The British Hospitals Association was established by

Henry Burdett Sir Henry Charles Burdett (18 March 1847 – 29 April 1920) was an English financier and philanthropist. Biography He was born at Broughton, Northamptonshire, the son of the Reverend Halford Burdett, a Leicestershire clergyman, and his wi ...

in 1884. In 1887 it established a register of trained nurses for those who could show that they had worked for at least a year in a hospital or an infirmary and had been trained in the duties of a nurse. It ran a Nurses Co-operative in the early years of the twentieth century which employed 500 nurses and had a turnover of £50,000 a year. Sir Arthur Stanley was chairman in 1924.

Bernard Docker Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker (9 August 1896 – 22 May 1978) was an English industrialist. Early life Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham on 9 August 1896. He was the only child of Frank Dudley Docker, an English businessman and financie ...

was the chairman in 1941 and represented them on the

Nurses Salaries Committee The Nurses Salaries Committee was the first official body to fix salary scales and conditions for nursing in England. It was founded in 1941, and ceased its activity with its last report in 1943. Henry Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe or Rushcliffe, ...

chaired by

Lord Rushcliffe Henry Bucknall Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe, (15 August 1872 – 18 November 1949), known as Sir Henry Betterton, Bt, between 1929 and 1935, was a British barrister and Conservative politician. He served as Minister of Labour under Ramsay MacD ...

which published two reports in 1943. There were five other British Hospitals Association representatives on the Committee Muriel M Edwards, S Clayton Fryers of

Leeds General Infirmary Leeds General Infirmary, also known as the LGI, is a large teaching hospital based in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Its previous name The General Infirmary at Leeds is still ...

, Gilbert G Panter, J P Wetenhall, and S P Richardson (who was replaced by L Farrer Brown). The Association was involved in discussions about the organisation of the future National Health Service, particularly about the

regional hospital board In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

s. It supported the objective of a free comprehensive health service, but warned that transfer of ownership of hospitals would lead to autocratic bodies taking the place of locally elected committees.

References

{{reflist Hospitals in the United Kingdom Health care industry trade groups based in the United Kingdom