Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS!

Today, the 5th of July, our NHS (National Health Service) turns 70!

On the 5th of July, 1948, the Health Secretary at the time. Aneurin Bevan, launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Manchester (now known as Trafford General Hospital), bringing together healthcare professionals under one organisation funded by taxes, where people could pay in depending on their means, in order to access health services at the point of use.

This is an amazing opportunity to celebrate one of the UK’s best institutions, and thank the NHS staff for all the hard work they put in to providing us with care & support day in, day out.

The introduction of the NHS changed life, in particular for pregnant women, new mummies and their little ones, making access to quality & ultimately lifesaving health care a standard. Our cover photo is an image of some of the very first NHS babies, born in July 1948 – pioneers without even knowing it!

This image shows one of the first home visits – during this period, new mummies were visited by a nurse for two weeks postpartum to be taught how to care for their new baby. It’s a shame that this no longer happens (usually new mummies now get a single midwife visit the day after they get home with baby unless they’re not signed off at that visit) due to how much the NHS now covers, but it’s still a lovely example of what the NHS can do.