In preparation for the 1983 election campaign, Margaret Thatcher, then first-term Prime Minister, famously announced during the Conservative Party’s annual convention that “the NHS is safe in our hands.” This was a successful attempt at dispelling the impression that the NHS was at risk of privatization under another Conservative government, enabling a landslide victory next year. Despite this promise, the following Conservative governments witnessed perpetual underfunding, market deregulation and radical reforms that stopped only short of outright privatization. This article considers the 1989 White Paper “Working for Patients” as a pivotal point for the NHS and a guiding document for Conservatives’ zealous endeavors of reform. We also look at how this document reflects the Conservative’s general way of approaching public institution reform under Thatcher’s influence, and its decades-long impact on the NHS. Continue reading ““Working for Patients”: Thatcherism’s Disguised Attack on the British Healthcare System”