Sixty years of the NHS - July 2008
On 5 July 1948, the Labour Government of the day introduced a new service to provide the public with medical care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – could use any part of it. It would be based on need and not the ability to pay. And so the National Health Service began.
The NHS will be 60 years old this week. Sixty years on, these principles remain at the heart of the NHS. This is something we should all be proud of.
The last 60 years have seen many changes – and these changes have posed new challenges for the NHS.
Over the last 10 years there has been significant investment to face these challenges. This has delivered 38,000 more doctors, 80,000 more nurses, over a hundred new hospitals and the shortest waiting times since records began. Behind these statistics there are real people whose lives have been improved by a better NHS.
But it is important that the NHS continues to improve and that
people know their rights to receive good service from it. That is
why, in the House of Commons earlier this week, the Health
Secretary outlined the Government’s plans to introduce an NHS
constitution. That is why we are increasing access to GPs and
primary care services. And that is why we are introducing measures
not just to treat ill health, but to help keep people healthy in
the first place.
One of the things the Health Secretary talked about was creating a
more personal health service in which patients have greater control
over the care they receive. It is also important that the public
are fully engaged in deciding the priorities for the NHS as it
moves towards its second sixty years.
The NHS is one of this country’s greatest achievements. We all have
a role to play in helping it achieve a lot more in the years to
come.
