For many of us, it is difficult to imagine life before the NHS, when healthcare was unreliable and treatment had to be paid for.
In the same way, it was hard for people in 1948 to see what a national health service was going to mean for them and for future generations. It was the first time, anywhere in the world, that completely free healthcare was made available on the basis of citizenship and need rather than the payment of fees or insurance premiums.
The man who brought the health service into being was Aneurin Bevan, a Welsh miner who became a Labour politician. Nye Bevan was handed the responsibility for healthcare and housing by the new prime minister, Clement Attlee, in the first post-Second World War government.
Bevan fought passionately for the NHS. In parliament on February 9 1948 he urged ministers and doctors to “take pride in the fact that, despite our financial and economic anxieties, we are still able to do the most civilised thing in the world: put the welfare of the sick in front of every other consideration”.
On July 5 of that year, Bevan got his wish and our healthcare changed forever.
- The NHS 60 content, including this article, was written in 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
