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From 1948 to 2008 and beyond

In 1948, for the first time, prevention, diagnosis and treatment were brought together under one umbrella organisation to create one of the most comprehensive health services in the world: the NHS.

Over the past 60 years, the hard work and skills of NHS staff, coupled with medical progress, has continually helped drive up standards and quality of care for millions. People now live on average at least 10 years longer than they did in 1948 - deaths from cancer and heart disease have fallen dramatically and Britain is one of the safest places in the world to give birth.

The NHS has shown the world the way to healthcare, not as a privilege to be paid for, but as a fundamental human right. The values of the NHS - universal, tax-funded and free at the point of need - remain as fundamental today to the NHS as they were when it was launched in 1948.

The NHS has never stood still – it has changed and reformed to meet the public’s expectations and the needs of a changing society. And the publication of Lord Darzi's Our NHS, Our Future report, based on a programme of engagement with staff and patients over the past year, will set out plans for an NHS of the future.

In conjunction with a proposed new NHS constitution, the Our NHS, Our Future report will set a clear NHS vision for the next decade and beyond.

Health trends then and now

It’s easy to forget that the standards we now take for granted were once novel. Did you know that:

• in 1948, a cataract operation meant a week of total immobility with the patient’s head supported by sandbags; eye surgery is now over within 20 minutes, and most patients are out of hospital the same day
• in 1958, hip replacements were so unusual that the surgeon who invented them asked patients to agree to return them post-mortem; the NHS now carries out 1,000 of these replacements every week
• the first UK heart transplant patient in 1968 only survived 46 days; the procedure is now routine enough for two dozen to be carried out in the same period
• the world waited until 1978 for Britain to produce the first test-tube baby; 6,000 are now born here every year
• the breast-screening programme introduced in 1988 now saves the lives of 1,400 women a year
• the introduction of NHS Direct in 1998 launched a pioneering alternative to GP services that currently handles more than half a million calls a month

Further information

For more information, memories and videos about the history of the NHS, visit the links below.

• 60 years of the NHS Opens new window
• Timeline of NHS history Opens new window
• Local events to celebrate NHS 60 Opens new window

More from Directgov

• Health services (health and well-being section)
• Healthy living (health and well-being section)
• Your child's health and safety (parents section)