NHS at 75: What is the National Health Service, who uses it and how is it paid for?
- Published
The NHS turns 75 this year so we speak to Jakob about his experience as a heart patient
On 5 July, the NHS, or National Health Service, marks 75 years since it was first established.
It was started in 1948 because the government at that time believed that everyone should be able to get healthcare - no matter how much or little money they had.
Before the NHS, people would have usually had to pay to get help if they got ill.
What does the NHS do?
The NHS is the health service that everybody in the UK can use when they become poorly or injured, to help them to get better.
It is 'free at the point of use', which means people can be treated for free when they are poorly.
It is paid for through taxes, which is money that UK adults pay to the government.
It includes doctors, nurses, surgeons, ambulance drivers, opticians, paramedics, midwifes (who help to deliver babies), psychologists and all sorts of other people whose job it is to make sure people stay healthy.
Who can use it?
Everyone currently living in the UK can use the NHS if they are poorly.
However, depending on which UK country you live in, you may have to pay for medicines.
For example, in England, you will start to pay for prescriptions when you are 16, but in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales they are always free.
If you are not living in the UK, you can still walk into a hospital and get medical help - but you may have to pay for it.
Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan is responsible for launching the NHS in 1948. Here, he is seen talking to the NHS's very first patient - a 13-year-old girl called Sylvia Diggory at a hospital in Manchester
Who pays for the NHS?
It costs a lot of money to provide healthcare to the whole population.
To do this, the NHS is paid for by taxes collected by the government.
A little bit of money does come from other places - like the medicines that patients have to pay for in England and money from those who pay for NHS services.
The NHS has a fixed amount of money called a budget, which it can spend on services for the whole population - and it must decide very carefully how to spend that money.
Currently, many NHS services say they are struggling and they need more money to be given to them.
One of the issues is that we are living for longer than we used to, which means there are more elderly people. Older people are more likely to need the NHS to help to take care of them - and this costs money.
WATCH: How tech will change the next 70 years of the NHS
Who is in charge of it?
The NHS is an extremely large organisation, so lots of people are in charge of different parts.
The UK government does not run the NHS for the whole of the UK though.
It looks after the NHS in England. The governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales look after their own NHS.
Why is the NHS such a big issue?
Do all doctors work for the NHS?
No, they don't.
The NHS provides healthcare that is free at the time you need it. However, you can pay for it too - for example, if you want to see someone quicker than the NHS is able to provide, there are other healthcare services.
This is called 'private healthcare' - and you have to pay for it.
There are doctors and nurses, and many other medical professionals, who work 'privately'.
This means they do the same job, but you have to pay to use their services at the time.
WATCH: The NHS in 70 seconds (2018)
How has the NHS changed over the years?
Medicine has changed and advanced a lot over the past 75 years - and the NHS says it has always aimed to evolve and adapt to meet the needs of each generation.
Over the years it's played a big part in making history - not just to patients here in the UK but often on a world-scale.
In 1958 Britain's first heart transplant was carried out my surgeons an NHS hospital. This was followed by Europe's first liver transplant in 1968.
The NHS was also at the forefront when the world's first CT scan on a patient was carried out in 1971.
It revolutionised the way doctors examine the body by using x-rays to create 3D images of human organs.
In 1978, the NHS helped the world's first test-tube baby born via a process called IVF.
Large-scale vaccination programmes protected children from whooping cough, measles and tuberculosis, and in 1999 the meningitis C vaccine was offered nationally in a world first.
The NHS has delivered huge medical advances, including the world's first liver, heart and lung transplant in 1987, pioneering new treatments, such as bionic eyes and, in more recent times, the world's first rapid whole genome sequencing service for seriously ill babies and children.
To mark its 70th anniversary back in 2018 the Queen awarded the NHS with the George Cross, which recognises "acts of the greatest heroism or of the most courage in circumstances of extreme danger".
The award came during a challenging year for the health service, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
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