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This book charts the journey of British General Practitioners (GPs) towards professional self-realisation through the development of a political consciousness manifested in a series of bruising encounters with government.
GPs are an essential part of the social fabric of modern Britain but as a group have always felt undervalued, clashing with successive governments over the terms on which they offered their services to the public. Explaining the background to these disputes and the motives of GPs from a sociological perspective, this research casts new light on some defining moments in the creation of the modern British state, from National Health Insurance to the National Health Service, and the history of the British medical profession. It examines these events from the point of view of the professionals intimately involved in and affected by them, using both established sources, like Ministry of Health records, an in-depth analysis of rarely studied records of professional bodies, and previously unresearched archive material. The result is a fascinating account of conflict and cooperation, and of heroic, and less-than-heroic, defiance of political authority, involving interactions between complex personalities and competing ideologies.
Scholarly yet readable, this book will be of interest to the general reader as much as to medical practitioners and historians.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. An Uncertain Profession: GPs' Struggle for Identity and Status in the Nineteenth Century 3. Professional Representation: 'The Battle of the Clubs' and the Fight for Autonomy, 1880-1911 4. 'The Political Doctor is Now Born': Lloyd George and the Doctors' Revolt, 1911-1913 5. Inauspicious Beginnings: Medical Trade Unionism, the Great War, and Early Attempts at Bargained Corporatism, 1913-1919 6. 'Statutory Bodies with Martial Attitudes': Local Medical and Panel Committees, 1913-1939 7. 'Black-coated Bolshevists': The Ministry of Health, Political Brinkmanship and the 'Ideologies of Class', 1919-1926 8. The Consolidation of National Health Insurance: Administration, 'Red Tape', and the Economics of Contract Practice, 1926-1939 9. Parallel Developments: GPs and the 'Mixed Economy of Care', 1914-1948 10. Utopian Visions: Interwar Debates about the Future of Health Services, 1920-1939 11. For Victory and Health: The Second World War, the Beveridge Report, and the Coming of the NHS, 1939-1945 12. Facing the Future? Bevan, the BMA and the Ghost of Conflicts Past, 1945-1948 Conclusion: Assessing GPs' Political Activities and their Context Epilogue: The Legacy of Medical Professional Protest
About the author
Chris Locke is currently an honorary research fellow in the Department of History at the University of Sheffield. With postgraduate degrees in History and Law, he developed his interest in medical politics during a thirty-year career advising medical practitioners on contractual and policy matters.
Summary
This book charts the journey of British General Practitioners (GPs) toward professional self-realisation through the development of a political consciousness manifested in a series of bruising encounters with the government.
Report
"This is a scholarly book which contains original material and is well referenced... it will appeal to people with an interest in general practice political history."
Chris Derrett, BSHM February 2025
"As Chris Locke demonstrates in his detailed, insightful, and timely analysis in GPs, Politics and the Medical Professional Protest in Britain, 1880-1948, the concerns about insufficient pay, workload, not being valued, and fears that their independence will be taken from them have characterised GPs and their relationship with government since the term 'general practice' was first used in 1818... This book provides a fascinating account of the trials and tribulations of GPs as they emerged as a professional group, developed representative bodies, had repeated periods of conflicts with government, and throughout it all felt underpaid, overworked, and undervalued. Locke has done us a great service in highlighting the role of LMCs, stressing the importance of independent contractor arrangements and clearly explaining the concerns GPs have repeatedly tried to resolve. It's a book that should be essential reading for all those attending LMC conferences today."
Richard Vautrey, BJGP Life (15 March 2025)
