Celebrating 75 years of an incredible service

On the 5th July 1948, the National Health Service was born with a founding principle of free high quality health care for all. Over the last 75 years, the NHS has transformed the health and wellbeing of the nation and become the envy of the World. Healthcare has adapted to meet our changing needs and the ground breaking innovations of each decade are now taken for granted as being the way we deliver care.

Our Trust, and its predecessors, have always played a significant part in advancing healthcare by being at the forefront of many clinical and non-clinical breakthroughs through the years. In the last 12 months alone these have included developing a cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool which is able to spot heart damage in seconds, our patients becoming the first in the world to receive treatment on the latest version of the Gamma Knife, a machine used to treat brain tumours and other brain conditions and STH becoming the first centre in South Yorkshire to deliver CAR-T cancer therapy, a revolutionary new treatment that uses the patient's own genetically modified cells to find and kill cancer cells.

The story of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and the wider NHS is one of evolution and of responding to the changing needs of the people we serve. The challenge of a growing and ageing population has never been greater but, year after year, all of the teams at STH rise to that challenge and continue to deliver safe, high quality care for our patients. What is incredible is that teams and colleagues are not content with just doing the ‘day job’ and instead seek out improvements and innovations in both clinical and non-clinical areas.

During the last few years the NHS has of course faced its toughest challenges with the unprecedented demand of the pandemic. As we move forward it is incredible to see how far we have come thanks to the innovative work of the scientists who created the vaccines and above all the strength, bravery and determination of our colleagues to meet the needs of our patients at such a difficult time.

Looking to the future, the NHS is becoming more integrated and investing in new medicines, genetic research and artificial intelligence, but at the heart of all of these changes is always going to be the people who make up STH and the NHS. The NHS would simply not be possible without the skill, dedication and compassion of all our colleagues.

There are a wide range of ways for you to get involved with the NHS’s 75th birthday celebrations. Find out more at www.england.nhs.uk/nhsbirthday