Happy Birthday NHS - great read

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/02/is-the-nhs-the-worlds-best-healthcare-system
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Nothing inspires national pride quite like the National Health Service. More than two-thirds of respondents in a recent poll said they considered the establishment of the institution, which turns 70 this week, to be Britain’s greatest achievement.

But it is a very different thing now compared with its earliest incarnation, when health boards took control of 2,751 of Britain’s 3,000 hospitals, which had been run by charities or local authorities. It is not just the illnesses, facilities, technologies and demographics that are different, but the service’s very purpose.

“When the NHS was founded it was intended to keep the workforce healthy, reduce premature death and allow a dignified end for everyone,” said Robert Freeman, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. “There has been significant mission creep since and the NHS now has a much broader scope with a focus on prolonging life almost irrespective of quality.”

How has the NHS changed in 70 years?
The NHS has changed beyond all recognition since it treated its first patient, 13-year-old Sylvia Diggory, on 5 July 1948. At the time, government expenditure on the health service stood at about £14bn, at 2016-17 rates: by 2016-17 the figure had grown to £144.3bn. In terms of spend per capita this equates to around £260 in 1950 compared with £2,273 in today’s money.


The number of workers required to cater to the country’s care needs has also grown dramatically. At the time of the NHS’s foundation there were 12,000 full-time-equivalent hospital and community medical staff (doctors and dentists) across England and Wales. Today there are almost 110,000 such positions in England alone.

Equivalent figures for nurses begin in 1962, at which time there were 88,579 full-time positions, compared with 285,093 in 2017.