NHS at 70: A timeline of the National Health Service and its crisis

The UK is celebrating 70 years of the NHS on Thursday.

In that time vaccinations, antibiotics and chemotherapy have helped slash deaths and disease among the young and the old alike.

In this video we look at these advances – beyond the wildest dreams of the NHS’ founders – which mean we can peer into the living brain and conduct surgeries with precision.

In the NHS these cutting-edge technologies are available to everyone, from the very richest to those with nothing, and staffed by people who go to work each day energised by that principle.

But ensuring the health service exists in another 70 years’ time is an on-going battle.

As dwindling funding and rising demand take their toll on morale and budgets alike we ask what is around the corner for the health service.