# Voluntarism as Resistance to State Control: A Case Study of the Kingston Victoria Hospital and the Fledgling NHS

## TL;DR

This paper explores how a voluntary hospital was established as a form of resistance to the centralised NHS in post-war Britain.

## Contribution

The paper presents a novel case study on the role of voluntarism in resisting early NHS centralisation.

## Key findings

- The New Victoria Hospital was founded as a response to perceived threats to GP independence.
- Voluntary hospitals served as a medium for debates on local democracy and state control.
- Stakeholders viewed the NHS as a challenge to local autonomy in healthcare.

## Abstract

With the launching of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, this taxpayer-funded, centralised, universal service seemingly negated the need for new voluntary hospitals to be established in Britain. Within 3 years, however, the former doctors of the Kingston and Malden Victoria Hospital (KMVH) announced a new voluntary hospital (the New Victoria) after the KMVH was closed for repurposing in the NHS. Examining this case reveals stakeholder perceptions of the early NHS, including debates over general practitioner (GP) independence, local democracy and state control which predated and permeated the founding of the Service. I argue the New Victoria was founded as a response to and revolt against centralised bureaucracy and an attempt to restore a sense of GP independence and patient control in the local hospital service. Voluntarism, in the form of a voluntary hospital, was the medium through which these debates took place.