HEALTH AND CARE: Join the NHS birthday celebrations

This year the NHS turns 70, and we want to share our birthday celebrations with local people.
Share your story and join the celebrationsShare your story and join the celebrations
Share your story and join the celebrations

The local NHS is looking for people who are also turning 70 this year so that we can share our local celebrations.

If you were born in 1948 or have a loved one, friend or neighbour that is planning their big 7-0 (or has had it already this year) we want to hear from you.

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We want to tell the real stories of the local NHS and how local services have helped people to stay well, have families, and live happily and healthily in Coastal West Sussex.

We will be talking to people, taking short videos and sharing how the NHS locally has helped to shape people’s lives that live in this area.

There will then be the chance to come together, with your families, later this year to celebrate your birthday and the birthday of the NHS.

If you would like to join the celebrations, please get in touch. You can email: [email protected] or call 01903 708411.

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Across the country this year there will be celebrations to mark the 70th birthday of the NHS.

When Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Manchester on July 5. 1948, it was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all.

For the first time, hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under one umbrella organisation to provide services that are free at the point of delivery.

Since then there have been lots of changes to the way the NHS works but the founding principles have remained at its heart.

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In 1948 there were 16,864 GPs working in the NHS; today there are 41,817 GPs working across 7,400 GP practices.

In 1948 there were 34 deaths for every thousand births; this year this has reduced dramatically to 3.8 infant deaths per thousand births.

Ten years after the NHS was launched, a polio and diphtheria vaccination programme was set up. Previously diphtheria could cause up to 5,000 deaths a year, and now deaths from either of these conditions are very rare.

In 1962 the first hip replacement was carried out, and now we perform more than 77,000 hip operations a year across the country.

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In 1978, the world’s first test tube baby was born. In 2016, there were more than 68,000 IVF cycles resulting in 20,000 births – and since 1978 five million babies have been born through assisted treatment worldwide.

In 1948 the NHS budget was £437million; last year more than £110billion was spent on the day-to-day running of the NHS in England.

You can read more about the NHS 70 celebrations and its achievements since 1948 online: www.england.nhs.uk/nhs70

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