Celebrating 70 years of the NHS

On 5 July 2018 the National Health Service celebrates its 70th birthday. We are taking part in the nationwide celebrations because we are proud of the NHS, our people are passionate about health and we are committed to ensuring it remains a world class service for everyone. Many of our people work with the NHS but many more have themselves, or their families, benefited from what the NHS has to offer. We want to help celebrate the vital role the service plays in our lives and to recognise and thank the NHS staff who keep it going day in day out.

Watch our people reflect on the celebrations and what the NHS means to them. #NHS70

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Over its history the NHS has consistently evolved and adapted to new challenges. Improvements to public health and developments in the delivery of medicine has meant we can all expect to live longer, healthier lives with some diseases having been wiped out all together. We are playing our role in the continued search for new solutions to complex problems. Alongside our partners in the NHS we are are looking to the future at the possibilities being created by advances across science, technology and information where innovations such as AI and robotics will completely transform the NHS, the delivery of healthcare and the experience of patients. We look forward to working with the NHS over the next 70 years.

The NHS was launched by the then Health Secretary, Aneurin Bevan, at Park Hospital in Manchester on 5 July 1948. Hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under one organisation to deliver services to patients that were free at the point of delivery. It has come a long way since then…