A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related ...

1995 Cont - 1996
1995 cont Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act (c.39) and the Criminal Procedure
(Scotland) Act (c.46) consolidated previous acts.
Atomic Energy Authority (c.37) provided for the transfer of property rights and
liabilities of the Authority to other persons.
Gas Act (c.45) introduced a new licensing framework for the British gas industry.
The Department of Health published "Review of Guidance on Doctors' Performance.
Maintaining Medical Excellence" which suggested that doctors' contracts should state that
they should take "appropriate action" when colleagues' standards of practice were poor. See
1999.
The Department of Health published "Variations in Health: What Can the Department
of Health Do?", which proposed that the Department should set specific objectives for
reducing variations; encourage social policies that promote health; and conduct research into
the needs of particularly vulnerable groups of the population and into causal processes (see
1980). See 1997.
With the rising demand for medical services and the increasing costs of their provision,
the need to prioritise and ration services explicitly was widely discussed. The Royal College
of Physicians of London in a report "Setting Priorities in the NHS: A Framework for
Decision Making" called for a national council to help to determine priorities.
The Imperial Cancer Research Fund published "Our Vision for Cancer" drawing
attention to the wide variations in the quality of cancer care between hospitals, in the skills
and technology available, and in the clinical outcomes. See 1999.
The Department of Health published "A Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer
Services" by K. Calman and D. Hine. See 1999.
The White Paper, "Our Future Homes. Opportunities, Choice and Responsibility",
Cm.2901, set out proposals to increase home ownership and greater involvement of housing
associations and the private sector. See 1996.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life (chairman, Lord Nolan) concluded that
there was no evidence of systematic corruption in British public life; and recommended the
appointment of an independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and a code of
conduct for members of parliament. See 1998.
"The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State" by Nicholas Timmins published,
presenting a comprehensive account of the State's efforts to overcome Beveridge's "five
giants" (see 1942) - Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.
1996 On 1st April a partial reform of local government in England was effected by the
abolition of Avon, Cleveland and Humberside metropolitan councils, which had been formed
in 1974.
Local government in Scotland and Wales was reorganised.
The revised structure of the NHS (see 1995) came into effect with the unification of the
district and family health services authorities locally. The regions in England became eight
outposts of the NHS Executive, with responsibility for regional planning; the allocation of
resources to the combined district health authorities and family health services authorities,
and fundholding general practitioners; the duty to supervise the performance of purchasers
and providers but not to intervene in their day-to-day management; and to promote national
policies and priorities. There was less emphasis on competition between hospitals, and more
on comparisons of performance, rationing and "evidence based medicine" (the integration of
individual clinical expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic