History of the National Health Service History of the National Health Service The name National Health Service (NHS) is used to refer to the four public health services of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, individually or collectively, though only England's NHS officially has this title. For details of the history of each National Health Service, particularly since 1999, see: The NHS was the first universal health care system established anywhere in the world. A leaflet was sent to every household in June 1948 which explained that The NHS in Scotland was established as a separate entity with its own legislation, the National Health Service (Scotland)
National Health Service point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, apart from dental treatment and optical care. (The English NHS also requires patients to pay prescription charges with a range of exemptions from these charges.) Dr Somerville Hastings, President of the Socialist Medical Association, successfully proposed a resolution at the 1934 Labour Party Conference that the party should be committed to the establishment of a State Health Service. Conservative MP and Health Minister, Henry Willink, first proposed the National Health Service in 1944 with the publication of a White Paper "A National Health Service" which was widely distributed in