Skip to main content
Search Menu Main navigation Topics Toggle the Topics sub menu Funding and finances Health structures, legislation and reform Hospital care Inequalities in care International and UK countries Primary care and community services Quality and performance Social care Technology and digital Workforce RSET: rapid evaluation Events Our experts About Toggle the About sub menu What we do How we are funded How we are run Jobs and opportunities Our people Annual reports Contact us Header menu Features Research and comm
The National Health Service began on 5 July 1948. Already the NHS, which Bevan described as “a great and novel undertaking”, is the stuff of history. Few people now working in it had been born when it began. Those with clear memories of the early days grow fewer, and this book is in part a tribute to their work. It is the story of the NHS, how it was set up, what happened next, and why. It aims to give the reader, whether professionally involved in the NHS or not, a chronological framework of the main clini