form of a national health service, that was subsequently established in 1948, it enabled national policy directives to be applied to the whole service. the platt report was one of those directives, designed in a manner, to improve the delivery of care. 1950–1959 with the introduction of penicillin into the majority of the medical community by the 1940s, the major objection by doctors and nurses, that visits by parents into hospital wards introduced cross infections had been removed. a major review in 1949, over an 11-month period, showed that children admitted to 26 wards in 14 hospitals showed no correlation between visits and cross infection from parents to children. indeed, by that time, the working practices of doctors and nurses, still posed the main objection to visiting. hunt reported that: the hospitalised child was considered essentially a biological unit, far better off without his parents who, on weekly or bi-weekly visiting hours, were fundamentally toxic in their effect, causing noise, generally disorderly conduct, and rejection by hospital personnel however, the prevailing view was starting to change. john bowlby, the british british psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst along with his research assistant at the tavistock clinic, james robertson, the scottish social worker, and psychoanalyst, started researching the separation of young children by their parents. bowlby was the scientist who developed classic theories about maternal separation. robertson focused his research on separation of mother and child due to hospital admission. when robertson first started to make observations of young children in hospital wards, he was shocked by the unhappiness he saw among the youngest children, in particular those aged under 3. the competent, efficient doctors and nurses gave good medical care but seemed unaware of the suffering around them. they saw that children initially protested at separation from the parents, but then settled, becoming quiet and compliant. however, robertson saw this as a danger signal. based on several years of observations in long and short stay wards, bowlby and robertson formed a theory of phases of response of the under 3's to a stay in hospital without the mother: protest, despair and denial/detachment. in the protest phase, the child is visibly distressed, cries and calls for their mother. in the despair phase, the child gives up hope of his mother returning and becomes withdrawn and quiet, and may appear to be 'settling'. in the denial/detachment phase, the child shows more interest in his surroundings and interacts with others - but seems hardly to know the mother when she visits or care when she leaves. finally, the child seems not to need any mothering at all. his relationships with others are shallow and untrusting. bowlby's and robertson's research was met with hostility by the medical profession. even their colleagues at the tavistock clinic, although accepting, did not feel the same sense of urgency. in 1951, bowlby and robertson attempted to get their views across, by presenting to the british paediatric association but these views were rejected. instead robertson decided to take a different tack, by making a short, silent, black and white, documentary film in november 1952, called a two-year-old goes to hospital using a hand-held camera, robertson working with his wife joyce robertson, a researcher, selected a little girl, called laura, aged 2 years and 5 months, who was admitted to hospital, for the removal of tonsils, a common operation in those days. laura was initially composed, until she realised her mother had actually left her there, and the film shows how she developed acute and continuous distress... laura pleaded to be taken home, but as her protests and pleadings were useless, they were gradually followed by despair. she became listless, unsmiling and her traumatised emotional state was heart-rendingly clear, and on those occasions when her mother did visit during the eight days she was in hospital, laura would turn away from her. robertson's film was shown to the royal society of medicine on 28 november 1952, before a large audience of doctors and nurses. donald winnicott on seeing the film spoke of "highly successful film" that dealt with a "real problem" and evidenced the fact that he himself had seen irreversible change as a result of the separation of small children from their mothers. both the editors of the lancet and the bmj discussed the meeting. the bmj agreed that the 2-year-old girl was unhappy, and that this was in line with the findings of john bowlby. the lancet stated that the audience frankly refused to admit that the child was distressed and were reluctant to believe that it might cause long term damage. robertson's memory of the meeting, was that "it was if we had dropped a bomb in the hall" and that "the film encountered much resistance and rejection". the speakers also supposedly also said that robertson "had slandered paediatrics and the film should be withdrawn". two people who were at the meeting were donald winnicott and sister ivy morris from amersham hospital and they agreed to a second filming on their ward. robertson later took film and viewed it to american paediatricians in 1953, but curiously american audiences confirmed that the film findings were applicable to british children, but they did not apply to american children, and were perhaps less cared for and protected in an overindulgent way, and were, therefore, less upset at being separated from their parent. however, robertson's subsequent research in the united states merely confirmed his findings, and showed that on both sides of the atlantic, there were those who were in favour of unrestricted visiting, and those who were not. robertson eventually viewed the film to paediatricians and other healthcare professionals in the united kingdom, france, denmark, netherlands, norway and yugoslavia. robertson noticed that younger professionals were more accepting of the evidence, while senior professionals tended to reject the film. robertson's successor film was called, going to hospital with mother. robertson chose amersham hospital specifically, as every mother of a child under 5 years was invited to come into residence in the hospital, without discriminating between good mothers and over-anxious mothers. bowlby and robertson created a film, which was more about the study of human relationship, and showed how children responded differently to treatment when mother was present and how the staff of one hospital had created a way of admitting the mother with the child without making structural changes to the ward. the second film was based on sally, who is 20 months old, and is lively and funny. when attending hospital for a minor operation, she arrives with her mother. when the surgeon calls, sally protests, but with her mother there, her protest is brief. the film follows sally throughout the hospital visit with her mother present throughout. when sally returns home, she has none of the attendant disturbed behaviour of those who have been in hospital without their mother. even though the film was shown widely, the pace of progress was still glacial. indeed, the lancet reported in 1956, that only 10% of hospital now restricted visiting, even though the minister of health robin turton was repeatedly asking for changes. platt report the glacial process resulted in pressure being brought to bear by both james and joyce robertson with other doctors and parents against the medical establishment, and resulted in robin turton commissioning the central health services council, that was part of the ministry of health, to establish a committee to undertake a special study of the arrangements made in hospital for children and the very young and to make recommendations to those hospitals, in the form of a report. the terms of reference for the production of the report was: to make a special study of the arrangements made in hospital for the welfare of children – as distinct from their medical and nursing treatment - and to make suggestions which could be passed on to the hospital authorities. the report was commissioned on 12 june 1956. sir harry platt, who was a former president of the royal college of surgeons of england was chosen to be chairman of the committee. the committee met 20 times to take evidence from both sides of the debate in a manner that was scrupulously fair. both parents and health professionals as well as children's organisations including charities gave evidence. the association of british paediatric nurses provided evidence to the contrary, arguing for the status quo, that frequent visitors brought infection into the ward. both james robertson and john bowlby also provided evidence. james robertson appeared in front of the committee with dermod maccarthy to show his film a two-year-old goes to hospital, but upon requesting the bbc to show the film nationally, were refused, as the bbc had consulted medical opinion, which agreed that the film would cause anxiety to parents. however, the evidence provided by james and joyce robertson was extremely influential to the final recommendations of the report. the final report was sent to lord cohen of birkenhead, chair of the central health services council on 28 october 1958. the platt report was made up of four sections, dealing with preparation for admission, admission procedure, in-patient care and patient discharge, respectively. the report had profound and lasting effects on the welfare of children, not only with the united kingdom, but in other countries like new zealand, australia, canada and the united states. the main recommendations of the report were: hospitals should have a separate children's outpatients department or a separate waiting room in an adult department or casualty department. children and adolescents should not be nursed on an adult ward. there should be facilities for inside and outside play. each nursing team should include a sick children's nurse and the child should have access to other staff such as social worker, occupational therapist and nursery nurses. prior to admission there should be hospital open days allowing families to have preparatory talks with hospital staff. hospital leaflets and letters should be available. gp's and health visitors should give explanations and reassurances to children and families. whilst in hospital, children should be allowed to keep their personal possessions and wear their own clothes. children should have access to education. admission of mothers should be considered in the first few days for children under 5 years of age. there should be unrestricted visiting from parents, at reasonable hours of the day and there should be facilities for visitors such as playrooms for siblings and a canteen. parents should be kept informed of their child's progress by both nursing and medical staff. unpleasant medical techniques should be kept to the minimum. there should be separate treatment and recovery rooms so other children do not witness distressing procedures. parents should be present at recovery of anaesthesia. discussions between medical staff should be kept to the minimum in front of children. children with special needs may need more in the way of pre-admission preparation. there should have access to any special equipment that is necessary. they should be taught by children who have specialist skills or can access such expertise. on discharge from hospital, parents should be warned about behavioural problems that may arise at home, and how to get advice on how to deal with them. general practitioners should be informed in advance and sent as full a report as possible. doctors, nurses and other staff who care for children should be given training about the emotional needs of children in hospital, and how to adjust their procedures to suit children. 1959–1980 post platt during the twenty years after the platt report, parents wanting to visit their sick child who were formerly excluded, moved to parents being tolerated by the medical community when they wanted to visit their sick child and this was a break from what could be considered tradition and a move towards a more humanitarian viewpoint. james robertson continued to research the problem and to share his findings. he wrote four influential articles for the observer and the guardian newspapers to disseminate his ideas, and the issue started to gain traction. in 1961, the bbc agreed to show excerpts of a two-year-old goes to hospital and his other films and robertson gave a live introduction to the films and asked parents to submit their experiences of hospital care to him. the stories robertson received from the parents were published in 1962