Evidence, experts and committees: the shaping of hospital pharmacy policy in Great Britain 1948 to 1974.

This chapter illustrates the rise of research-based evidence by reference to two post-war enquiries into the hospital pharmaceutical service in Great Britain. The first, by a sub-committee of the Central Health Services Council, resulted in the Linstead report of 1955; the second, by a working party appointed by the Minister of Health, in the Noel Hall report of 1970. The former had little impact, whilst the latter was the catalyst for monumental change. This chapter explores the reasons why. It demonstrates that by the late 1960s greater use was being made of statistics and research-based evidence, and that the Noel Hall working party represented a new style of expert committee that emerged at this time.