Lighting the castle blue to celebrate the NHS 75th birthday

Monday, 26 June 2023 17:37

NHS celebrate 75 years Tamworth Borough Council honour with lighting the castle blue NHS birthday takes place on 5 July

On 5 July 2023, the NHS will mark 75 years of service. Tamworth Borough Council, along with many other landmarks across the country, will be honouring this milestone by lighting the outside of Tamworth Castle blue.

Treating over a million people a day in England, the NHS touches all of our lives. When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the point of delivery. Today, nine in 10 people agree that healthcare should be free of charge, more than four in five agree that care should be available to everyone, and that the NHS makes them most proud to be British.

Councillor Paul Turner, Leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said: “We’re extremely grateful for the vital work provided by our NHS, who are there around-the-clock to make sure people receive free healthcare.

“Illuminating the castle on the 75^th year of the NHS, is a simple way of showing people that we support and appreciate everything our healthcare service provides.”

The NHS has delivered amazing care from Britain’s first heart transplant in 1958, to Europe’s first liver transplant in 1968. From the world’s first CT scan on a patient in 1971, revolutionising the way doctors examine the body, to the world’s first test-tube baby born in 1978.

In addition, the NHS has delivered huge medical advances, including the world’s first liver, heart and lung transplant in 1987, pioneering new treatments, such as bionic eyes and, in more recent times, the world’s first rapid whole genome sequencing service for seriously ill babies and children including a large-scale vaccination programme, protecting children from whooping cough, measles and tuberculosis, and in 1999 the meningitis C vaccine was offered nationally in a world first.