Lord Hill of Luton in interview with Max Blythe.

Main subjects discussed: planning of the National Health Service, Beveridge Report, 1939-45 wartime health service contingencies, Aneurin Bevan, BMA health service negotiations 1945-47.This interview with Lord Hill of Luton PC (1904-1990) concentrates on the developments of the 1930s and 1940s leading to a national health service, the fundamental political pressures and the main protagonists and detractors. Initially the story is dissected back to the National Health Insurance provision of the 1930s, its limitations and increasing concerns for their redress, including those of the medical profession, which eventually formulated a '100 percent principle' of health care availability, which it was to regret. The parts played by the Medical Planning Commission, wartime emergency health services and the Beveridge report of 1942 are then appraised, followed by a review of developments after the election of a Socialist Government in 1945, particularly the role of Aneurin Bevan in protracted and difficult negotiations with the medical profession on critical issues of health service design. The objections of the doctors and the steps by which Bevan secured their co-operation are then reviewed.