The fascinating history of the NHS in photos

Life before the NHS - Before the introduction of the NHS, patients paid for health care at the point of service. Free treatment was sometimes available from Voluntary Hospitals and some local authorities operated hospitals. In 1911, the National Insurance Act was introduced to provide employees with medical care and retirement and unemployment benefits, though not always to drugs. Most women and children were not covered.

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Life before the NHS - A nurse at the National Council of Social Service camp for schoolboys at Gileston, Glamorganshire in 1937. The camp was run on a grant from Sir George Gillett, the Commissioner for Distressed Areas.

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Aneurin Bevan - Minister of Health and Labour politician Aneurin Bevan introduced the National Health Service in 1948.

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Early days - When the NHS was launched it immediately became Britain's third-largest employer, with around 364,000 staff across England and Wales.

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Early days - In 1952, a one-shilling charge for prescriptions and a £1 charge for dental treatment were introduced to meet the unanticipated expense of the NHS.

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Early days - Labour MP Somerville Hastings opens LCC Woodberry Down Health Centre in London, October 14, 1952. It is the first fully comprehensive health centre to be built under the National Health Service Act.

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NHS - Mothers and babies wait for services at the Woodberry Down Health Centre in Stoke Newington, London in the 1950s.

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Early days - Patients queue in the rain outside a mobile X-ray unit parked in New Cross, London in 1954.

By as early as 1956, the NHS was financially stretched and doctors were increasingly discontent. A Royal Commission on doctors' pay was established in February 1957.

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Early days - Tutor Margaret Young uses a skeleton to demonstrate anatomy to a group of student nurses on the roof of St. James' Hospital, Balham, London on June 3, 1958.

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The 1960s - Night Sister Shirley Bragg in 1965. She was awarded an MBE for her services.

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A period of growth - The BBC reports that the 1960s was a decade of growth for the service, with treatment greatly improved by innovations such as the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, and renal dialysis.

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A period of growth - The contraceptive pill was made available and free in 1961, and the first liver transplant was successfully completed just two years later. The 1967 Abortion Act made womens' health safer and more easily accessible, and infectious diseases were much-reduced by vaccination programmes.

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A period of growth - But staff members remained discontent in a strained system. Nurses protest at their pay and conditions on May 30, 1969.

The NHS reports that a number of papers were published and commissions established in the late 1960s, proposing major changes to the structure of the NHS.

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The 1970s - Staff Nurse Rowena Joseph and a young patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in 1979.

The NHS in England was reorganised in 1974 to bring together services provided by hospitals and local authorities under Regional Health Authorities.

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A system under strain - The economic pressures of the 1970s further strained the system and led to a demand in efficiency from the NHS.

The winter of 1978 saw nurses submit an 18% pay rise claim after several years of high inflation. A 9% pay rise was eventually accepted. Disruption to hospitals is credited with helping the Conservatives win the next election.

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A system under strain - Nurses stand outside St Andrew's hospital in Bow, East London holding placards during a four-hour strike.

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The 1980s - The Whitehead Report in 1987 and the Acheson Report in 1998 both reached the conclusion that poor people were still more likely to die earlier than the well-off.

Industrial disputes and protests against proposed NHS funding cuts continued in the 1980s.

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Market forces - This decade saw the introduction of business management systems to the NHS, in keeping with the neoliberal politics of the era. In 1988, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced a review of the NHS. The result was the introduction of the "internal market", which was to shape the structure of health services for most of the next decade.

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The 1990s - In 1990, the National Health Service & Community Care Act caused Health Authorities to "purchase" care from their own or other authorities' hospitals. Certain GPs became "fund holders" who were able to purchase care for their patients from NHS trusts.

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NHS trusts and GP fundholders - Economic analysis indicates that while the competition resulted in shorter waiting times, it also caused a reduction in the quality of care for patients.

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NHS trusts and GP fundholders - The 1990s also saw the introduction of the NHS Organ Donor Register and NHS Direct, which was dissolved in 2014.

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The 2000s - The NHS Plan was published on 1 July, 2000. In it, the government committed to large-scale investment and reforms.

Primary care trusts were created to liaise with the private sector when contracting out services. Patients facing a wait of more than six months are offered the choice of an alternative provider for faster treatment.

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Private partners - Under the Private Finance Initiative, hospitals were built by private sector consortia and both medical and non-medical contracts could be fulfilled by private providers.

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Private partners - The NHS Constitution was published on January 21, 2009, stating that that nobody should wait more than 18 weeks for consultant-led NHS treatment.

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The 2010s - Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Health Minister Andy Burnham in 2010.

The 'Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS' white paper was launched this year. It proposed plans to make the service more efficient.

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A period of change - The first successful trial of an artificial pancreas took place in 2011 and Matthew Green became the first UK patient to receive a portable total artificial heart implant.

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A period of change - Protesters campaign against the Health and Social Care Bill outside the Houses of Parliament on March 7, 2012. The government's plans to restructure the NHS were met with strong criticism from health care workers, who claimed that the bill amounts to privatisation.

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A period of change - The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was published on June 15 2012 and took effect on April 1 2013. The Act brought in the most wide-ranging reforms of the NHS since it was founded in 1948.

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A period of change - The BBC reports the UK now spends a lower proportion on health than other EU countries.

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Where we are today - As the NHS celebrates 70 years, MPs apply pressure to the Prime Minister to increase spending on a service that is "overstretched, poorly integrated and no longer able to keep pace with rising demand and the cost pressures of new drugs and technologies”.

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The fascinating history of the NHS - The NHS turns 70 this year. Take a look at how it has changed over the years in these fascinating historical photos.

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