The quiet time? Pay-beds and private practice in the National Health Service: 1948–1970

摘要

The study of the history of private practice in the NHS has generally been focused on either the introduction or the abolition of pay-beds. This article looks at the period characterised as the ‘Quiet Time’ when a political consensus seemingly emerged to retain some form of private provision within the service. This piece argues that rather than ‘a quiet time’ it was a period of intense activity and controversy as to the place and contribution of pay-beds when there were multiple attempts to rationalise and to make them cost effective. This article is an original study of a much-neglected subject in public policy history.