DAVID STEWART: Interviews with Highland patients, doctors, nurses and administrators were key to shaping NHS
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Three score and fifteen years ago saw the birth of the National Health Service. It has developed from a system of healthcare into a national treasure.
Opinion poll after opinion poll rank highly our NHS and its dedicated front-line staff – doctors, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and a host of support staff.
Setting up the NHS in 1948 was no bed of roses. I was reading Michael Foot’s biography of Nye Bevan last week. Bevan was minister of health in the Labour government and was charged with steering the NHS Bill through Parliament.
The British Medical Association were concerned about doctors becoming mere salaried employees of the state and twice voted in a referendum to oppose joining the NHS. It was resolved by fancy footwork by Bevan, who put forward a short, sharp ‘Amending Bill’ which reaffirmed doctors’ status as independent contractors.
There was a separate Health Services Act for Scotland, which attracted less controversy. Partly this was because the Scottish White Paper was firmly based on the recommendations of the 1936 Cathcart Report. Edward Cathcart, who was a Glasgow University academic, had been charged with auditing Scotland’s health services. His committee set up a Highlands and Islands taskforce, charged with assessing the Highlands and Islands Medical Service (HIMS), which had been running since 1913. The taskforce spent months in the north interviewing patients, doctors, nurses and administrators. Their verdict was that HIMS had ‘revolutionised’ healthcare. The committee noted clear evidence of improvements in the number and quality of specialists, nursing and ambulance services. Although Inverness Burgh was not part of HIMS, the Royal Northern Infirmary benefited from a special grant from the HIMS fund, which was financed by annual Treasury Grant.
We should all be proud that 35 years before the creation of the health service in Scotland we had our own system in the Highlands and Islands, one of the first state-subsidised health systems in Europe. Nye Bevan argued that all he wanted for Britain was a health service based on the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in Wales – his hometown. Maybe he should have added a postscript, that all Scotland needed was a health service based on HIMS.
Inverness Football Memories Group
I was the guest speaker the other week at the Caledonian Stadium to speak to the Inverness Football Memories Group. The meeting was organised by Am Baile and chaired by ICTFC director Gordon Fyfe – himself once a talented footballer for Inverness Caley.
It was a joy to share memories of early Caley matches at Telford Street, watching Davie Johnston, Chic Allen and later Billy Urquhart. My most nerve-wracking moment was playing a ‘game’ at Caledonian Stadium with soon-to-become Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the company of some talented young footballers from St Joseph’s Primary School. The Football Memories Group and the project that is being developed to capture the history of football in Inverness are brilliant initiatives and congratulations to all who organise them.
Winnie Ewing
The memorial service for the late Winnie Ewing will take place at Inverness Cathedral today. Her 1967 Hamilton by-election victory was sensational. Closer to home, she stood for Moray and Nairn in February 1974 after losing Hamilton and beat former Scottish Secretary Gordon Campbell.
It was, however, as the Highlands and Islands member for the European Parliament where her profile rose to the international stage. Winnie was an avid supporter of the European ideal. In 1999, she was elected to the Scottish Parliament and chaired the opening session – a fitting tribute to an exceptional parliamentarian.
