When Laborite Aneurin Bevan set up Britain's "womb-to-tomb" National Health Service a generation ago, he responded to doctors' opposition by declaring, "I shall stop their mouths with money." Their criticisms have never really ceased, however, and in recent months NHS doctors have been objecting with increasing vehemence to a government plan that could severely curtail the lucrative private practices many of the senior specialists maintain on the side. Last week their resentment finally erupted into action. In the first nationwide strike since NHS was founded, the 15,000 junior physicians who provide much of the medical care in the system's hospitals refused...
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