What must it have been like to be there at the birth of the NHS on 5 July 1948? For some, it would have hardly affected their health (although it may have improved their bank balance) because, as Isabel Hardman points out in her terrific book, the problem before what was termed the “appointed day” hadn’t been poor health facilities, but lack of access to them. Most people, who feared the financial consequences of poor health, had their lives transformed. To use the vapid language of today, this was industrial scale levelling up.
For a population unused to state munificence, the leaflet posted through every door headed “The New National Health Service” must have read like a fairy story. The service would “provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – can use it or any part of it. There are no charges…”
