Voluntarism as Resistance to State Control: A Case Study of the Kingston Victoria Hospital and the Fledgling NHS

Abstract

Summary With the launching of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, this taxpayer-funded, centralised, universal service seemingly negated the need for new voluntary hospitals to be established in Britain. Within 3 years, however, the former doctors of the Kingston and Malden Victoria Hospital (KMVH) announced a new voluntary hospital (the New Victoria) after the KMVH was closed for repurposing in the NHS. Examining this case reveals stakeholder perceptions of the early NHS, including debates over general practitioner (GP) independence, local democracy and state control which predated and permeated the founding of the Service. I argue the New Victoria was founded as a response to and revolt against centralised bureaucracy and an attempt to restore a sense of GP independence and patient control in the local hospital service. Voluntarism, in the form of a voluntary hospital, was the medium through which these debates took place.