British Hospitals Association

The British Hospitals Association was established by Henry Burdett in 1884.^[1] Its journal was The Hospital, which later became The Hospital and Health Review.^[2]

In 1887 the BHA 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.^[3]

Sir Arthur Stanley became chairman in 1924.^[4]

Bernard Docker was the chairman in 1941^[5] and represented them on the Nurses Salaries Committee chaired by Lord Rushcliffe which published two reports in 1943.^[6][7] There were five other British Hospitals Association representatives on the Committee: Muriel M Edwards, S Clayton Fryers of Leeds General Infirmary, 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 boards.^[8] 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.^[9]