Since its faltering launch in 1948, the National Health Service has become a cherished part of British society. Andrew Seaton explains how it attained that status
As Britain’s National Health Service celebrates its 75th anniversary this July, two topics look set to dominate the extensive media coverage. The first is the sense of crisis stalking the NHS, illustrated by sky-high waiting lists, troubling financial shortcomings, exhausted staff and extensive industrial action. The second is the NHS’s enviable reputation as arguably Britain’s best-loved institution.
In 2022, some 62 per cent of people surveyed by polling organisation Ipsos stated that the service was the thing that made them “most proud to be British” – an increase of 12 per cent from 2016. The fun-runs, tea parties and other events marking the NHS’s ‘birthday’ on 5 July speak to its standing in British public life. It’s an institution that appears to be part of the furniture – and, at the same time, on the brink of collapse.
No other part of the welfare state attracts the same level of admiration. People do not bake cakes to commemorate the introduction of child benefit payments. Nor do they attend street parties to mark the construction of council estates. Even among Britain’s international peers, there are few countries that view their health system as emblematic of their ‘national’ values. True, Canadians might cite their country’s guarantee of universal healthcare as a point of pride to lord over their US neighbours to the south, but Canada does not celebrate its health service to the same degree as we do in Britain.
Clearly, despite its many and vocal critics, the NHS is widely beloved. But from where did this public support stem? And to what extent have the difficulties facing the service, and the persistent sense of ‘crisis’ they’ve engendered, shaped this sentiment over time?
Public affection for the NHS had to be actively nurtured. It was not inevitable that any state-organised universal health system founded after the Second World War would eventually attract such a degree of popular support. Achieving such an outcome took both effort and time.
Supporters of the concept and its implementation – who sat predominantly, though not exclusively, on the political left – furnished the institution with a caring and egalitarian image, helped embed its communal modes of care in everyday life, defended its principles against free-market critique, and established new trad
