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NHS 60: health trends past and present

  • Last modified date:
    11 April 2008

It’s easy to forget that the standards in the NHS we now take for granted were once novel. We take a look at how landmark events in the history of the NHS have grown to become successful healthcare procedures.  

Did you know that…

  • In 1948, a cataract operation meant a week of total immobility with the patient’s head supported by sandbags. Eye surgery is now over within 20 minutes, and most patients are out of hospital the same day.
  • In 1958, hip replacements were so unusual that the surgeon who invented them asked patients to agree to return them post-mortem. The NHS now carries out 1,000 of these replacements every week.
  • The first UK heart transplant patient in 1968 only survived 46 days. The procedure is now routine enough for two dozen to be carried out in the same period.
  • The world waited until 1978 for Britain to produce the first test-tube baby. 6,000 test-tube babies are now born here annually.
  • The breast-screening programme introduced in 1988 now saves the lives of 1,400 women a year.
  • The introduction of NHS Direct in 1998 launched a pioneering alternative to GP services that currently handles more 500,000 calls a month.

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