'The caprice of charity': geographical variations in the finances of British voluntary hospital services before the NHS

Mohan, John F. (2006) 'The caprice of charity': geographical variations in the finances of British voluntary hospital services before the NHS. In, Gorsky, M. and Sheard, S. (eds.) Financing Medicine: The British experience since 1750. (Studies in the Social History of Medicine) Routledge. (doi:10.4324/9780203682401).

Abstract

In the Second Reading debate on the NHS Bill, in 1946, Aneurin Bevan commented that, owing to the ‘caprice of charity’, the voluntary hospital system was best-developed in the more prosperous parts of the country rather than those places which needed it most.4 As the quotation from John Stuart Mill indicates, Bevan was following in famous footsteps in his questioning of the benefits of voluntarism. This chapter explores these comments with reference to the financial resources available to the voluntary hospitals of England, Wales and Scotland. The period covered is from 1891 to 1937, though some of the analyses refer only to the late 1930s. More specifically, the intention is to provide estimates of variations in hospital expenditure, and to make distinctive contributions in analysing the extent of convergence or divergence in hospital finances, and in offering a regional disaggregation of sources of hospital income.

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