Doctors for the NHS Peter Fisher Essay Competition 2023. 1st prize winner

This year, the Doctors for the NHS essay competition was entitled “Is the 1948 model of access to free healthcare still appropriate today?”

Based on that, I wrote a piece centred around 3 key events that occured in 1948. The first was the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi. The second was of course the launching of the NHS by Aneurin Bevan. The thid was the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights.

I explore some key arguments against the model of universal access to healthcare, drawing attention to the similarities of post-war Britain and the recent Health and Care Act 2022. I argue that universal access can help to ameliorate some health inequalities, but that formal healthcare only plays a small part in the ongoing reduction of such inequalities. Instead, I point readers to the wider determinants of health and the need for society to better navigate issues around death and dying.

I’m glad to say that my essay won 1st prize for this competition, and will be published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine!

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