the campaign trail.
This summer we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the NHS. Alongside the tributes to those who work so hard to keep it running, there were inevitably a lot of political arguments about how the service is run. From listening to our oral history project interviews with former MPs, this was not at all surprising. The NHS was frequently mentioned in our interviews in regard to local campaigns, on the doorstop, or through casework.
As one of the main roles of an MP is defending their constituents’ interests, the fate of a local hospital might make or break a career. A planned closure, or need for significant investment could either be a cause for a great opposition campaign, or the source of embarrassment if one’s own party was in government. Labour’s Eileen Gordon, for example, made her way in local politics through the campaign to save Oldchurch Accident and Emergency department, as we hear in this clip:
She was delighted when the department was not only saved, but the whole hospital rebuilt, the ‘really grotty’ old workhouse buildings replaced with a bright new facility.
It wasn’t just Labour MPs, those from across the political spectrum described campaigns to replace old workhouse hospitals – including Conservative Elizabeth Peacock in Batley, Labour’s Parmjit Dhanda in Bristol and Jenny Tonge in Richmond. Peacock emphasised how significant local facilities were to her constituents:
These local issues meant a great deal on the doorstep come election time. Labour’s David Hinchliffe described how the MP could take a prominent role in these battles, which came up regularly: ‘certainly health stuff we were always campaigning’. They were opportunities for opposition parties: Liberal Democrat Jenny Tonge told us ‘There’s always some hospital that’s being closed or converted or something that makes for a campaign.’ For Conservative John Marshall, however, the threatened closure of Edgeware hospital by his own government meant he had to resign his position in government for speaking out against it.
If not raising these issues themselves, MPs would often find they came up on the campaign trail or in casework. Labour MPs in particular claimed waiting lists, and their pledges to cut them in 1997, went down very well with constituents on the doorstep. Harold Best, Sylvia Heal and Bridget Prentice all felt their campaigning in 1997 and 2001 was shaped by this issue. However, the shadow health secretary at the time, Chris Smith, found the focus of the campaign on health issues something of a problem. Labour had committed to match Conservative spending plans for the first two years of their administration, so he had no money to spend.
As well as on the campaign trail the NHS was a key feature in an MP’s case work, and a way that an MP could help make a difference to the lives of their constituents; an MP’s well-timed letter could carry significant weight. At the same time, the issues could just be too complicated for a lone backbencher: Conservative Adrian Flook remembered one couple’s struggle to pay for IVF treatment as it was not covered on the NHS under their health authority. He remembered writing on their behalf, but feeling there was very little he could do.
Some MPs took up these issues and turned them into successful backbench campaigns. Labour’s Peter Bradley, for example, remembered taking up his health authority’s complaint with the ways prescription charges were being abused. These ‘money-spinners’ for some GPs and pharmaceutical companies were costing millions of pounds. Bradley ran a public campaign, but also a parliamentary one: raising the issue as an adjournment debate and holding a debate in Westminster Hall on the issue. The subsequent reforms saved the NHS roughly £250 million a year: ‘I was pretty pleased to play a part in that.’
Specific health campaigns would gain better results when MPs worked across party lines, gathering support widely across parliament and involving outside experts and interests. All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) were an excellent forum to lobby for particular health issues: Conservative Marion Roe, Labour’s Alice Mahon and Liberal Democrat Jenny Tonge were all proud of the work they did on the Breast Cancer APPG. These campaigns though often took place on specific bills or amendments to bills. Conservative Thomas Stuttaford organised his party’s support for a Labour amendment to introduce birth control on the NHS in the 1970s. Later Liberal Democrat Jenny Tonge went into parliament ‘screaming and shouting’ to introduce over the counter emergency contraception, despite ‘horrible, twisted’ headlines against her; she found willing support from the then Labour Health Ministers Frank Dobson and Yvette Cooper.
As our interviews reveal, the NHS featured highly in an MP’s life for its first 75 years, and that shows little sign of abating. Yet these campaigns were sources of real pride for the MPs involved: Conservative Roger Sims told us that he now explained to nurses working with him that their ability to prescribe certain medicines was thanks to his Private Members’ Bill, supported cross-party and backed by the Royal College of Nurses. Through this sort of campaigning and work MPs could make a difference to the NHS, and their constituents.
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