The Parish Magazine June 2021

feature — 5
The Parish Magazine - June 2021 25
Unimaginable NHS services for everyone
(Above) An NHS PTS ambulance, picture: Chris Masters; (right top) the 'Nye' Bevan statue in
Cardiff, picture: Johanna Cuomo, dreamstime.com; (right bottom) a protester's banner quoting
Aneurin Bevan, picture: Clive Chilvers, dreamstime.com
'Eat everything you have been told not to said the doctor as he wanted me to
put on more weight, writes Claude Masters. 'Drink full cream milk and eat
plenty of sugar and potatoes.'
Later, after a blood test, the doctor
told me that all my vital organs were
working well and I was as fit as any
man could hope to be for my age.
This is what you want to hear
from your GP but it is good to know
that it’s through your GP that you
can be referred to all the NHS
services if the news is not so good.
Apart from high street services
such as dentist and opticians, a GP is
the point of access to the NHS which
offers free medical services from
birth till death.
RADICAL PLAN
The service now has strong public
and political support but before it
was established in 1948 the idea
was fiercely resisted by the medical
profession and some politicians.
It was in 1946, only a year after
World War II ended, that Aneurin
Bevan put forward his radical
proposals that led to the creation of
the National Health Service.
The country was in dire straits
with the majority of people not being
able to afford the medical care they
needed as they tried to rebuild their
lives and the country.
Aneurin Bevan was a Welsh
politician who became Health
Secretary in the Labour government
that came to power after the end
of the World War II. A son of a coal
miner, he was born in 1897 and left
school at 13 to work down the mines.
It was here that be became involved
with local union politics.
His vision for everyone in the
country to access a free health service
was inaugurated in 1948 when he
visited a hospital in Manchester. Now
called Trafford Hospital, it is known
as the birthplace of the NHS.
HEATED DISCUSSIONS
Today, 70 years later, 'Nye' Bevan
is still highly regarded, especially in
Wales — in Cardiff stands a statue
to this Welsh 'hero' and his words are
still quoted by protesters. But there
were those who opposed his plan.
Even as a schoolboy in Reading, I
can remember that his ideas were a
hot topic of conversation. My school
class teacher encouraged discussion
and pointed out that it would work
only because everybody would pay
for it through their taxes.
Today, most NHS treatments are
carried out by directly employed
medical practitioners and support
staff while the responsibility
for some services are contracted
out to private companies. These
include some ambulance services
and treatments for diabetes and
osteoporosis.
A very useful service that few
people are aware of is the NHS
Patient Transport Service which
will take people from home to
outpatient appointments if needed,
transfer patients from one hospital
to another and convey patients for
kidney dialysis. Anyone can ask for
this free service but it needs to be
requested via a hospital clinic or GP.
AT THE FRONTLINE
Patients discharged from hospital
following illness or accident may
be referred to the START (Short
Term Assessment and Re-ablement
Team) services provided by the local
authority whereby a member of the
team visits each day to help with
washing and dressing until he or she
can cope on their own or with the
help of a partner.
The NHS today offers a wide range
of treatments and care that would
have been unimaginable 70 years
ago. And who would ever imagined
that 70 years later the Aneurin
Bevan vision of a health service
for everyone would be at the Covid
frontline, saving this country from
the greatest life-threatening event
since World War II.