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| ‘I was the first baby delivered by the NHS. It has saved my life eight times’ | ‘I was the first baby delivered by the NHS. It has saved my life eight times’ |
| (3 days later) | |
| It was coming up to midnight on Sunday 4 July 1948 and my mother, who had been in labour for 18 hours, was just about ready to give birth to me. She wanted to start pushing. But the doctors and midwives looked up at the clock on the wall and said, “Stop. Hold on, Edna, hold on.” They knew they were moments away from the start of the National Health Service and wanted me to be the first baby born into this new service. So my mother took a deep breath and held on. That’s how I was born at one minute past midnight on Monday 5 July 1948 – the first NHS baby. | |
| That was in a cottage hospital in a little corner of west Wales called Glanamman. It was the staff there who told my mother, “You must call her Aneira,” the female form of Aneurin, after Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS. They knew it was significant that Bevan’s dream of a health service that was free for everyone to use had come to fruition that day. | That was in a cottage hospital in a little corner of west Wales called Glanamman. It was the staff there who told my mother, “You must call her Aneira,” the female form of Aneurin, after Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS. They knew it was significant that Bevan’s dream of a health service that was free for everyone to use had come to fruition that day. |
| I became known as Nye, just like him. When I was a child my mum would introduce me to people, saying, “This is Nye, my National Health baby,” and would allude to Aneurin’s name too. So in my mind I thought that he must be my “other” father, because she always mentioned us in the same sentence. | I became known as Nye, just like him. When I was a child my mum would introduce me to people, saying, “This is Nye, my National Health baby,” and would allude to Aneurin’s name too. So in my mind I thought that he must be my “other” father, because she always mentioned us in the same sentence. |
| I never knew any of my grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. My mother lived until she was 95 | I never knew any of my grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. My mother lived until she was 95 |
| At school, people asked about my name and if I knew what Aneurin Bevan had done for the country. I didn’t then, but I came to understand. The NHS was set up to maintain life. I never knew any of my grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. But my mother lived until she was 95, which she put down to the NHS. I am the youngest of seven children but was the first to be born in hospital, and it didn’t cost my parents a penny. When my six older siblings were born at home, my mum and my dad, Willie, had to pay a midwife one and six to come and deliver the baby. | At school, people asked about my name and if I knew what Aneurin Bevan had done for the country. I didn’t then, but I came to understand. The NHS was set up to maintain life. I never knew any of my grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. But my mother lived until she was 95, which she put down to the NHS. I am the youngest of seven children but was the first to be born in hospital, and it didn’t cost my parents a penny. When my six older siblings were born at home, my mum and my dad, Willie, had to pay a midwife one and six to come and deliver the baby. |
| My mother used to say: “Bevan left people a really important legacy.” She told me how her father, Tommy Hodges, was carried home after breaking his leg while working down the mine. He was laid out on the kitchen table and held down by both men and children while the doctor performed an operation – without anaesthetic. The doctor needed paying, but there was no money. This was the south Wales valleys in the 1930s. Everyone was poor. So they had to sell the family piano to raise money to pay the doctor. That was heartbreaking for the children; it was their only entertainment. | My mother used to say: “Bevan left people a really important legacy.” She told me how her father, Tommy Hodges, was carried home after breaking his leg while working down the mine. He was laid out on the kitchen table and held down by both men and children while the doctor performed an operation – without anaesthetic. The doctor needed paying, but there was no money. This was the south Wales valleys in the 1930s. Everyone was poor. So they had to sell the family piano to raise money to pay the doctor. That was heartbreaking for the children; it was their only entertainment. |
| Bevan was motivated by seeing human suffering like that in the valleys. He was a true visionary, in that not only did he dream about changing the future, he did something about it. The NHS was revolutionary. It changed lives for the better. I get cross when this government says that people are living longer and using all these services, because the NHS was created to extend life. People are living longer? That was the plan from the start – to stop people dying young, as so many did then. | Bevan was motivated by seeing human suffering like that in the valleys. He was a true visionary, in that not only did he dream about changing the future, he did something about it. The NHS was revolutionary. It changed lives for the better. I get cross when this government says that people are living longer and using all these services, because the NHS was created to extend life. People are living longer? That was the plan from the start – to stop people dying young, as so many did then. |
| I worked for 28 years as a nurse in a mental health hospital. Some patients had psychosis, schizophrenia or severe depression; others had been brain damaged since birth and their families couldn’t look after them, so they ended up in hospital. It was very challenging, but the standard of nursing was great. You do feel sad for the patients but I was always upbeat. It was hard work, but I was born to do it. | I worked for 28 years as a nurse in a mental health hospital. Some patients had psychosis, schizophrenia or severe depression; others had been brain damaged since birth and their families couldn’t look after them, so they ended up in hospital. It was very challenging, but the standard of nursing was great. You do feel sad for the patients but I was always upbeat. It was hard work, but I was born to do it. |
| The policy in the 1980s of care in the community, which got a lot of people out of mental hospitals who didn’t need to be there and put them in supported housing instead, was the biggest change in my time as a nurse. It was a good thing, because so many patients had become so institutionalised from being in there so long that they couldn’t adjust to life outside the hospital. | The policy in the 1980s of care in the community, which got a lot of people out of mental hospitals who didn’t need to be there and put them in supported housing instead, was the biggest change in my time as a nurse. It was a good thing, because so many patients had become so institutionalised from being in there so long that they couldn’t adjust to life outside the hospital. |
| I know the NHS well because it’s saved my life eight times now. I suffer from anaphylaxis. That’s an allergic reaction to a substance so severe, so violent, that it could kill me. For many people it’s food but in my case it’s painkillers. When I go into anaphylactic shock I get pins and needles in my mouth, my throat swells up and my lungs can’t fill with oxygen. That’s what kills people – the inability to breathe. People who get it need treatment urgently if they go into shock. I’ve been rushed a number of times by ambulance to the Morriston hospital in Swansea and given a shot of adrenaline as an antidote. I’m allergic to codeine, morphine – anything that contains any opiate. I triggered an attack one day by taking Solpadeine, which immediately made my stomach very painful. I only survived because a doctor nearby helped me. On medical advice, I now carry not one but two EpiPens containing adrenaline with me all the time, because my condition is not well controlled. I broke my right elbow in 2014 but couldn’t even have it set because I would have needed pain relief and anaesthetics, but I couldn’t take painkillers in case they killed me. That means my elbow is really painful and I can’t grip things with my right hand and arm. | I know the NHS well because it’s saved my life eight times now. I suffer from anaphylaxis. That’s an allergic reaction to a substance so severe, so violent, that it could kill me. For many people it’s food but in my case it’s painkillers. When I go into anaphylactic shock I get pins and needles in my mouth, my throat swells up and my lungs can’t fill with oxygen. That’s what kills people – the inability to breathe. People who get it need treatment urgently if they go into shock. I’ve been rushed a number of times by ambulance to the Morriston hospital in Swansea and given a shot of adrenaline as an antidote. I’m allergic to codeine, morphine – anything that contains any opiate. I triggered an attack one day by taking Solpadeine, which immediately made my stomach very painful. I only survived because a doctor nearby helped me. On medical advice, I now carry not one but two EpiPens containing adrenaline with me all the time, because my condition is not well controlled. I broke my right elbow in 2014 but couldn’t even have it set because I would have needed pain relief and anaesthetics, but I couldn’t take painkillers in case they killed me. That means my elbow is really painful and I can’t grip things with my right hand and arm. |
| Every night I say thank you for the NHS. It’s been brilliant for me. I’m so eternally grateful to it. But I’m also scared for the NHS’s future as I, and it, approach our 70th birthday. Every time I go to Cardiff and see Aneurin Bevan’s statue I feel very emotional because of how things are going with the NHS. I think the NHS is underfunded and I’m worried about the impact of service closures and increased travel times for patients. Financial cutbacks are putting patients’ lives at risk. | Every night I say thank you for the NHS. It’s been brilliant for me. I’m so eternally grateful to it. But I’m also scared for the NHS’s future as I, and it, approach our 70th birthday. Every time I go to Cardiff and see Aneurin Bevan’s statue I feel very emotional because of how things are going with the NHS. I think the NHS is underfunded and I’m worried about the impact of service closures and increased travel times for patients. Financial cutbacks are putting patients’ lives at risk. |
| But there’s a lot of misuse of NHS care: people taking advantage of it being free. They take it for granted. And the public’s expectations of the NHS, which have grown in my lifetime, are now too high. People can be a bit selfish. When we have an ailment we expect somebody to dish out a prescription and we expect to be seen at a certain time. People complain about how long they had to wait in A&E. But maybe they should be grateful they’ve got an A&E at all and ambulances to take them there. The NHS isn’t a bottomless pit, although some people treat it as if it is. There should be more education about why the NHS was created in the first place and how much operations like heart or lung surgery cost, which can be many thousands. I would like to see people educated about NHS costs, and that should start with schools. Treatment costs should be stated somewhere, to encourage people to be healthier. People are aware now of the dangers of smoking. I would like to see people made aware of the effects of bad diet, alcohol and drugs. | But there’s a lot of misuse of NHS care: people taking advantage of it being free. They take it for granted. And the public’s expectations of the NHS, which have grown in my lifetime, are now too high. People can be a bit selfish. When we have an ailment we expect somebody to dish out a prescription and we expect to be seen at a certain time. People complain about how long they had to wait in A&E. But maybe they should be grateful they’ve got an A&E at all and ambulances to take them there. The NHS isn’t a bottomless pit, although some people treat it as if it is. There should be more education about why the NHS was created in the first place and how much operations like heart or lung surgery cost, which can be many thousands. I would like to see people educated about NHS costs, and that should start with schools. Treatment costs should be stated somewhere, to encourage people to be healthier. People are aware now of the dangers of smoking. I would like to see people made aware of the effects of bad diet, alcohol and drugs. |
| The NHS is completely different now from when it was set up. It’s amazing to think how hugely things have changed since Bevan’s day. Drugs are saving lives, we’ve had the growth in medical expertise, and life-extending operations such as heart, lung and kidney transplants are now commonplace. But the moral values that were there at the start should stand today as they did in 1948. | The NHS is completely different now from when it was set up. It’s amazing to think how hugely things have changed since Bevan’s day. Drugs are saving lives, we’ve had the growth in medical expertise, and life-extending operations such as heart, lung and kidney transplants are now commonplace. But the moral values that were there at the start should stand today as they did in 1948. |
| I feel passionately about the preservation of this fantastic service, which provides support from the cradle to the grave, for every person in the United Kingdom. It means equality for all. As I believe Aneurin Bevan said: “The National Health Service will last as long as there’s folk left to fight for it.” The NHS is the jewel in our crown and it’s our duty not to let it slip away. | I feel passionately about the preservation of this fantastic service, which provides support from the cradle to the grave, for every person in the United Kingdom. It means equality for all. As I believe Aneurin Bevan said: “The National Health Service will last as long as there’s folk left to fight for it.” The NHS is the jewel in our crown and it’s our duty not to let it slip away. |
| Aneira Thomas is assisting a major King’s Fund research programme into the relationship between the public and the NHS to mark the health service’s 70th birthday in July 2018 | |
| THE HEALTH SERVICE IS BORN | THE HEALTH SERVICE IS BORN |
| 1942 The reformer William Beveridge proposes a social security system and a health service, to be set up after the war. | 1942 The reformer William Beveridge proposes a social security system and a health service, to be set up after the war. |
| 1945 Labour wins a landslide. Aneurin Bevan proposes a regional health system with all hospitals in public ownership. | 1945 Labour wins a landslide. Aneurin Bevan proposes a regional health system with all hospitals in public ownership. |
| 1946 Bevan publishes the NHS Act, promising a free and comprehensive service. Many doctors oppose the proposals and refuse to become employees of government. | 1946 Bevan publishes the NHS Act, promising a free and comprehensive service. Many doctors oppose the proposals and refuse to become employees of government. |
| 1948 The NHS is founded. It has 1,143 voluntary and 1,545 municipal hospitals, with 480,000 beds in total. Bevan visits Park hospital in Davyhulme, now Trafford general hospital, which becomes known as “the birthplace of the NHS”. | 1948 The NHS is founded. It has 1,143 voluntary and 1,545 municipal hospitals, with 480,000 beds in total. Bevan visits Park hospital in Davyhulme, now Trafford general hospital, which becomes known as “the birthplace of the NHS”. |