The NHS was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. So, how did it all start?

• Aneurin Bevan, founder of the National Health Service was born in 1897.
• Bevan left school at 13 and began working in a local colliery.
• He became a Trades Union Activist and won a scholarship to study in London. It was during this period that he became convinced by the ideas of socialism.
• In 1929 he was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament.
• After the landslide Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Bevan was appointed minister of health.
• On 5 July 1948 the NHS was formed, and there was free diagnosis and treatment for all.

As with any issue which affects so many people, we all have our own views on the NHS. How should it be run? Should we be able to opt in or out? Will there even be an NHS in 10 years time? What do you think?

Sixty Years of the National Health Service.

The 60th anniversary of the National Health Service provides an excellent opportunity
for us to look back with pride on our achievements, as well as to the future.

Throughout its 60 years, the NHS has continuously evolved to meet the changing
needs of the public. Medical progress, coupled with the hard work and skill of
dedicated staff have continually driven up the standards and quality of care, making it the
envy of the world.

NHS Firsts

• The oldest person in the world to have a hip replacement was a 101-year-old lady who was treated at Good Hope Hospital in the West Midlands. More than 89,000 hip replacement operations were carried out in 2006/07.
• When 13-year-old Sylvia Diggery (nee Beckingham) was admitted to a Manchester hospital with a liver condition in 1948, she became the first patient to be treated by the NHS.
• Britain’s first sextuplets were born to Sheila Thorn at Birmingham Maternity Hospital in 1968.
• There was nothing ordinary about the birth in Oldham of Louise Joy Brown on July 25 1978. She was the world’s first test-tube baby. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment is now common and since then, more than a million test tube babies have been born worldwide.
• The first heart transplant in the UK took place on May 3 1968 at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. By December 2007, 5,328 heart transplants had been carried out in the UK.