Patients more likely to be admitted to critical care after surgery if a bed is available
07 October 2024
Publish date: 04 July 2023
On Wednesday 5 July 2023 the NHS will be 75 years old.
When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the point of delivery. Treating over a million people a day in England, the NHS touches us all. Alongside the national celebrations, UCLH is getting involved in marking the milestone birthday. Our arts and heritage team, which is supported by UCLH Charity, has collaborated with different partners to mark the birthday – see below for a snapshot of how we are celebrating the birthday year:
22 June marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush, the first of several ships bringing immigrants from the former colonies to the UK. Many of the passengers went on to work in the NHS, established two weeks later.
UCLH asked the London Metropolitan Archives and Ancestry to partner on a project to enable staff conduct research into their past.
30 June – 6 September, UCLH Street Gallery, 235 Euston Road
The UCLH archives tell the story of how healthcare has evolved over time, illustrating some of the barriers that many people faced in accessing medical treatment before the NHS was established, and enabling us to further appreciate its impact and achievements.
4 July -10 August
Camden is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NHS with an exhibition to showcase the achievements and contributions of past and present workers in Camden and 20 UCLH employees are among the participants.
The exhibition will be showing at Outernet London between 4 and 9 July and then move to Camden Townhall from 10 July to 10 August. It will include a series of powerful moving photographs taken by Rankin alongside voiceovers to explain the history and accomplishments of the service over the past 75 years, and will explore the different forms of care, including who gives care, what it means to care, what motivates people to help others, and how communities can care for the NHS.
4 July, 9pm and 5 July, 3.30pm
This radio programme pulls together some of the writing of NHS staff while battling the Covid pandemic. Poems, prose, diary entries, small observations on the back of envelopes; some of this testimony – thoughtful, moving, scared, despairing, hopeful and proud – is collated in this programme.
Emergency department nurse and poet Piers Harrison-Reid interweaves the writings of fellow NHS workers with his own specially composed poem that is a testimony to this most extraordinary of times.
5 July – NHS birthday, 1 – 3pm, University College Hospital
Artist Adam Bridgland will be running a live screen printing demonstration celebrating the NHS’s birthday.
5 July, 2 - 4pm, University College Hospital
We will be wishing the NHS a very happy birthday with celebratory tea and cake.
5 July, 12 - 1pm, University College Hospital
Performers from Music in Hospitals and Care: Léonie Adams & Michael Higgins (cello & piano accompanist)
Friday 7 July, 7pm
The UCLH and GOSH Staff Choir will be ending NHS 75 week with their end of term Summer performance at The Old Church, Church Street, Stoke Newington N16 9ES. Tickets available here.
Monday 10, 17, 24, 31 July at 9am and 9.30pm
In this four-part documentary, Kevin Fong explores the challenges the NHS faces today from the perspective of the people who deliver the care, busting some myths along the way.
Was this page helpful? Let us know