Something Special

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Something Special

Category: People7 August 2016

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Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum

2 days ago

The National Health Service was created on July 5th 1948, an embodiment of the ideal that quality healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth or social status.

On the day that Aneurin Bevan, as Health Secretary, opened Park Hospital in Manchester it was the fulfilment of an enormously inspirational dream to bring good healthcare to every Individual in the UK. For the first time in British history, the provision of doctors, nurses dentists, pharmacists, opticians and hospitals was brought under the auspices of a single organisation that was ' free for all at the point of delivery.

The underlying philosophy was clear: the health service was intended to be freely available to everyone. It was to be financed in its entirety from public taxation, which meant that everyone contributed to it directly from their salary and according to their means. It was Aneurin Bevan's most famous achievement as Minister of Health, it was he who initiated its establishment and he tendered his resignation when a subsequent government proposed to charge patients for eyeglasses and dentures. ... See MoreSee Less