Pride and worry, Britain's free health service turns 70

Pride and worry, Britain's free health service turns 70

Advertisement

Free, good quality healthcare for everyone, from cradle to grave. That was the mission of Britain’s National Health Service when it was founded on July 5, 1948.

Ask any patient, nurse or doctor at the sprawling Milton Keynes University Hospital in central England how they feel about the NHS now, and you will find that those core values are just as important today as they were 70 years ago.

“I’ve had so many things go wrong with my body in the last four-and-a-half years that it’s just incredible that one organisation can cure so many things and treat me so kindly, efficiently, and for free. It’s just astonishing,” said 83-year-old Donald Ritson, who was receiving treatment in the hospital’s Ward 24, a 20-bed surgical ward.

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Donald Ritson and his wife Linda Ritson arrive to Ward 24.

Ritson remembers what it was like before the state-funded NHS, when healthcare was beyond the reach of many people because they could not afford to pay doctors’ fees.

“I can remember my brother being ill and my parents being unable to afford to go to a doctor, so they tried to treat it themselves,” he recalled.

“We could never go back to that sort of system. Cradle to grave, it's not a bad idea.”

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Hospital staff work in the Accident and Emergency department.

A former minister once wrote that the NHS is the closest thing the English have to a religion, and that often-repeated quote still rings true. It is a political sacred cow, with rival parties competing to show their support for it and to try to convince the public it is safe in their hands.

But as much as Britons love the NHS, they also fret about it. Can it survive in its present form, delivering care for free to anyone who needs it, in the face of ever-increasing pressures from an ageing population? That is a perennial topic of debate.

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Sarah Plant comforts her grandmother Barbara Lant.

“Yes, I do worry about it. There’s not enough funding and staffing to go around already, and people are having more and more care and they’re living longer,” said 29-year-old Sarah Plant, who was in the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department, accompanying her elderly grandmother Barbara Lant who had been taken ill.

Plant, who has the rare and debilitating Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is a frequent user of the NHS, for herself and for her children who also have various health problems. She says she has noticed the pressures getting worse over the years, for example waiting times for certain tests have got longer.

“I’ve had some bad experiences. I think everyone has,” she said.

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Nurses Josephine Warner and Hannah Hall work in the nurses station in Ward 24.

But Plant is in no doubt about what she and her family owe to the NHS.

“It’s kept a lot of us alive,” she said. “They’ve brought me back twice. I wouldn’t be here without them.”

“If we’d had to pay for the care, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. I don’t really want to think about what it would have been like.”

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Wayne Vassell poses for a photograph.

Wayne Vassell, a junior doctor specialising in orthopaedics, said the ideals underpinning the NHS were important to him as someone from a modest background, the first in his family to go to university.

“For me the NHS means a lot because it’s a unique model that provides care to people irrespective of background and income,” he said, answering questions from Reuters during a break in the junior doctors’ mess.

Vassell said he did not expect the pressures on the NHS to ease off anytime soon. He saw the service as “structurally more pressured” than in the past, because of the ageing population and the competing demands on state funding, at a time when other public services had been hit hard by austerity policies.

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
A surgical team prepare a patient.

But far from being put off by those pressures, he said he regarded them as a challenge worth rising to.

“The best reward is when you’ve been treating a patient and you have a happy family and they say thank you,” he said.

. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay
Patients participate in a physiotherapy class.

Joe Harrison, the hospital’s chief executive, was upbeat about the long-term future of the NHS. He expected the core principle of free care available for all to remain in place because there was simply no political will to change it.

“I have total confidence that we will be here in another 70 years.”

1 / 19

Slideshow:

Milton Keynes University Hospital

People wait in the waiting room.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

People wait in the waiting room.

Hospital workers communicate to each other in Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Hospital workers communicate to each other in Ward 8.

Inpatient Annette Evans is cared for by a nurse in Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Inpatient Annette Evans is cared for by a nurse in Ward 8.

Inpatients David Corstorphino (left) and David Popplewell eat their lunchtime meal in Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Inpatients David Corstorphino (left) and David Popplewell eat their lunchtime meal in Ward 8.

Inpatient John Cheese sits on a bed in Ward 24.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Inpatient John Cheese sits on a bed in Ward 24.

Elizabeth Nomhwange observes her son, Moses Aloho, having a hearing test at the Audiology department.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Elizabeth Nomhwange observes her son, Moses Aloho, having a hearing test at the Audiology department.

Nurses check the hearing of a newborn baby.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Nurses check the hearing of a newborn baby.

Eric Blackman (left) and Ira Hutchinson (centre) participate in a physiotherapy class for amputees.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Eric Blackman (left) and Ira Hutchinson (centre) participate in a physiotherapy class for amputees.

A skeleton is seen in the physiotherapy department.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A skeleton is seen in the physiotherapy department.

Inpatient Jean Barnett has her hair washed in the hospital hairdressers.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Inpatient Jean Barnett has her hair washed in the hospital hairdressers.

A hospital worker cleans the floor of Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A hospital worker cleans the floor of Ward 8.

A hospital porter pushes a patient through the Accident and Emergency department.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A hospital porter pushes a patient through the Accident and Emergency department.

A nurse takes blood from a patient in the Macmillan Unit.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A nurse takes blood from a patient in the Macmillan Unit.

An inpatient awaits visitors in her room in Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

An inpatient awaits visitors in her room in Ward 8.

An inpatient talks to her visitor in Ward 8.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

An inpatient talks to her visitor in Ward 8.

A junior doctor works in the Junior Doctor staffroom.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A junior doctor works in the Junior Doctor staffroom.

Pigeon holes are seen at the Junior Doctor's staffroom.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Pigeon holes are seen at the Junior Doctor's staffroom.

Hospital staff prepare to receive a body in the mortuary.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

Hospital staff prepare to receive a body in the mortuary.

A surgical team prepare a patient ahead of performing an operation.
. Milton Keynes, UNITED KINGDOM. Hannah Mckay/Hannah McKay

A surgical team prepare a patient ahead of performing an operation.