RCOG records of the National Health Service Representative/Negotiating Committee

Three volumes entitled 'A National Health Service: minutes and documents relating to negotiations between the Minister of Health and Representatives of the British Medical Association, the Three Royal Colleges, the Scottish Corporations, the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the Medical Women's Federation, and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (The Representative Committee, later the Negotiating Committee)'. These books contain the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists copies of the minutes of the National Health Service Representative Committee (1945-1948).

The National Health Service Representative Committee was formed in 1943 at the invitation of the Minister for Health who asked the British Medical Association (BMA), in collaboration with the royal colleges, to form a committee representative of all branches of the medical profession to discuss with him the problems involved in establishing a comprehensive national health service. The following bodies were represented on the committee: Medical Planning Committee; BMA; Royal College of Surgeons of England; Royal College of Physicians; Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow; Society of Apothecaries; Society of Medical Officers of Health; Medical Women's Federation; Provincial Teaching Hospitals' Staffs' Association. The purpose of the committee was to explore the medical problems raised by the Beveridge Report and to promote the views of the majority of the medical professions. In 1944 the Representative Committee was restyled as the National Health Service Negotiating Committee; it was disbanded in December 1948 following the establishment of a Joint Committee of the Royal Colleges, the Royal Scottish Corporations and the Consultants and Specialists Committee (established by the BMA), which continued to represent consultants and specialists in negotiation with the Government in matters arising from the National Health Service Acts.

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