NHS marks 60th birthday

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - The taxpayer-funded National Health Service marks its 60th birthday on Saturday, secure in its future with Britain's main political parties committed to its credo of free healthcare at the point of need.

Treating one million people every 36 hours, its annual budget has grown from 437 million pounds in 1948 to over 100 billion pounds today, a near ten-fold rise once inflation is taken into account.

Treatments undreamed of at its beginning are now routine, with new drugs and antibiotics transforming the way doctors can deal with once debilitating and fatal conditions.

Hip replacements were so unusual in the late 1950s that the surgeon who invented them asked patients to agree to return them after their death.

The NHS now carries out 1,000 hip replacements every week.

Labour Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan launched the NHS on July 5, 1948 with the promise that "everybody, irrespective of means, age, sex or occupation shall have equal opportunity to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available."

Plans to nationalise all of Britain's health infrastructure were curtailed by the parlous post-war state of the country's finances, and Bevan had to be content with just taking over the hospitals.

GP practices, dentists, opticians and pharmacies remained -- as they do today -- self-employed small businesses, contracted to provide NHS services.