London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The collaborative project entitled ‘Border Crossings: Charity, the State and Health Care Since 1948’ was funded by Wellcome and run by PI Professor John Mohan (University of Birmingham), and CIs Professor Ellen Stewart (University of Glasgow), Professor Martin Gorsky (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), and Professor Bernard Harris (University of Strathclyde).

Over the last four years, our team of social scientists and historians has explored the scale, nature and consequences of charity and voluntarism within the UK National Health Service since 1948. We’ve investigated the shifting role of charity over time, from Aneurin Bevan’s 1946 condemnation of the ‘caprice of private charity’ in healthcare, to the remarkable impact of NHS Charities Together’s Urgent COVID-19 Appeal in the NHS today.  

The conference is an opportunity to hear a discussion of findings from the research with an exciting range of presentations from researchers working on related topics, within and beyond the UK context. Panels include:

• Hospital philanthropy and the profits of slavery
• Charitable funding for the NHS: a “nice-to-have" supplement, or a necessity?
• Charitably-funded innovations in healthcare
• Lessons from the broader diversification of income streams in the NHS

The conference takes place over two days: Thursday 24 October, 10.00-19.00 and Friday 25 October, 09.45-17.30. 

Attendees will receive morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon tea on both days and there will be a drinks reception on the evening on 24 October.

Speakers

• Keynote Lecture: On Day One Dr Nora Kenworthy, author of Crowded Out: the true costs of crowdfunding healthcare, will give a keynote lecture on the function and dysfunctions of crowdfunding for healthcare costs in the US market-based healthcare system.

Other speakers

• Simon Buck, University of Edinburgh
• Michael Bennett, University of Sheffield
• Colin Kinloch, Guys St Thomas’s Trust Charity
• Jane Ferguson, Lothian Health Charity
• Tim Carter, Chief Medical Adviser (retd.) UK Maritime and Coastguard
• Selena Daly, University College London
• Agnes Arnold-Forster, University of Edinburgh
• Rosie Cresswell, University of Strathclyde
• Michael Lambert, Lancaster Medical School
• Giuseppe De Luca, Matteo Landoni, Marcella Lorenzini, University of Milan
• Jonathan Paylor, University of the Arts London
• Iain Sturges, CHSTM University of Manchester
• Carmen M. Mangion, Birkbeck University of London
• Anita Prsa, Central European University, Vienna
• Ashmita Grewal, Simon Fraser University
• Rebecca Bramall, University of the Arts London
• Janis Petzinger and Tobias Jung, Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good, St Andrews University
• Benjamin Hunter, University of Glasgow, and Sibille Merz, King’s College London
• Kathryn Medien, The Open University
• Mark Exworthy, University of Birmingham, and Neil Lunt, University of York
• Francesca Vaghi, University of Glasgow

Programme

Day 1: Thursday 24 October

09:30 – 10:00 Welcome and introductions

 

10:00 – 11:30: Uncharitable Legacies: Hospital Philanthropy and the Profits of Slavery

• Royal Infirmary Edinburgh’s historical links to slavery, and the ethics of reparative justice - Simon Buck, University of Edinburgh
• African Slavery and Hospital Philanthropy in Early Modern England: The Case of Sir Robert Clayton and Thomas Guy, 1670-1730 - Michael Bennett, University of Sheffield
• Discussants: Colin Kinloch, Guys St Thomas’s Trust Charity and Jane Ferguson, Lothian Health Charity

11:30 – 11:50: Break

 

11:50 - 13:20: Learning from other ‘diversified’ income streams in the NHS

• The Pursuit of Exporting in the English NHS - Benjamin Hunter, University of Glasgow, and Sibille Merz, King’s College London
• ‘No Pass Laws to Health!’: Resisting migrant charges for NHS care - Kathryn Medien, The Open University
• The ‘new’ NHS: public service and private income? - Mark Exworthy, University of Birmingham, and Neil Lunt, University of York

13:20 – 14:10: Lunch

 

14:10 – 15:40: Borderlands between State and Charity in the NHS

• Seafarers, charities and the NHS - Tim Carter, Chief Medical Adviser (retd.) UK Maritime and Coastguard
• Italian immigrants’ utilization of private healthcare and charity in England, 1948–today - Selena Daly, University College London
• British Hospitals at the state-charity border since 1948 - Steph Haydon, University of Birmingham

15:40 – 16:00: Break

 

16:00 – 17:15: Plenary session

Crowded Out: Charitable crowdfunding and the politics of health provision in the US - Guest Lecturer - Nora Kenworthy, University of Washington

From 17:15: Drinks reception

 

Day 2: Friday 25 October

09:15 – 10:45: Charitable motivations

• Contemporary NHS charities between cruel optimism and everyday pragmatism - Francesca Vaghi, University of Glasgow)
• How to be human in the inhuman world? Obtaining humanity through palliative care volunteering - Anita Prsa, Central European University, Vienna
• The National Childbirth Trust, Charity, and NHS Maternity Services - Agnes Arnold-Forster, University of Edinburgh

10:45 – 11:05: Break

 

11:50 – 12:35: Charitable Innovations

• Medical Innovation Between State and Philanthropy: The Case of CT Scanners in the 1970s - Iain Sturges, CHSTM University of Manchester
• Charity to fill the void: The case of the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan in the Italian experience (1948-1977) - Giuseppe De Luca, Matteo Landoni, Marcella Lorenzini, University of Milan
• A health economy of makeshifts? Charity, technology and (sub)specialisation in the ‘classic’ NHS, 1948-74 - Michael Lambert, Lancaster Medical School

12:35 – 13:35: Lunch

 

13:35 – 15:05: Charitable Funding in Health Care Today

• “Privacy is a Privilege” – A Thematic Analysis of Canadian Crowdfunding Campaigners’ Concerns and Advice- Ashmita Grewal, Simon Fraser University
• Crowdfunding and taxation: towards a conceptual framework - Rebecca Bramall, University of the Arts London
• Participatory Grant Making and Healthcare Prevention Services: A case study - Janis Petzinger and Tobias Jung, Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good, St Andrews University

15:05 – 15:25: Break

 

15:25 – 16:55: Charitable provision of healthcare: policy, practice and discourse in contexts of scarcity

• Religious charity, social care and HIV/AIDS in England, 1980s-2000s - Carmen M. Mangion, Birkbeck University of London
• Digital voluntary action during the Covid-19 pandemic - a transformational moment in Britain’s mixed economy of healthcare? - Jonathan Paylor, University of the Arts London
• Policy and practice regarding fundraising for hospital charities in the UK: 1960s to 1990s - Rosemary Cresswell, Bernard Harris, University of Strathclyde

16:55 - 17:40: Closing remarks and thanks

 

Note: Programme times are subject to change