National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973

National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to make further provision with respect to the national health service in England and Wales and amendments of the enactments relating to the national health service in Scotland; and for purposes connected with those matters.
Citation1973 c. 32
Introduced byLord Aberdare
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent5 July 1973
Repealed28 June 1995
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

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 earlier for Scotland. This was the first time the NHS had been reorganised in the UK since it was established in 1948.[1] The next major reorganisations would be the Health Services Act 1980 and the Health Authorities Act 1995 which repealed the 1973 Act.

It created a two-tier system of area health authorities (AHAs) which answered to regional health authorities (RHAs).[2] It also created family practitioner committees, community health councils and a Health Service Commissioner for England and for Wales.

  1. ^ Lale, Alice S; Temple, Jonathan MF (January 2016). "Has NHS reorganisation saved lives? A CuSum study using 65 years of data". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 109 (1): 18–26. doi:10.1177/0141076815608853. PMC 4724772. PMID 26432817.
  2. ^ "NHS Reorganisation Act 1973". The Health Foundation. Retrieved 29 July 2024.