Talk:Tredegar Medical Aid Society

Latest comment: 9 months ago by John Desmond

Good work. See here for the quote that was lost. The site may be down but its in Google's cache as you can see from a google search for the quote. Victuallers (talk) 13:03, 16 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

I was touched and remain grateful to Victualler for their compliment, some years ago now, about my first article, about Walter Conway, that I created in 2010, which I have subsequently edited and which I hope to revisit soon.
However, I suggest that the documentation by David Green on pages 114-115 of his 'Reinventing civil society: The rediscovery of welfare without politics' (London: IEA Health and Welfare Unit) (which is available online) of the proceedings of a meeting between him and representatives of the the South Wales and Monmouthshire Alliance of Medical Aid Societies (SWMA), that occurred in January 1946 refutes the claim that the 'Tredegar Medical Aid Society was a model for Britain's National Health Service'. Green initially documented that 'Bevan presented the ten delegates with an outline of the proposal. It was to be based "primarily on health centres, a field in which the Medical Aid Societies had done valuable pioneering". In the new health centres doctors were to be "in consultation with each other". Medical institute [sic] doctors "would therefore be in isolation".' (op. cit.: 114) Green subsequently quoted Bevan verbatim: 'The Cabinet ... were ‘determined not to have the scheme cluttered up by other agencies’ [sic].' (op. cit.: 114-115)
I also suggest that a recent observation in the Introduction by Nye Davies (Editor) in the 2023 book ‘This is my truth Aneurin Bevan in Tribune’ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press) supports Green. Davies observed: ‘Quotes, placards, posters and various merchandise have been adorned with Bevan’s words, including lines that he never likely said, such as ‘We will Tredegarise you’, or ‘The NHS will last as long as there are folk to fight for it’. (op. cit.: 2)
My best regards to Victualler. John Desmond (talk) 11:57, 9 August 2023 (UTC)Reply