Hospital Management Committees (HMCs) were established as the main instrument for the local management of hospital services of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

(NHS) in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

under the

National Health Service Act 1946 The National Health Service Act 1946 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 81) came into effect on 5 July 1948 and created the National Health Service in England and Wales thus being the first implementation of the Beveridge model. Though the title 'National Hea ...

. There were originally 377 committees which were answerable to the 14

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. Each HMC was responsible for a group of around 10 functionally-related or locally grouped hospitals. The aim was that each hospital group should be able to provide all services which would be available at a large general hospital, and might therefore consist of, for example, a former voluntary general hospital, a municipal general hospital, a maternity home, an isolation hospital, as well as several other smaller hospitals. The service was planned so that patients could be treated in the hospital best suited to their medical needs. Mental hospitals were grouped under their own HMCs. The 36 large

teaching hospital A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...

s were outside this structure; they maintained their own endowment funds and their old boards of governors, who reported directly to the

Minister for Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

, rather than a Regional Hospital Board. The

National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 The National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 (c. 32) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the act was to reorganise the National Health Service in England and Wales. Separate legislation was passed a year ear ...

replaced the system of Regional Hospital Boards and Hospital Management Committees with regional health authorities in 1974. (Hospital Management Committees as created under the National Health Service Act should not be confused with the management committees which governed many individual hospitals prior to the creation of the NHS, particularly following the transfer of former workhouse infirmaries to local councils under the provisions of the

Local Government Act 1929 The Local Government Act 1929 ( 19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 17) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The act abolished the system of poor law unions in England ...

by which boards of guardians were abolished.

Aneurin Bevan Aneurin "Nye" Bevan Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, noted for spearheading the creation of the British National Health Service during his t ...

, who introduced the

in 1948, was a member of the Tredegar Cottage Hospital management committee around 1928 and was chairman in 1929/30; under the NHS, Tredegar Hospital came under the management of the Rhymney and Sirhowy Valley Hospital Management Committee.)

References

{{reflist Defunct National Health Service organisations Hospitals in the United Kingdom