Let’s end this blog with a reminder of the words of 15-year-old Freya Lewis, who underwent 13 operations and more than 70 hours of surgery after being seriously injured in last year’s Manchester Arena bombing.
Freya said of her time in Manchester’s children’s hospital, where staff helped her to walk again: “The NHS saved my life and got me back to normal. The NHS is the best thing in the world.”
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Marthy Bonnerjea, volunteer: 'It’s nice to feel a wee bit useful'
Bonnerjea, 88, started volunteering at King’s College hospital after her husband, Rene, died aged 96. He had been treated at the hospital, and Bonnerjea says she was inspired to volunteer after seeing how hard the doctors and nurses worked.
“When I took my husband here every week the staff were so nice and kind. They went out of their way to help, but they were very overworked, so it inspired me to try to help,” she says.
Bonnerjea now spends one day a week helping in haematology and A&E. “It’s nice to feel a wee bit useful,” she says, adding that her daily jobs include helping out with administrative tasks, making tea and coffee for patients and directing people to various places in the hospital if they are lost.
The sprightly 88-year-old also talks to patients, lending a listening ear. “I remember one old lady and I felt very happy about helping her,” she says, a smile spreading across her face.
“She had very high blood pressure and no one could bring it down. I went in and started asking her questions and she told me about her family history her life ... As she was talking her blood pressure went down and down and down.
“I just sat there listening as she was talking ... I think she just needed to relax. She lived on her own and had bottled up a lot of things. She must have been over 70. The doctors were really happy that I could help out.”
Leslie Gabriel, superintendent radiographer: 'It is the major trauma that stays with you'
I was here for the two terror attacks, when I was a junior I was there for the Admiral Duncan bombing. You see the devastation people can inflict on other people. But it goes back to why you come into the job, to help people, and the satisfaction is seeing how you work together as a multi-discipline team.
Gabriel has spent the day doing scans himself as well as preparing staff for an expert panel.
At the moment one of the major challenges is staffing, persuading our junior colleagues to stay with us, stay engaged with the job, but the market forces, the pressure of the job and the cost of living in London can have a huge impact.
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As part of today’s celebrations we’re hearing from people who volunteer for the NHS. Sadie Lennox, 17, volunteers on the oncology ward of Wansbeck general hospital, and tells us what it means to her.
I’m a sixth-form student at King Edwards VI school in Morpeth and I’m interested in working in healthcare. We were offered volunteering as part of enrichment by HelpForce and I’ve been helping out since February. The experience has been really good.
I spend time with patients on the oncology ward, helping with tea and coffee and keeping them company. There are often difficult moments and that’s why we’re there. It’s the people who don’t have any visitors that struggle the most so it’s nice that we can be there for them even if it’s only for a few hours. We don’t talk about anything in particular. We just let the time pass and keep them company.
One memory that stands out is when we met one patient named Susan. It was probably after a couple of shifts that me and the other girls met her. We struck up a friendship and we’d see her every week after school. It was nice to form a relationship and for her to see familiar faces when we’d visit.
The NHS means a lot to me, my family and friends. I think it’s really comforting to know that we’re helping those who have a condition that has touched most people in one way or another. It’s nice to be able to help care for them and to have the opportunity to do so as such a young age.
Harvey McEnroe, deputy director of operations for A&E: 'It is a challenge'
McEnroe, 31, is responsible for making sure the emergency department has all the equipment it needs and within the hospital’s budget. He is also responsible for delivering the four-hour wait target, which means people have to be admitted, transferred or discharged at A&E within four hours.
McEnroe says that the biggest challenge is the growing numbers depending on emergency departments, with people dealing with conditions they would not have survived decades ago. “Also the ageing profile of patients coming to us now are people who are living longer and managing conditions for longer. That is a challenge,” he says.
Another big concern for McEnroe is staffing. “There are not enough emergency practitioners and nurses on wards to ... sustain quality of services in the best way possible. And if we are struggling to attract those kinds of people at King’s then that’s a concern.”
Jude, 8, patient: 'I have got a new stomach, pancreas, liver, small and large bowel'
It’s afternoon in the paediatric liver ward at King’s College hospital and Jude, eight, is recovering from having five organs transplanted.
“I have got a new stomach, pancreas, liver, small and large bowel,” he says, listing off body parts like a shopping list.
The operation was a month ago and Jude says he feels much better now, although he has been struggling since going onto solid foods. Jude had intestinal failure, which was managed through IV nutrition. He has been fed into his heart for six years.
“It’s been challenging because he has never been able to eat and drink,” his mother Kellie explains.
She adds: “Intestinal failure is not common but can be managed with IV nutrition, not all children need the level of support Jude needed.”
The eight-year-old is one of only 20 children at King’s to have had a multivisceral transplant.
The first thing Jude ate after surgery was a digestive biscuit and his list of favourite foods now ranges from baked beans to oreos.
The nurse who has been looking after him is Sarah White, 25, who works in a ward looking after children with liver conditions.
I love kids ... I would never want to work in an adult ward. I guess the reason I enjoy it is something about fixing people. Taking them from experiencing their worst day to sending them home to grow up and have a great life.
We get lots of long-term patients here and when you work intensively with someone for months you can get quite attached. There are several who we still keep in touch with as a ward. Even if they are cured they still send us photos and updates.
To be a good nurse, you have to love it, you have to be patient and show compassion. I always say I don’t know what I would do if wasn’t doing this, there is nothing else I would want to do.
Incoming patient ...
When a helicopter lands on the helipad high above the King’s College hospital, doctors have around a 20-minute warning to prepare for the patient.
When one helicopter arrives from Kent on Thursday afternoon, the rush of the propellers is quite a force.
When the air ambulance flies in, it’s been in the air for just 20 minutes, having spent around 30 minutes stabilising the patient, and then they continue performing treatment en route to the hospital.
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Sharmeen Hasan, consultant geriatrician: 'I just love the patients'
Hasan is in a contemplative mood. She has spent the day with junior doctors, who have been presenting their new innovations for patient care.
“The NHS’s birthday had made me feel very reflective. But being with those doctors today has been wonderful, they are the bright future of this health service.”
Her ward cares for elderly patients, often frail and with multiple and complex problems including dementia and delirium.
“I just love the patients, it is just such rewarding medicine. I have gravitated towards the really unwell patients because there is more time to spend with them and their families.”
Hasan spends some of her time visiting patients at home, which she says gives invaluable insight into their care.
“Seeing someone in their own space, with their things around them, that is so important to understand them as a human being,” she says.
One patient particularly sticks in her mind. “She was about to get in an ambulance and she said she had to be sprayed with Estée Lauder perfume before she could go. She said she needed it for luck, she couldn’t go out without it. So of course you do that.”
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Angela Graham, administrator: 'Staff morale is low'
Graham, 57, has worked for the NHS in administrative roles for over two decades and in that time she has seen how much it has changed.
The NHS has become more economical rather than focusing on patients and valuing them, which is sad. It’s now more about box-ticking exercises and we have lost the essence of why the NHS was created in the first place.
There are financial worries in the system and there is a lot of burden on the service ... The pressures are from the external bodies but they impact on the day-to-day.
Graham now works as an administrator helping out specialist midwives at King’s College hospital. Her role involves making urgent appointments for pregnant women who need immediate care. She is also responsible for organising sickle cell results and appointments.
Beyond that, Graham is also a union representative and a Speak Up ambassador - the latter role means staff go to her with issues that she then brings up with senior managers.
Staff morale in the NHS has been affected in recent years ... Morale is low because we have moved away from the people ... It’s a domino effect everyone feels under pressure so it works itself down.
If colleagues come to me with a problem I always encourage them to speak, but not everyone has that in them - that is why I do what I do, sometimes we have to be the voice for our colleagues ... support is key.
Tom Best, critical care consultant: 'It’s a massive project, 10 years in the making'
Best is one of the brains behind a state-of-the-art critical care centre. It will be the biggest of its kind in Europe by some margin.
“It’s a massive project, 10 years in the making,” he says. The new unit is still a few weeks from being opened, but Best says as much thought has gone into the design as the equipment, with mounting evidence about how important environment is to recovery.
The rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the park, and the palette of colours in the room has been specially designed to co-ordinate with the trees and the seasons.
“When patients are in critical care, there is a toll on their mental health, they can hallucinate, experience delirium, severe agitation, nightmares. Some have hallucinations about ceiling tiles, so we’ve made sure we’ve removed them, the ceilings are a calm shade of blue.”
At the end of the bed, families can plug in a patient’s playlist.
“If a patient would normally listen to Radio 4, putting it on in the background can make such a difference to recovery.”
Chris Cheyette, diabetes dietician: 'You build a rapport with patients'
When he was growing up, Cheyette wanted to be a chef.
“I loved food but I also loved science. And my teacher at school mentioned to me that I could become a dietician. I’d never even heard of it at the time. But it’s exactly the right combination because I really also like the therapeutic side.”
He has worked in the NHS for 18 years and his patients are mainly people with Type 1 diabetes, for whom he has developed an app and published a book to help people work on their carb intake, and the related amount of insulin.
It can be a real burden on some people to accurately measure every meal. Some people finder it harder to cope, especially if they are starting university or maybe have a relationship breakdown, or just find the process really difficult.
You do build a rapport with patients that you see over a number of years because Type 1 is a life-long condition. And one of the most challenging things is seeing people in their 20s and 30s who maybe didn’t manage their condition as well in their teens and now are experiencing complications, which is very tough but inevitable.
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If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve got a gripping series of interviews with staff on the giddy highs and lows that come with working in the NHS. Doctors, nurses, porters and therapists share their stories:
'The NHS is the best thing in the world': moving tributes from Westminster Abbey service
Fifteen-year-old Freya Lewis bravely stood up to speak at today’s service for NHS staff at Westminster Abbey.
Freya is a schoolgirl from Cheshire who was grievously injured in the Manchester Arena bomb in May 2017, which also claimed the life of her friend Nell Jones, her companion that night enjoying the music of Ariana Grande.
As she told today’s throng of politicians, NHS staff, religious leaders and fellow NHS patients: “I suffered 29 separate injuries, including a broken arm, two broken legs, severe burns, facial and internal injuries.
“There wasn’t any part of my body that hadn’t suffered the effects of shrapnel. My injuries were like those you would see from a battlefield in a war zone. I have now been in surgery on 13 occasions and for a total of over 70 hours.”
Freya was there today with her parents, Nick and Alison, sister Georgia and also Jenny Grant, a nurse in the paediatric critical care unit at Manchester Royal children’s hospital, where she spent five weeks being treated, and whose staff have done a visibly amazing job.
“What has the NHS done for me? The NHS saved my life. It got me back to normal; it got me back together. I’m good; I’m doing well. The NHS is the best thing in the world,” Freya told me.
Freya was in a wheelchair for months but is now mobile again and last month did the Manchester Run to raise money for the hospital. She and her family have so far raised £58,000 for the hospital, which is the NHS’s busiest children’s hospital, treating 260,000 young patients a year.
“A lot of that £58,000 is to buy pillows, bedding and other things to help make parents’ stay at the hospital more comfortable,” Grant explained.
Freya’s dad said they identified that as a priority – to improve the experience of parents, who often spend weeks at a time there tending their child – after he, Alison and Georgia last year had to sleep on chairs, “which were horrendous”.
A lot of cake has been eaten up and down the country in celebration of the NHS. We need the Bake Off judges to decide who has won cake of the day ...
So this was the final cake for @CUH_NHS to help Addenbrookes Hospital celebrate #NHS70 Elderflower, lemon and strawberry cake with a (v fragile) baked Swiss Meringue '70'. Happy Birthday you wonderful NHS!! pic.twitter.com/r6h8KHQb0B
— Ian Cumming (@iancpix) July 5, 2018
Cake off to celebrate NHS 70 years @LCHNHSTrust 👋👋👋 pic.twitter.com/IYdrsTimH1
— Lisa Falkingham RN RHV (@lisafalkimprove) July 5, 2018
@bmj_latest @TheBMA @bmj_company celebrate 70 years of NHS with lashings if cake! pic.twitter.com/fBmkZIfGcF
— Rebecca Coombes (@rebeccacoombes) July 5, 2018
Absolutely love this Alice in wonderland cake design 🎂😍😋by our recovery college, celebrating our 70 years of NHS @CI_NHS pic.twitter.com/7xCB9VmwkN
— Dean Gimblett (@dean_gimblett) July 5, 2018
Nicola Sturgeon defends SNP's record on the NHS
Nicola Sturgeon has said that the foundation pledge of the NHS, that healthcare should be free at the point of need, remains entirely relevant 70 years on.
Speaking as she marked the 70th anniversary at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow with the new Scottish health secretary, Jeane Freeman, the first minister said: “This commitment remains as strong as ever, and is just as relevant today as it was in 1948, which is why we are investing record-high real-terms health funding and have delivered an all-time high in NHS staff numbers.”
We were delighted to welcome the First Minister @NicolaSturgeon, new Cabinet Secretary @JeaneF1MSP & @jasonleitch to the Royal #Hospital for Children in #Glasgow as part of our #NHS70 celebrations!
— NHSGGC (@NHSGGC) July 5, 2018
https://t.co/zWO1zCmTQS
Freeman said: “The NHS has all but eradicated diseases such as polio and diphtheria, and Scotland itself has a long and proud history of delivering medical advances, such as the establishment of ultrasound, the UK’s first successful kidney transplant and advances in the use of keyhole surgery.
“As we look to the future we want to ensure Scotland’s NHS continues to be a world leader in compassionate, quality healthcare.”
While Sturgeon has defended the NHS in Scotland against the market-style policies and increased use of private services prevalent in England, NHS policy and funding remains fiercely contested ground in Scotland.
The first SNP government elected in 2007 abolished all prescription charges Scotland-wide - although many dentistry and eye care costs remain chargeable to patients - and began integrating health and social care, while continuing to rely heavily on private financing to build many of its new hospitals and health centres.
While health spending is at record levels, A&E targets and cancer appointment targets are routinely missed.
In his speech to mark the anniversary, Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, said the SNP had failed to address the social and economic inequalities which heightened health inequalities.
“Labour founded our NHS, based on need not ability to pay. The health service is our proudest achievement, socialism in action and Labour will always fight for it,” he said.
“Right now in Scotland, life expectancy and quality of life has as much to do with the privilege of the postcode you are born into as anything else. [The] fundamental reform our health service needs isn’t service closures – it is changing our society to work for the many, not the few.”
Sarah Wollaston is a former GP, a Conservative MP and chair of the health and social care select committee:
Such an honour to be in Westminster Abbey today for the wonderful & moving service to celebrate #NHS70 & to thank nurse Alison Cull for her years of service to the community in #Totnes (& for making it today despite her broken leg) pic.twitter.com/ajbg5ZUcqf
— Sarah Wollaston MP (@sarahwollaston) July 5, 2018
Meanwhile, Gary Lineker has taken time out from discussing the World Cup to sing the praises of the NHS:
The NHS is 70 years old. It’s something that we should be immensely proud of and protect at all cost. One of the foremost things that makes Britain Great. #NHS70
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 5, 2018
Denise Knighton, 68, works as a PA/administrator at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS foundation trust. She looks back over a 50-year career.
Administrators are the first port of call for patients – when the phone goes, we answer it. I’ve been working in the NHS for 50 years, so I know how services fit together and how they work. When the public phone in, I can help by signposting them to where they’ll get the best results for what they’re looking for.
I was on duty the day after the Hillsborough disaster and was one of the people facing people coming into hospital, and ringing in to find out where relatives and friends were. It was probably my worst day. It was handled as well as it could be but you were dealing with very distraught people and it was difficult. Working in areas where people are suffering from serious health problems can be challenging too. I worked for a cardiothoracic surgeon in the past who dealt with everyone from children to people in old age. You get used to patients and if anything happens it has an effect on us. Sometimes you get upset with certain situations – that’s just part of the role.
I’ve got loads of good memories too. I’ve worked with so many lovely and talented people who have changed things. The heart surgeon I worked for opened the heart transplant unit in Sheffield and performed the first heart transplant in the area. The consultant haematologist I worked for made progress with research. A lot of people have made a difference in the NHS and in people’s lives.
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Guy Opperman, Tory MP: 'The NHS saved my life, twice.'
The Conservative MP Guy Opperman has said the NHS saved his life not once but twice, as he paid tribute to his amazing doctors in a heartfelt open letter.
His first scare came when he was crushed by a falling horse while competing as a steeplechase jockey at Stratford races.
My entire left side was staved in, giving me 14 broken ribs, a kidney cut in half, a perforated spleen and a pneumothorax – when you pop a rib through your lungs. I was incredibly lucky to survive, and it is thanks to my consultant, Dr Mike Stellakis of Warwick hospital that I did.
He later gave up steeplechase and became an MP, elected in 2010 to represent Hexham in Northumberland. The following year he collapsed in the House of Commons and was found to have a brain tumour “the size of a woman’s fist”.
He wrote: “Illness brings perspective, and having been seriously ill with a potentially life threatening brain tumour, I resolved to campaign and fundraise for the NHS locally, and nationally, from political activism to charity hikes. Happy Birthday NHS!”
Dr Katherine Sleeman, palliative care consultant: 'Death does not have to be frightening'
As a palliative care doctor for 10 years and a consultant for two, Sleeman is confronted with death on a daily basis. If her job has taught her one thing it is not to be afraid of dying.
“A lot of people in society are really scared of dying ... that is a fear of the physical process of dying and of being dead ... I am not afraid ... because I have seen so many deaths that I would consider good deaths. I have also seen how good palliation can help people when they are dying,” she says.
Sitting in her office in the Cicely Saunders Institute, based at King’s College London, Sleeman splits her time between clinical and academic work. The Cicely Saunders is a world-leading centre for palliative care research, one of just a small number in existence.
Sleeman says the clinical side of her job involves caring for people who are dying but also those who have life-limiting illnesses with months or years left to live. She helps with symptom control, for example if someone getting chemotherapy has bad mouth ulcers they can come to her for treatment.
“On the whole some of the patients who most stick in my mind are ones who have shocking and sad stories but face death with dignity and grace ... those patients taught me death does not have to be frightening,” she says.
One such patient, Sleeman says, was a woman in her 50s who she recently treated. “She had a very new diagnosis of metastatic cancer and she was told she was too ill for any treatment. She was given a terminal diagnosis and we came to see her to support her through understanding what that meant.
“The reason it sticks in my mind is because she was relatively young and had a young family, including grandchildren and children who were all around her bedside trying to come to terms with what was happening. She really did take the news on board with the most amazing grace ... one of the first things she said to me was that she was not afraid of dying and that she had made her peace with it. I found that extraordinary.”
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Andy Burnham visits Britain’s first NHS hospital, Trafford General near Manchester
At Britain’s first NHS hospital, Trafford General near Manchester, the mayor, Andy Burnham, was serenaded by the hospital’s choir who sang a spirit-lifting rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday to mark the day.
The Greater Manchester mayor was greeted by seven current nursing staff, each dressed in a uniform from one of the seven decades of the NHS. He also met a woman who helped serve Nye Bevan breakfast on the day history was made 70 years ago.
The critical care team choir serenade the NHS, on the 70th anniversary of Nye Bevan’s historic visit to open Trafford General, the first NHS hospital ever opened #NHS70 pic.twitter.com/qVobyELZxJ
— Patrick Hurst (@paddyhurst) July 5, 2018
Bevan stayed at the home of the parents of June Rosen, who was then aged eight, the night before he launched the NHS at Trafford General hospital.
She helped her mother give him breakfast in bed, and later that day - 5 July 1948 - her father, a local Labour councillor, drove him to Trafford, where he opened the first hospital in the world to offer free healthcare to all.
Burnham described Bevan as his “political hero” and said he had given Britain “the greatest give they have ever had: care, whenever they needed it, there for them without worry of cost. That we would treat everyone the same, whether a millionaire or a mill worker.”
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Dr Claire Saha, orthoptist
Saha, 39, is deputy head of optical services. Traditionally this job involved testing children’s eyes and giving them patching therapy for squints but increasing demand on services means that the role now also involves treating medical conditions such as glaucoma and other jobs that frees up the time of consultants.
Saha says:
The patients you always remember are the ones that you can relate to in terms of your family. For example one I will always remember was one who was the same age as my son who had the same birthday as him. He was very unwell – he was in an accident and nearly lost his vision. We were able to help him.
He needed vision therapy, which means we gave him a patch to cover the good eye to force the bad one to be used properly. You can only do that in children because after the age of eight to 10 the brain stops growing. It’s an issue that needs to be picked up early.
In my job I will often see a patient their whole life … Children with squints have their vision therapy when they are about four or five but then may not have surgical correction until they are much older. I’ve seen some children I’ve diagnosed with vision problems as children 15 years later when they need to have surgery. That’s always interesting.”
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Rachel Mwansa, senior nurse: 'You get to change people's lives'
Mwansa did her nursing training in Zambia and has been at King’s College hospital for 19 years. She has risen to become one of the hospitals most senior nurses and heads the liver and renal department.
“I do want to be an example for other BAME [black and minority ethnic] nurses. Leadership is extremely important,” she said.
“I’ve been a mentor and a coach to many women, who say they are inspired themselves to think that maybe this kind of job could be for them, that there doesn’t need to be a racial barrier. That is one of the real beauties of the NHS, its diversity.”
Nursing’s great appeal for Mwansa is the time she can spend with patients.
I have seen people on the first day of their lives and the day that their lives end. But for me one of the most moving things is the day you get to change people’s lives. I’ve seen people who wanted to end their lives, I’ve sat with them, heard their stories, give them time and space, tell them my experience. And then perhaps they change their perspective. I think that is one of the times I have had the most impact.
The Labour MP Jess Phillips has shared her very personal reasons to be thankful for the NHS today.
Happy Birthday to the NHS.These are my babies, I nearly died having one of them, & the other one nearly died being born.The NHS saved us. Both have had surgery, they've been protected from future disease, their teeth and bespectacled eyes cared for.Thank you will never be enough pic.twitter.com/KANvKdP0MB
— Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) July 5, 2018
Pictures are flooding of politicians at NHS events across the UK.
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, meets staff and patients during a visit to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, meets patient Kathleen Henry on ward six of Trafford General hospital.
The government was represented at today’s Westminster Abbey service by Jeremy Hunt, who gave the first reading, and Philip Hammond, the chancellor. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, represented Labour.
The order of service included a message from the prime minister, Theresa May, in which she referenced her status as an NHS patient, because she has type 1 diabetes.
She said: “Today is a chance for us to say a big ‘thank you’ to one of our nation’s most precious institutions, and to the doctors, nurses and many others who have looked after the nation’s health for 70 years.
“We will all have our own particular thanks to give; whether it is to those who helped bring us into the world, treated us through sickness or injury, or cared for a relative. My own personal thanks go to all those who support me in managing my diabetes.
“Our National Health Service today continues to reflect the British values on which it was first founded: fairness, compassion, and the fundamental belief that no one should be denied medical treatment because they cannot afford it.
“I want to wish everyone working in the NHS, now and in the past, the very best – and on behalf of the entire country, thank you for everything you do.”
Prof Mike Edmonds, consultant diabetologist
Imagine thinking you will eventually have to get your leg amputated, only to be told by a consultant that it can be saved.
This is what happened to Mark York, 51, and on Thursday morning he is visiting the foot clinic in King’s College hospital for an appointment.
The man who helped save his leg is orthopaedic surgeon Dr Venu Kavarthapu, working alongside consultant diabetologist Prof Michael Edmonds.
The clinic treats patients who have foot-related problems linked to diabetes. “They get problems because they have high sugar and that damages nerves and arteries and get ulcers in feet and they get infected,” Edmonds explains.
York was always told he would eventually lose his leg. “The local hospital treated me for a long time, picking bits of bone off. Then it came to the point where I was told amputation was the only option. I disagreed so I asked for another opinion,” York says.
That’s when he met Dr Kavarthapu and Dr Edmonds. “I was so shocked I cried when I was told that my leg could be saved,” he said.
Kavarthapu reconstructed the foot. “The first stage was to remove all the infected parts and the second stage was to get the foot in a normal shape. We did that through reconstruction,” he says
Edmonds says that 80% of amputations in England linked to diabetes are avoidable. “There are many reasons for that and one is that we have a multi-disciplinary team here working together to get the best results. Not everywhere has that,” he says.
York says: “They treated me like I had a brain in my head, and the care I received was planned between guys who know what they are doing and me, who knows what is best for me.”
Olu Verissimo, school assistant: ' We will never let the children down'
In the children’s ward, boys and girls who have extended stays in hospital can keep up with their education in a special schoolroom. Four are there today, all of different ages, and today’s theme is the birthday of the NHS.
A jigsaw of different parts of the brain is passed around, and some children feel the back of their own heads feeling for the different shapes.
Olu Verissimo has been volunteering at the school for three years, helping children with homework, with games and cooking with them in the kitchen.
“I had a family member who was in hospital for a while, I saw how this school kept her busy and engaged, not thinking about her illness. And I thought, why not? I could do something good for the hospital.”
Some children form close bonds with the staff, she says. “It is really really tough when the children die. But there is such happiness when they recover,” she says. “I’ve seen children come in who were so poorly and their recovery brings so much joy.”
She says the dedication of the staff has been the thing that kept her volunteering for so long.
“People change their lives, they cancel things, if we are short-staffed we will never let the children down, it never gets to them. That empathy is what has kept me here so many years.”
What are Labour politicians saying about the NHS’s 70th birthday?
Inevitably – and many will say understandably – they are seeking to score points against the Conservatives, both about the service’s creation in 1948 and also the problems it now faces.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is repeating what is an essential element of Labour identity: “The NHS remains Labour’s greatest ever achievement, the most powerful engine for social justice we have ever seen and one of our most cherished institutions.”
Labour have produced a six-page dossier – “70 years of the NHS; eight years of Tory failure”. The report predicts queues and waiting lists will be much longer by 2020, regardless of the £20bn budget boost Theresa May promised last month.
And Ashworth was quick to offer a history lesson on the NHS’s birth in 1948. “The Tories voted against it over 20 times in parliament and the Tory health spokesman said of the NHS Bill, ‘we are taking a step from which there will be no going back. I believe it would be a fatal step’. Bizarrely a Tory opponent in the Lords even suggested its creation ‘may lead to civil war’.”
Connecting that to today, Ashworth insists that the public will not be taken in by the prime minister’s £20bn gift. “Tory claims of a long-term plan [for the NHS] are hollow. Patients will fear that it’s the same old Tories, failing to support our NHS, just as they did 70 years ago.”
Britain’s first NHS hospital has celebrated the 70th anniversary with music, speeches – and the girl who helped serve Nye Bevan his breakfast on the day history was made.
The Press Association has filed this report:
Bevan, the minister for health in Labour’s reforming post-war government, stayed at the home of the parents of June Rosen, then aged eight, the night before he launched the NHS at Trafford General hospital near Manchester.
She helped her mother give him breakfast in bed, and later that day – 5 July 1948 – her father, a local Labour councillor, drove him to Trafford, where he opened the first hospital in the world to offer free healthcare to all.
Rosen, who was at Trafford General on Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary, recalled her mother telling her not to get too close to their “visitor” as she had a cold and he had “important speeches to make”.
She said: “I remember him sitting up in bed in striped pyjamas with a shock of grey hair and my mother putting the tray on his knee and then off he went. A little cameo of history.
“I was small, the age you don’t take it in, but I knew it was something momentous and my parents had explained what it was all about.”
Mrs Rosen, now 78, said Bevan inspired her own lifelong work in the NHS. She trained as a physiotherapist and still works part-time as a deputy clinical lead therapist at cancer treatment hospital the Christie in Manchester.
Greater Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, was greeted by seven current nursing staff, each dressed in a uniform from each of the seven decades of the NHS.
Each told him an anecdote of nursing life: how in the 1940s nurses spent just eight weeks training – and had to ask the matron’s permission to get married – and then had to leave the profession once they were married.
Burnham said he gave thanks to every person who is working or has worked in the NHS for their public service, from nurses and doctors to cleaners, porters, secretaries and receptionists.
He added: “Now, Nye Bevan was a hard man to please. But if he were here today I think he would be pretty pleased with what the NHS has become, and we are proud too that Greater Manchester was the birthplace of the NHS.
Burnham later unveiled a blue plaque at the hospital to mark Bevan’s visit, before a hospital choir sang Stevie Wonder’s version of Happy Birthday as VIPs, staff and patients clapped along.
George Antionades, junior doctor: 'Death is sadly a frequent occurrence'
A steady flow of patients have made their way through paediatrics on Thursday morning, according to 28-year-old junior doctor George Antoniades.
“My first patient was an asthma exacerbation, another one had a broken foot and then a girl came in just now with migraines. You don’t really know what to expect in the paediatric emergency department. It can vary quite a lot,” he says.
Antoniades says that the most difficult part of the job is that sometimes children can be harder to communicate with, so finding out their symptoms is tricky. “You have to find out how to talk to them without scaring them,” he says.
Despite the challenges, Antoniades loves working in a fast-paced environment. He works in the paediatric A&E for a month every six months. For the rest of the time he is in the adult emergency department.
Three months ago he faced one of the biggest challenges of his career: an 11-month-old baby who had a cardiac arrest. “It was about 7.30am and I was about to finish my shift when it was phoned in … It was the youngest child I’ve ever seen in that state and they ended up surviving. It was by far the most stressed I’ve ever been.
“Initially panic went through my mind but then you go back into protocols and I have a great team around me,” he says. “You have to leave a lot of stuff at work or otherwise you’d go mad … for example, if someone dies, which is sadly a frequent occurrence.”
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Rebecca Manners, midwife: 'You are women's support network'
There are four women currently giving birth in the labour ward at King’s, and another six women who have been induced – it is shaping up to be a busy shift for midwife Rebecca Manners.
“We can sometimes have up to around 14 births a day - or just one or two. It’s so unpredictable,” she says.
The area the hospital serves in south-east London has more high-risk births than average, and Manners sees a huge range of ethnicities and age groups. “I get really close to every woman who gives birth here, some of the best are when you’ve delivered their first baby and then they come back to have their second.
“Some women will be here completely on their own, with no partner or family so you have to be their birthing partner. You are their support network. It is such a vulnerable time for a woman so you need to say to them, just concentrate, I’ll do all the worrying for you.”
The shifts can be punishing, if there are emergencies. “I have done 12-hour shifts with no breaks, nothing to eat, no time to stop,” she says.
Midwifery was her aim from a young age, she says. “The lows, the bereavement, are really low, but the highs are really high too. One of the best parts is that the people here aren’t sick, they are going through a normal and natural process. And it’s one of the most emotional times in their lives, it’s a privilege to see that. I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to do this job.”
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The volunteers: 'The patients ask if they can pay me!'
My colleague Rachel Obordo has been speaking to volunteers – increasingly at the heart of what the NHS does – about their roles, and how they fit into the NHS as a whole.
Stanley and Joan Sinfield, 93 and 91, are volunteers at Bradford Royal infirmary. They have spoken about their long history with the health service.
“I left school at 14, started working with the NHS in 1948 and left in 1959. I’ve been volunteering for 20 years,” said Stanley.
“We’ve been married 60 years and we met when I started working for the NHS at 21. We were both there at the start of the national health service and as you can imagine it was a very busy time,” said Joan.
“We started working for Bradford Executive Council of the NHS which administered services provided by doctors, dentists and opticians. Later on we were both employed in the ophthalmic department dealing with forms from opticians from people who had their eyes tested,” said Stanley.
“We started volunteering after we retired. We just thought the NHS was absolutely amazing. We remember back in the day when my two sisters, mum and dad had to pay every time we went to visit the doctor. In those days you couldn’t afford it all when you needed treatment. We would have someone come on Friday night to collect money from us so we could pay for any treatment we needed. You had to try and avoid going to hospital though,” said Joan.
“I volunteer in the hospital’s health information centre. There we have a lot of information that people can get from us relating to various diseases. We don’t give advice because we’re not trained but we do provide leaflets for those interested. I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and volunteering is a chance for me to give something back to the NHS,” said Stanley.
“I volunteer in the diabetic department on Friday mornings. I attend to people in the waiting room and ask them if they want tea and coffee. The patients think it’s wonderful and ask if they can pay me for what I do! We just want to help the staff a bit and they do appreciate us. They seem to think we’re quite useful,” said Joan.
Birthday festivities are well under way at hospitals across the country, with dressing up seemingly a key aspect of healthworker fun.
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“The NHS is a grand lady who watches over us every day,” says Martin Griffiths, a consultant vascular and trauma surgeon who will speak at the Westminster Abbey service that kicks off at 12noon.
“It’s a phenomenal institution. It’s not about technology or equipment; it’s about wonderful people doing wonderful things. It’s about the ordinary hero, isn’t it? The person who reaches out to you in your time of need. That’s what we’re celebrating here today.
Griffiths, who works at the Royal London hospital in east London, specialises in operating on knife and gunshot victims. “We look after the unwanted and the unloved. We provide what you need at the point of contact. That’s an amazing thing.
“We are the envy of the world [because of the NHS] … You ask any person in any country what the NHS is and they are amazed that you can get any medicine irrespective of what you’re paid or your circumstances.”
Griffiths said he had rewritten his speech for today “14 times, I think”.
Why has the idea of the NHS endured for 70 years?
Because it’s the quintessence of what care is about. It sets aside all judgement about people and their circumstances and just gets on with making people better, to get back to their lives. We support people in need and in crisis.
It’s so successful. It’s thriving. It’s such a part of people’s lives that you never have to look at yourself and say ‘can I afford that?’. It’s always there for you. The fact that that thought is in people’s minds all across the country is an amazing thing, an amazing achievement.
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'I wouldn't even go out before I had my artificial eye'
Danny Aspinall, 36, from London, lost his eye when a bottle was smashed in the face during an attack in 2009.
Today, he is getting a new artificial one fitted, and prosthetic technologist Giovanna Grados will review him in a few weeks time to make sure it’s comfortable. This is the second eye he has fitted since the attack.
Grados first takes an impression of the inside of the eye and uses saline solution to clean the area. The artificial eye fits perfectly because it has been designed specifically to fit Aspinall.
“It took around four hours to make the eye - but we do it in stages of four appointments. In the first one we taken an impression and in the second one we work out the position of the pupil. It’s in the third appointment we achieve the colour of the existing eye and we fit it in the fourth,” Grados says.
Once the eye is in, it stays in, and does not need to be removed overnight. “It feels great,” Aspinall says. “You hardly feel that it’s there … It’s made me feel so much more confident. I wouldn’t even go out when it first happened.”
Grados observes the new eye with a smile. “This is so rewarding and really makes me happy,” she says. “It has a bit of movement in it to as Aspinall has a bit of muscle.
“The work that the doctors are doing has been really helpful,” Aspinall says.
Westminster Abbey, where today’s 70th anniversary service will take place at 12noon, has one major link to the NHS’s creation in 1948.
It is where Clement Attlee, prime minister of the postwar Labour government that gave us the NHS, is buried. His ashes were interred under a black marble stone in the north aisle of the abbey’s nave, near the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, on 7 November 1967. The memorial service was attended by 2,000 people.
Many Labour leaders since, including Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn, have described the NHS as the party’s greatest achievement.
Belinda Johnston, an NHS bowel cancer scientist and Attlee’s granddaughter, told a funny story in Monday’s Guardian about Attlee’s motivation for setting up a national health service, in which her mother Alison played a key role.
Attlee also has a second connection to Westminster Abbey. He and Winston Churchill, with whom Attlee worked as deputy prime minister during the second world war, jointly wrote an inscription that commemorates Franklin D Roosevelt, their wartime US ally.
Attlee and Churchill also jointly unveiled the memorial, which sits on the west wall in the abbey’s nave, on 12 November 1948.
The words chosen by Attlee and Churchill were: “To the honoured memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1882-1945. A faithful friend of freedom and of Britain. Four times President of the United States. Erected by the Government of the United Kingdom.”
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Prince Charles was greeted by staff and patients at Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan to mark the NHS’s 70th birthday on his fourth day in Wales.
Charles greeted by schoolchildren from Beaufort Hill primary school’s choir and the Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones. Later, he will attend a garden party where he will unveil a plaque and cut a cake to mark the 70th anniversary.
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NHS charities across the UK are raising money in the most British way possible – by drinking tea.
The NHS Big 7Tea event is a chance for people to celebrate 70 years of the NHS, recognise the hard work and commitment of staff past and present and raise money for 250 NHS charities by hosting tea parties up and down the country.
The blurb for the event explains: “The humble cup of tea has a long and proud association with the NHS. Originally served to patients in traditional fine cups with saucers and side spoons as a means of hydration, tea was considered such an important aspect of patient satisfaction that one hospital is rumoured to have even hired an official tea taster.”
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Nicola Oldcroft: 'I love seeing patients survive against the odds'
Oldcroft, 32, is one of the few palliative care social workers in the country to work inside critical care units, with both patients coming to the end of their lives, and with their families.
She has just finished a weekly bereavement meeting, where staff have time to remember the patients who have recently died and arrange sending cards to family members. Later she will meet three new patients who have arrived, including one with a severe brain injury.
“In critical care, it seems counterintuitive, we want patients to survive, but actually, families do want to talk about the possibility [of death]. They want to be prepared.”
Oldcroft worked through some of the most traumatic major incidents of the past few years, caring for victims and families from the Westminster and London Bridge terror attacks and the Grenfell tower fire.
But it is the recent spate of youth violence that she says has had a particular effect on her. “One young man was beaten outside a club, it was mistaken identity and his girlfriend was pregnant. He died and it was really, really hard. We ended up being in touch for around five months, following up, I just really wanted to know she’d had the baby OK.
“But there are wonderful parts too, seeing amazing, miraculous things that medical teams achieve, when people survive against the odds.”
Patients who have been cared for by the staff for months, who then suddenly deteriorate and die, can also be especially hard, she said.
“I wanted to come into social care to really make a difference to people’s lives, this really captured so much of my goals and interests in this field. It suits my personality but it does obviously require a lot of emotional support too. We have a really supportive team, and you have to practice a lot to self-care.”
Her day can be extremely varied, talking to a traumatised child who had a family member about to die, helping patients’ families who have come in with only the clothes on their backs and nowhere to stay while their loved one is in major trauma surgery.
“Every day brings something different, there is never a dull moment.”
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Of the many tributes to the founding father of the NHS, Nye Bevan, I think this may be the most ambitious.
A 10m by 14m outdoor portrait of Bevan has been created near his hometown of Tredegar on the vibrant green moors of Trefil – the highest village in Wales.
The tribute is the work of the Valleys-born artist and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nathan Wyburn, and is part of a campaign to bring more visitors to “the heart and soul” of Wales.
Giovanna Grados: 'We fixed the boy's new ear on magnetically'
In a laboratory on the maxillofacial ward at King’s College hospital, Giovanna Grados is sitting by the window. On tables around her are prosthetic ears, noses and eyes.
She works as a prosthetic technologist, doing facial reconstruction and creating artificial parts of the face to replace those lost through trauma or cancer.
“It’s very easy to lose an eye due to trauma. I had a one patient lose it through the force from someone shooting a gun near his face. Another patient lost their eye when they were hit in the face with a mop handle. The eye got infected and it had to be removed,” Grados says.
The eyes she makes are created from acrylics and take about four hours to produce. They are made after a series of fittings and appointments with the patient. Although patients cannot see through these artificial eyes, Grados says work is going on in the US to make this possible.
“The technology is not fully developed yet but they are trying to connect cameras to the brain through the optical nerve so you can see through artificial eyes. It’s not on the market yet,” she says.
One patient sticks in Grados’ mind. “It was someone who lost part of their ear due to cancer … He was devastated and said he didn’t want to leave the house. He didn’t want to do anything. But I explained what we were going to do and he started to get excited. He was always so punctual for his appointments and he is really happy now, every six months he comes back in,” she adds.
“Another case that sticks out is that of a 12-year-old who lost the inside of his ear due to infection … We created a mirror image of the other ear and printed it using a 3d printer. The ears are then fixed on magnetically, with magnets going into the bone.”
Grados says she loves her job because she can really help people. “It’s a good feeling to be able to give them back a bit of what they lost.”
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Scottish health secretary warns of Brexit threat to NHS
Scotland’s new health secretary, Jeane Freeman, has been outlining her priorities this morning, including a focus on improving waiting times, increasing the pace of integration of health and social care, and having “the right workforce in the right place with the right skills”.
Freeman, who was appointed to the role last week following a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, has inherited one of the most difficult briefs in Holyrood, as the service faces significant funding and recruitment problems.
Interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland, she spoke at length about the threat posed to NHS Scotland by Brexit – grave concerns have been raised in particular about the number of EU nationals staffing the service across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Brexit is one of the major threats to the sustainability of our health service here in Scotland and it’s not simply about the numbers of staff working in our health service its also about the richness of our research collaboration with colleagues across the EU.
So we are looking as best as we can but for as long as the Scottish government is shut out of what the UK government is planning it is its very difficult for us to work in the absence of actually knowing what the plan is by the time we get to March next year. We are of course very alert to the problem and we are looking at what might be done but it is difficult to plan when you are shut out of the negotiations and discussions which provide you with the factual information that any good planner knows they have to work on.
Dr Rob Bentley: 'Every bone in his face was broken'
Bentley, a maxillofacial surgeon and clinical director of the south-east London, Kent and Medway trauma network, is standing high above King’s College hospital on its new helipad.
He is one of the key minds behind the creation of the new helipad, though he has a secret. “I wasn’t good with heights before,” he laughs. “But you do get used to it.”
The helipad opened in 2016, and means patients can be transferred from as far away as Margate in as little as 25 minutes – the difference between life and death or serious brain injury. In an ambulance, it could take two hours.
Helicopters used to land in the nearby Ruskin park, but that involved a huge police operation and a 25-minute extra drive by ambulance. Now patients can be in theatre within five minutes. “Time is life,” Bentley said. “It makes a huge difference to a patient’s chance of survival. Major trauma is the biggest killer of people under 45.”
Bentley tells one story of a patient who arrived in the hospital after falling from his roof. His wife was seven-months pregnant. “Every bone in his face was broken, his arm, his wrist, his femur. He was barely conscious. He was here in 25 minutes from Hythe. In the car, his wife took hours. He had a tracheostomy, I rebuilt his face. And he’s now back at work, he saw his son born, and he’s just become the local squash champion. It is amazing how essential time was to his recovery.”
Bentley says the helipad will futureproof the hospital as the NHS moves towards a system of major centres of excellence to cover larger areas, rather than smaller local centres.
“Equity of access, quality of care,” Bentley said. “That’s what it is about, access to this kind of quality care for the 2.5 million in Kent and Medway.”
- The helipad at King’s College hospital, and 20 others around the country, was funded in part by the HELP Appeal, which is the only charity in the country funding hospital helipads. For more information on the HELP Appeal, please visit www.helpappeal.org.uk.
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Pay rise offer for NHS Wales staff on 70th anniversary
The Welsh health secretary, Vaughan Gething, has announced a new pay offer to NHS Wales staff that matches – and in some cases goes beyond – the new NHS pay deal for England.
The offer has been negotiated with employers and unions, but still needs to be approved through a ballot of union members. It means all NHS staff in Wales will have pay parity with their counterparts in England, following the recently announced new pay deal there.
Gething said: “As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS in Wales, it is appropriate we recognise those who have made the service what is today and continue to deliver the best possible care for all in their time of need. Our NHS in Wales simply could not function without the skill, dedication and hard work of its staff.
“After eight hard years of austerity, imposed by the UK government, we have committed extra funding beyond the consequential funding that we received following the pay rise in England, to offer a deal which is not only fair to staff and taxpayers but will also lead to a better NHS for Wales.”
Gething said the pay offer included a new rate of £17,460 introduced from 1 April 2018 as the minimum basic pay rate in the NHS, while the lowest starting NHS salary increases to £18,005 in 20/21.
The agreement does not cover employed doctors and dentists and those in executive and senior posts, who have separate negotiating bodies.
Dr Victoria Potter, consultant haematologist
Potter treats people with diseases of the blood, including cancers, leukaemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell disease.
While she says all patients have an impact on her, she remembers one in particular whose tenacity in the face of hardship inspired her. This patient was in her 50s and she died about nine months ago.
What was amazing was that even though her disease can back early after the transplant, and we tried for months to get the disease back under control with various treatments, she kept going. Even when we had to have hard conversations about the fact there was nothing more we could do, she continued to tick things off her bucket list.
For example, she really wanted to eat a smoked salmon sandwich because it was one of her favourite things, and when you have a transplant you are often told there are certain things you cannot eat. She hadn’t done it for a really long time. It’s the small things that you don’t realise that are important sometimes, it’s just feeling normal.
Her story is particularly inspiring, not because the transplant worked but because despite that she was able to live a good life because of the support of people around her and the doctors and nurses caring for her.
It’s incredibly sad when the disease comes back and as doctors and nurses it’s upsetting but part of what we do means the care does not stop there. We continue to look after these people … You keep doing what you do because we also have extraordinary successes too.
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The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has issued this statement this morning:
London owes an enormous debt of thanks to everyone who works or volunteers for the National Health Service, or has done since it started 70 years ago today. Their hard work and commitment helps make London the greatest city in the world.
Today, on behalf of all Londoners, I wish the NHS and every doctor, nurse, porter, cleaner and volunteer who works there, a very happy 70th birthday.
Top doctor warns Hunt over potential winter crisis
Jeremy Hunt is having a busy day, attending both the celebration at Westminster Abbey for 3,000 NHS staff at noon and also the 7pm service at York Minster.
But does today’s upbeat mood mean the health and social care secretary is getting a day off from the brickbats? No chance.
Dr Nick Scriven, the president of the Society for Acute Medicine – and a persistent critic of the government’s handling of the NHS – has today reminded Hunt of the widespread chaos of last winter’s worst-ever NHS winter crisis, and cast serious doubt on his repeated assurances that the service was the best-prepared it had ever been to withstand the next spike in demand.
“It’s interesting that the secretary of state for health and social care still maintains that, in 2017, [NHS] planning [for winter] started earlier than ever before and the NHS was better placed than ever before. He repeated that statement at the Royal College of Physicians conference last week and implied that last year’s planning started in April. Many people working or being treated in 2017/18 would not recognise this”, said Scriven, whose members are acute and general medical specialist doctors in hospitals.
If the NHS was so well-prepared, he said: “We need answers as to why the system was 4,000 beds short for many months and why figures show several thousand more deaths than previous years. One common statement between us and the politicians is that scenes depicted in winter cannot happen again but, so far, there doesn’t appear to have been any actions to back up the rhetoric.”
Scriven’s fear – that next winter will be even tougher for the NHS and patients – is echoed privately by chief executives of NHS hospital trusts in England, especially as the NHS’s extra £20bn doesn’t start arriving until April 2019.
Send us your stories or pictures for #NHS70
Readers around the UK wishing to celebrate the NHS today can get in touch via our callout, here.
We’d particularly like to hear from you if you work with or for the NHS or have come into contact with its services, and especially if you are taking part in one of the many anniversary week events.
We’ll highlight some of your stories and share your photographs on this liveblog throughout the day.
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If you watch much on Channel 4 today, you’re going to see a lot of blue cotton uniforms.
The broadcaster has teamed up with St George’s hospital in south London – the home of the hit show 24 Hours in A&E – to feature a different member of staff introducing every show with a birthday message for the NHS.
Our stars of #24HrsAE have joined forces with @BWH_NHS #OneBornEveryMinute & @Channel4 to celebrate #NHS70. Before every programme on C4 today, you’ll hear one of our amazing #NHS staff wishing a happy 70th birthday to our health service. Join in by sending us your messages too! pic.twitter.com/Mb9XXwQwWz
— St George's NHS FT (@StGeorgesTrust) July 5, 2018
Our reporters have arrived at King’s College hospital in Camberwell, south London. Photographer Alicia Canter has sent some exterior images that show the hospital’s contrasting mix of old and new.
The Hambledon wing was built on land donated by Lord Hambledon, part of the WH Smith family, and funded by an anonymous donation of £50,000. The 300-bed hospital was opened on 26 July 1913 by King George V and Queen Mary.
Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Golden Jubilee wing in 2003. Built on the site of the old outpatients department, it contains outpatient clinics, maternity services and support services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language therapy.
The officially sanctioned formal celebrations today will be held at Westminster Abbey and York Minster.
The Westminster Abbey event (12noon-1pm) will feature Freya Lewis, a survivor of the Manchester terror attack who suffered 29 separate injuries, and Dr Martin Griffiths, a leading NHS trauma surgeon who led a team treating victims of the London Bridge terrorist attack.
Other special guests include Olive Belfield, who was in the first group of NHS recruits in 1948, and Lobke Marsden, who paints radiotherapy masks for children undergoing cancer treatment (the Guardian’s Healthcare Network profiled her earlier this year).
At the York Minster event (7pm-8.30pm), the singer Linda Nolan, who is being treated for breast cancer, will host a choral concert joined by 15-year-old Eve Senior, a survivor of the Manchester terror attack, who wants to become a nurse, and Amen Dhesi, who became a carer at 13 for his dad who has bipolar disorder.
Performances will be given by the NHS Greenwich and Lewisham choir who will singing their latest single, With a Little Help from My Friends; and Britain’s Got Talent finalists, the B Positive Choir.
The health and social care secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will speak at both events.
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Theresa May addressed a gathering of NHS staff at Downing Street last night. She said the UK was marking “a very special birthday of a very special institution”.
She went on: “In a world that has changed almost beyond recognition [since 1948], the vision at the heart of the NHS – of a tax-funded service that is available to all, free at the point of use, with care based on clinical need and not the ability to pay – still retains near-universal acceptance.”
May credited the role of a politician from each of Britain’s three main political parties in the creation of the NHS: William Beveridge (the Liberal who in 1942 set out how the government could fight the five “giant evils” of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness); Nye Bevan (the health minister in Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government regarded as the NHS’s founding father); and the little-known Sir Henry Willink who in 1944, as the health minister in Winston Churchill’s wartime government, unveiled a health policy white paper that first set out the government’s intention to create a national health service along the lines that were established in 1948.
Welcome to our liveblog on the NHS's 70th birthday
When the Labour health secretary Aneurin Bevan launched the National Health Service on 5 July 1948, from a hospital ward in Trafford, Manchester, it had a budget of £437m (equivalent to about £17bn now).
Seventy years later its budget has ballooned to more than £147bn (£122bn in England, £13.2bn in Scotland, £7.3bn in Wales, and £5bn in Northern Ireland).
The NHS now employs about 1.5 million people, putting it among the top five largest workforces in the world. Only the US Department of Defense, McDonald’s, Walmart and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army can claim a larger payroll.
And it’s not just the numbers that have changed dramatically. The technology and expertise of the doctors, nurses and myriad other specialists and staff is a world away from the Park hospital ward visited by Bevan in 1948.
Today, 70 years since the vision of Bevan and his Labour prime minister Clement Attlee became a reality, staff and patients across the country are celebrating the anniversary with all sorts of events, from tea parties to open days to more formal ceremonies.
The Guardian is spending the day with the people who make the NHS what it is: the staff and patients.
We’ve been granted special access to King’s College hospital in Camberwell, south London, where reporters Jessica Elgot and Sarah Marsh will be talking to doctors and nurses, prosthetists and administrators, midwives and radiographers, volunteers and consultants.
We hope that by telling their stories – and those of their patients – this liveblog will distill the spirit, energy and ethos of the NHS on its 25,550th day.
You can get involved too. If you’re doing anything to mark the NHS’s 70th birthday – or simply have a story to tell about how the health service has affected you – please let me know (mark.smith@theguardian.com | @marksmith174).
We hope you stay with us for the day’s journey.
