Editing Clement Attlee (section)

====Health====
[[File:Trafford General Hospital - geograph.org.uk - 21987.jpg|thumb|right|[[Trafford General Hospital]], known as the birthplace of the NHS]]
Attlee's [[Secretary of State for Health|Health Minister]], [[Aneurin Bevan]], fought hard against the general disapproval of the medical establishment, including the [[British Medical Association]], by creating the National Health Service in 1948. This was a [[publicly funded healthcare]] system, which offered treatment for all, regardless of income, free of charge at the point of use. Reflecting pent-up demand that had long existed for medical services, the NHS treated some 8.5 million dental patients and dispensed more than 5 million pairs of spectacles during its first year of operation.{{sfn|Jefferys|2014}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

Consultants benefited from the new system by being paid salaries that provided an acceptable standard of living without the need for them to resort to private practice.<ref>Timmins, Nicholas. ''The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} The NHS brought major improvements in the health of working-class people, with deaths from diphtheria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis significantly reduced.<ref name="autogenerated3">Lowe, Norman. ''Mastering Modern World History'' (second edition)<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Although there were often disputes about its organisation and funding, British political parties continued to voice their general support for the NHS in order to remain electable.<ref name="healthaffairs">{{cite journal |url=http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/8/4/52.pdf |title=British public opinion on National Health Service reform|author=Blendon, R.J. & K. Donelan |journal=Health Affairs |volume=8 |issue=4 |year=1989 |pages=52–62 |pmid=2606439 |access-date=5 October 2014 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.8.4.52}}</ref>

In the field of health care, funds were allocated to modernisation and extension schemes aimed at improving administrative efficiency. Improvements were made in nursing accommodation in order to recruit more nurses and reduce labour shortages which were keeping 60,000 beds out of use, and efforts were made to reduce the imbalance "between an excess of fever and tuberculosis (TB) beds and a shortage of maternity beds".<ref>Chick, Martin. ''Industrial Policy in Britain 1945–1951: Economic Planning, Nationalisation and the Labour Governments''<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

[[BCG vaccinations]] were introduced for the protection of medical students, midwives, nurses, and contacts of patients with tuberculosis,<ref>Poverty, inequality and health in Britain, 1800–2000: a reader edited by George Davey Smith, Daniel Dorling, and Mary Shaw</ref> a pension scheme was set up for employees of the newly established NHS,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbv_YPJTKy8C&q=NHS+pension+scheme+1948&pg=PA179 |title=Issues in Healthcare Risk Management |editor1=Emslie, Stuart |editor2=Hancock, Charles |publisher=Healthcare Governance Limited |location=Oxford |date=30 July 2008 |page=179 |access-date=21 July 2012 |isbn=9780955852602}}</ref> The National Health Service (Superannuation) Regulations 1947 laid down a number of provisions for beneficiaries including an officer's pension and retiring allowance, an injury allowance,  a short service gratuity,  a death gratuity, a widow's pension, and supplementary payments in the case of special classes of officers. Provision was also made for the allocation of part of pension or injury allowance to spouse of dependent.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zDHyAAAAMAAJ&dq=national+health+service+superannuation+regulations+1947+No.++1755&pg=PA1373 Statutory Rules and Orders Other Than Those of a Local, Personal Or Temporary Character (varies Slightly).Volume 1, Part, By Great Britain. Laws, statutes, etc · 1948, p.&nbsp;1373]</ref>

The Radioactive Substances Act 1948 set out general provisions to control radioactive substances.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rees |first1=Naomi |last2=Watson |first2=David |title=International Standards for Food Safety |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FWjmJqPecHAC&q=united+kingdom+radioactive+substances+act+1948&pg=PA251 |date=30 April 2000 |publisher=Springer |access-date=9 January 2016 |isbn=9780834217683}}</ref> Numerous lesser reforms were also introduced, some of which were of great benefit to certain segments of British society, such as the mentally deficient and the blind.<ref name="autogenerated1964">Hill, C.&nbsp;P. ''British Economic and Social History, 1700–1964''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Between 1948 and 1951, Attlee's government increased spending on health from £6 billion to £11 billion: an increase of over 80%, and from 2.1% to 3.6% of GDP.<ref name="autogenerated4">''Ten Years of New Labour'' (edited by Matt Beech and Simon Lee)<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed-->{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</ref>