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NHS 60th anniversary celebrations
06/05/2008
Plans for national and local celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS were announced today.
Today sees the start of a programme of events counting down the 60 days to the 60th anniversary on Saturday July 5.
The celebrations were launched today at a vintage ambulance display in George Square, Glasgow, where Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon met NHS staff from the 1940s, as well as patients including one of the longest living transplant recipients in Scotland.
Thousands of people across Scotland including NHS staff, patients, health care partners and the public are being encouraged to join the celebrations and share individual experiences and stories.
National events will include a prestigious occasion at Glasgow's SECC to recognise those who have made a unique contribution to the development of the Health Service, as well as a Ministerial Reception at Edinburgh Castle for front-line NHS staff, and patients who have benefited from NHS treatment.
On the weekend of the 60th anniversary, the Cabinet Secretary will make an address at a special service held at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh attended by patients, carers and front-line staff.
Local NHS Boards will also be hosting events over the coming weeks in the lead up to the anniversary with family fun days, tea parties, photographic exhibitions, charity balls, ceilidhs and openings of new NHS facilities.
Ms Sturgeon said:
"Today, 60 days before the 60th anniversary of the birth of the NHS in Scotland, I am delighted to launch the start of a wide variety of celebrations to mark the occasion.
"I am looking forward to meeting many staff, patients and members of the public and hearing many of the stories people have to tell about the past 60 years.
"Most of us have only ever known a Scotland that has an NHS. A high quality publicly owned service which is free to everyone at the point of delivery.
"But some Scots will remember the days when seeing a doctor was a hard choice, often between essential treatment and food for the family. That kind of choice is scarcely imaginable to us today which is why we must never take our health service for granted.
"Today, our NHS provides a vast range of services and complex treatments not even conceivable 60 years ago - artificial hips, life-saving drugs, kidney and heart transplants.
"This is also a time to celebrate the distinctive Scottish character of the NHS, with traditions of internationally renowned medical education and pioneering steps forward in healthcare.
"For the future I want to see the Scottish people and NHS staff become real partners - co owners - of the health service so that they can shape a truly responsive National Health Service which meets Scotland's needs for the next 60 years."