First Minister Rhodri Morgan this week kicked off a week’s celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
He said the hard work of staff, together with investment and reform, had led to significant achievements in improving patient care and reducing waiting times.
The First Minister said:
The National Health Service is 60 years old this week. It is Wales’ great gift to modern British civilisation. It sprang from ideas about socialised public services that emerged from the very special culture of the industrial valleys of Wales. It gave rise to the principle that you should pay for your treatment not when you’re ill but when you are fit and well and able to contribute to the central pot to pay for the doctors, nurses and all the equipment you are going to depend on one day.
The quality of care and the technology available in today’s NHS is light years away from what the NHS started with in 1948. But the founding principles remain the same. I know from my own experience of treatment for heart problems 12 months ago just how effective modern hospital treatment is.
Scientific breakthroughs and faster treatment mean diseases that would have been fatal many years ago are now manageable and seeing improved survival rates. Life expectancy is far longer than in 1948 and infant mortality is far lower. Indeed at 4.1 pr 1000, it is lower in Wales than anywhere else in the UK.
Cancer patients in Wales are now treated faster than ever, with virtually every patient referred as an urgent case treated within the two month target – and those referred for another condition but subsequently diagnosed with cancer treated within one month.
In June 1998, there were more than 9,000 patients waiting over 12 months for inpatient or day case treatment, with more than 2,700 of those waiting over 18 months.
The latest figures show that almost everyone is now treated within 22 weeks – once they have had their outpatient appointment and their diagnostic tests – with most treated much quicker.
By the end of next year, no-one will wait more than 26 weeks for the entire patient journey from GP referral, through any diagnostic tests or therapies, to treatment.
The next 60 years should see the NHS develop a greater ability to work in partnership with the citizen to create health, not just treat ill-heath. That means getting everyone to get the message that the walk and the fork can be as important as the stethoscope and the scalpel in giving us a high quality of life. Getting people to reduce smoking, salt and fat in the diet and taking regular exercise are of enormous importance. I can testify to that myself. My mission is to persuade thousands of others just how much they can do to reduce the risks their lifestyles are exposing them to.
Everyone who lives in the UK owes our own Aneurin Bevan a huge debt of gratitude for having the remarkable foresight and courage to introduce the NHS 60 years ago.
The NHS today is a lot different from the NHS of 10 years ago, and vastly different to the NHS that Bevan founded in 1948. It has adapted and modernised, as any public service must, to meet the challenges of today and it will have to do so again to meet those of the future.
However, as we celebrate its 60th anniversary, we can be proud in Wales that the founding principles that Bevan established are as dear today as they were in 1948, as evident through our policies such as free prescriptions.
Related Links
http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/health/nhswales/?lang=en
http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/health/?lang=en