0:00:04 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented
0:00:07 > 0:00:10and changed for ever the way we recall our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16For the first time, we could see life through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Across this series, we will bring these rare archive films back to life
0:00:23 > 0:00:26with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step onboard
0:00:33 > 0:00:35and relive moments they thought were gone for ever.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43They'll see their relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face to face with their younger selves
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54This is the people's story, our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967 to show training films to workers.
0:01:25 > 0:01:31Today it's been lovingly restored and loaded up with remarkable film footage,
0:01:31 > 0:01:36preserved for us by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41In this series, we'll be travelling to towns and cities across the country
0:01:41 > 0:01:46and showing films from the 20th century that give us the real history of Britain.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Today, we're pulling up in 1948...
0:01:55 > 0:01:57..the year NHS was created,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01marking one of the most important social changes of the 20th century.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16We're parking our van outside the College of Medical and Dental Sciences in Birmingham.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21It's more than 60 years since the National Health Service was launched,
0:02:21 > 0:02:26and the principles underlying it are today as fundamental as they ever were.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28We're going back to the beginning.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Coming up, a childhood memory of Health Secretary Nye Bevan
0:02:35 > 0:02:38on the day he announced the birth of the NHS...
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And I remember him sitting up in bed
0:02:41 > 0:02:45in his striped pyjamas, and my mother said, "Well, you've got a bit of a cold. Don't go too close,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47"because he has a very important speech to make."
0:02:48 > 0:02:50..A remarkable claim to fame...
0:02:52 > 0:02:57I was the first baby born into the National Health Service in Great Britain.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02..And one of Britain's top nurses on arriving from Barbados to start her training.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05I loved being a nurse.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09The people with whom I worked saw my potential and encouraged me.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19This medical school is where they train doctors and nurses here in Birmingham.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23The modern NHS treats three million patients a week,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26that's 150 million people a year,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28and costs £106 billion to run.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32We're in Birmingham because the Queen Elizabeth Hospital nearby
0:03:32 > 0:03:36is one of the newest and most advanced in the country,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40and it's all thanks to something that happened in 1948.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Before the birth of the NHS, you either paid for healthcare,
0:03:55 > 0:04:00relied on charity or, in many cases, went without.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06But Labour's landslide victory in 1945
0:04:06 > 0:04:09led to a new era of social responsibility.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11And within three years
0:04:11 > 0:04:14free healthcare for all was on its way.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21The man charged with making it happen was the working-class Welsh Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28A massive task lay ahead to provide buildings, people and equipment,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32but on July 5th 1948 Nye Bevan's NHS was born.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41All day, our mobile cinema here in Birmingham
0:04:41 > 0:04:44will be screening rare films made during the early days of the NHS.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49Nurses, doctors and patients have come from all over the country
0:04:49 > 0:04:53to share with us their personal stories of those frontier days.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09June Rosen from Wilmslow in Cheshire was just eight in 1948.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Her parents were heavily involved in the campaign to get the NHS off the ground.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16I know that my parents were very delighted about it.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18My mother was a doctor's daughter
0:05:18 > 0:05:23and she really appreciated what that would mean.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26My father didn't have a medical background, he was a politician.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30My mother said it was a wonderful time to be in politics,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32we really felt we could build the new Jerusalem.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36What have you brought? It's like having a birthday!
0:05:36 > 0:05:39This is a photograph of me and my father when I was that age.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43June's father, Leslie Lever,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47was a close friend and colleague of the Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51who stayed with their family the day before he launched the NHS.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02June's about to recall the day Aneurin Bevan stayed at her home.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11How will she feel 63 years later, remembering the part her parents played on that historic day?
0:06:16 > 0:06:20My father was very active in political life,
0:06:20 > 0:06:25and after the War and all the poverty in the '30s, they wanted to make big changes.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31And we had a spare room, so people used to come and stay.
0:06:31 > 0:06:37On the night of July 4th, June remembers hearing Aneurin Bevan and her father talking together.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41When it was supper time, I'd gone to bed, but he was such a dynamic man,
0:06:41 > 0:06:48and they were discussing it as politicians do, long into the night, and arguing it this way and that.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Then the big day dawned.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55On July 5th, the new National Health Service starts,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57providing hospital and specialist services,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01medicines, drugs and appliances, care of the teeth and eyes...
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The young June went to wake up Aneurin Bevan.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08I remember my mother saying I could go with her to take him breakfast in bed.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12And I remember him sitting up in bed in his striped pyjamas,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and my mother said, "Well, you've got a bit of a cold. Don't go too close,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18"because he has a very important speech to make."
0:07:20 > 0:07:25No film of Bevan's July 5th speech launching the NHS in 1948 remains,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30but the day is etched indelibly on June's memory.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35I so much remember him sitting there
0:07:35 > 0:07:39and my mother carrying in the tray and putting it on his knee in bed,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and that picture is as clear in my mind today as it was then really.
0:07:43 > 0:07:461948 saw the start in Britain of a great social experiment,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49the National Health Service,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54a state medical service which everyone in Britain is entitled to use.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59Its costs, met mainly from taxation and direct contributions, so that the expense of necessary treatment
0:07:59 > 0:08:01is no longer an obstacle to any who may need it.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07While it comprises many services, its backbone is the 23,000 doctors who practise medicine...
0:08:11 > 0:08:15So, meeting Bevan made a big impression on June.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20I think he had a vision. He'd known such poverty in the Valleys as a young man.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25People couldn't get any care for their children and their families,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29and I think he just wanted to change that, and it was a remarkable thing.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32I don't think the full magnitude of it dawns when you're eight,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35but I did know that it was something very special.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44June went on to become a physiotherapist,
0:08:44 > 0:08:49and she's remained committed to the NHS all her life, just like her parents.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Your father and his brother were MPs
0:08:51 > 0:08:55and then he went on to be Mayor of Manchester,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58so the political involvement was massive and the political will to do it was strong,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01- so did you feel that coming through to you?- Yes, I did.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05I'd always been part of this. I think I went to the election, I went to the count when I was three,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09because they couldn't find a babysitter, and it never stopped after that.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11It was a constant part of my life.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Well, Aneurin Bevan is a political hero to me too,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25and today on Reel History we're in Birmingham to mark what he achieved.
0:09:26 > 0:09:33After years of political struggle, 2,751 hospitals were handed over to the National Health Service
0:09:33 > 0:09:35on July 5th 1948.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41With me are some people who have close links to that day,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45and none more so than Aneira Thomas from Swansea.
0:09:45 > 0:09:51Aneira's a nurse, just like her grandmother and her three sisters.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57She also has a unique claim to NHS fame.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04I was the first baby born into the National Health Service in Great Britain.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06My mother used to relate the story
0:10:06 > 0:10:10about having a long hard labour, on her seventh child,
0:10:10 > 0:10:15and she was about to give birth around midnight on July 4th,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18when she was waiting to hear the words, "Push! Push!"
0:10:18 > 0:10:23And instead the doctors were shouting, "Hold on, Edna, hold on!"
0:10:23 > 0:10:28And she must have held on one minute for me to be born into the National Health Service...
0:10:28 > 0:10:30so, very special.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36- And they asked my mother could they name me Aneira after the founder... - After Aneurin Bevan?
0:10:36 > 0:10:40- Yes.- The great Aneurin Bevan. - And she liked the name,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43and after seven children I think she'd started running out of names!
0:10:47 > 0:10:53Aneira's about to watch rarely seen film of the days before the NHS.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02How will she feel to be reminded of the hardships her pregnant mother faced?
0:11:07 > 0:11:13I think my mother said she'd have had to find one shilling and sixpence to pay for my birth,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16and then, I suppose, that was a lot of money.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21But my father was a miner and probably earning about £2, I should think.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28Before the NHS, four out of five women had to give birth without pain relief.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32I was lucky enough to be born in the hospital
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and hence, you know, they didn't have to pay after that.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Pain relief was available, but costly, before the NHS,
0:11:43 > 0:11:49and Aneira's mother told her sad stories of how her family suffered as a result.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54I remember her saying that her mother died of cancer
0:11:54 > 0:11:57and there was no pain relief.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01And she remembers all the children, seven of them, around her deathbed, you know.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Then the doctor had to be paid and there was no money,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11and the only thing that they could sell was the family piano.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18I can't imagine if you had to phone 999, an ambulance,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and having to check your purse to see if you've got enough money to pay.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30We are very, very lucky to have the National Health Service,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32and I think we are the envy of the world.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Aneira and her family are lifelong supporters of the NHS,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45and have dedicated their working lives to it.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51There's four nurses in our family, so there's always nurses in and out of the house, you know.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59I remember my own sisters dressed like that and my aunts with the hats on.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood, you know.
0:13:18 > 0:13:24For me, Aneira's arrival in the world represents all that's best about our Health Service.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Within ten years of the NHS being introduced,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33infant mortality had almost halved, life expectancy had gone up six years,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and infectious diseases had dropped by 80%.
0:13:38 > 0:13:45In the 1940s, women were almost 50 times more likely to die from giving birth than they are today.
0:13:48 > 0:13:5163 years after Aneira became the first NHS baby,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55I'm off to meet one of the latest arrivals born just this morning
0:13:55 > 0:13:59under the guiding hand of one of the hospital's midwives, Antoinette Connolly.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Hello.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08- Hi, how are you doing? Nice to meet you.- How are you? Nice to meet you.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12So, how long have you been working in the National Health Service?
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Oh, in the National Health Service? Well, in the Women's Hospital, 30 years in September!
0:14:16 > 0:14:19And how have things changed in what you do?
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Er...they've changed quite a lot.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26To begin with the number of patients that we have through the door has increased.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28We've almost doubled the birth rate.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31It was about 4,500 when I first started 30 years ago,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33and it's 7,000-plus now.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36And with the advance in midwifery and in obstetrics,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40we're caring for more complex patients, delivering babies earlier,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44so, obviously, the workload's increased. Very interesting, though.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46- Did you deliver the first baby of the Millennium?- I did!
0:14:46 > 0:14:49- I knew that, you see!- My claim to fame.- It was an unnecessary question.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53The funny thing is, my mum, who lives in the West of Ireland, in a little village,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56had heard before I finished my nightshift to get home to tell her
0:14:56 > 0:15:00that I had actually been the midwife who delivered the Millennium baby! How cool is that?
0:15:00 > 0:15:04- Now, you've been at it again today? - Oh, we've been at it again today!
0:15:04 > 0:15:09- We've been very busy.- Can we see what you've been doing?- Yes, you can. You want to see my patient? Brilliant.
0:15:09 > 0:15:10Of course we can!
0:15:10 > 0:15:12- Hello!- Hi.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18- How are you doing?- Hello.- Aren't you looking well from this morning? - Thank you.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20How are you, my darling? Well done.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23She picked a very busy morning to come into us, didn't you?
0:15:23 > 0:15:27How are you doing, Dad? And we've got the name now, I hear?
0:15:27 > 0:15:31- Madison.- Oh, look! This is our famous little Madison!
0:15:31 > 0:15:34I mean, if she can't be a star on the day she's born...!
0:15:34 > 0:15:37- I know!- It's the least of things.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42So far, Madison is the youngest guest we've had on Reel History.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47But we've another first here in Birmingham today,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49the son of the first NHS patient.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Dr Clive Diggory has come here from North Yorkshire
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and brought along a picture of his mother at that time.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01- And that is...?- That's my mother.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Sylvia Beckingham, as she was then, Diggory as she became,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07and that's the Minister of Health Nye Bevan
0:16:07 > 0:16:12and that was the Matron of Park Hospital in Davyhulme, Manchester,
0:16:12 > 0:16:17where my mum was an inpatient, and had actually been in hospital just under a year when this was taken.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21So she was known as the first patient of the National Health Service?
0:16:21 > 0:16:25- Quite an important photograph for your mother, I'd have thought. - It was.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31- She remained a big fan of Nye Bevan, and could quote extracts of his speeches and so on.- Yeah.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34When I was applying to university, or thinking about going to university,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37I initially wanted to do engineering, like my father,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39and she was really keen for me to go into medicine,
0:16:39 > 0:16:44and I never fully really twigged this until events unfolded later on.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47She turned you away from engineering into...
0:16:47 > 0:16:48Well, she filled my UCCA form in, actually!
0:16:48 > 0:16:51So that was the job done, really.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53I was playing football and she filled my form in!
0:16:53 > 0:16:57- And said you were going to be a doctor, not an engineer?- Yes.- While you were playing football?- Yes.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11As well as patients and doctors, there are the NHS nurses.
0:17:11 > 0:17:18Also on our red carpet in Birmingham today are three nurses who joined the NHS in the early days
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and trained here in Birmingham at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25This is me in 1955.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27- You in 1955?- Yes.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33I've just got my State Badge, so I was entitled to wear a long cap.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38- What have you got?- That was me in 1952.- That's lovely, isn't it?
0:17:38 > 0:17:40- Lovely.- 1952.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45- Did you think the training you got was good training?- Oh, it was brilliant.- What was good about it?
0:17:45 > 0:17:50We were trained to be good, caring nurses.
0:17:52 > 0:17:58We're going to take our nurses back to a time they didn't think they'd see again.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Jeanette Griffith is about to watch the very recruitment film
0:18:08 > 0:18:12that inspired her to become one of the first people to sign up for nurse training
0:18:12 > 0:18:15when she was a young woman all those years ago.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Will it move her just as much today?
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Student Nurse, that had been made by the Central Office of Information,
0:18:28 > 0:18:34and it had been made for recruitment because recruitment was a big problem for nursing then.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37We'd gone to the cinema one Saturday,
0:18:37 > 0:18:44and the cinema in those days, it wasn't just two films, it was a whole programme of films.
0:18:44 > 0:18:50And we watched this film and I thought, it looks a nice place and it's out in the country,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53and my father said, "I didn't really want you to go to London.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56"You've got your aunt and uncle in Birmingham. I wouldn't mind that."
0:18:56 > 0:18:58So I applied and here I came.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04During their training, they'll live in the student nurses' quarters.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07But there's nothing institutional about their new home...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The Government needed 30,000 nurses to staff the new NHS.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14This recruitment film was made by the British Council
0:19:14 > 0:19:18at the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital here in Birmingham
0:19:18 > 0:19:21to show how great nursing in Britain was going to be.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25On duty a nurse is just a small part of a perfectly working machine.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28The first few months have enabled both the student
0:19:28 > 0:19:33and the trained hospital staff to make up their minds - will this girl make a good nurse?
0:19:33 > 0:19:35It's a question of how well she's shaping.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38If we weren't pulling our socks up and doing as we ought,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41she would have us in, have a little chat,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45but there was never anything ferocious about it.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47If you had behaved badly,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51she would be very straight but very fair.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54And you knew you weren't going to do it again.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02Training begins. It's the little external things that cause the first flutters of excitement,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04uniforms worn for the first time,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07the button overlooked and done up just at the last moment,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10the cap that won't stay straight.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Appearance was most important,
0:20:12 > 0:20:18and Jeanette was lucky enough to be one of the first to benefit from a makeover by Royal Appointment.
0:20:18 > 0:20:24We thought we were rather special, because apparently the first matron to the hospital,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28she had decided that nurses needed better uniforms.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33The idea was taken to Norman Hartnell, the Queen's dressmaker,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36and he in fact designed the dresses,
0:20:36 > 0:20:41and they were made up in spring-flower colours.
0:20:49 > 0:20:55Jeanette proudly wore her smart new uniform and became a big supporter of free healthcare for all.
0:20:58 > 0:21:04We felt everybody deserved to have a good service that was equal for everyone.
0:21:04 > 0:21:11And patients appreciated it. Very often their circumstances were poor,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15and they were being properly looked after and given the chance to get better
0:21:15 > 0:21:18and to be able to get back to work.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22It was something that wouldn't have been available to them before.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28The recruitment drive for nurses continued into the '50s.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32In the next raft of trainees here in Birmingham were Anne Carol Carrington
0:21:32 > 0:21:34and her sister Marion Scott.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Having trained at this very hospital,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41they may even recognise some of the people who appear in this film.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43That's what it was like.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48The sister tutor and the home sister welcome them with reassuring friendliness.
0:21:48 > 0:21:56It was Miss Collett who was the home sister who greeted the nurses.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01And then there was the tutor, Miss Bonford.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05The sister tutor tells them about their future work.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09She speaks of the self-discipline that makes a nurse dependable
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and competent to deal with any emergency.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17The age of majority was 21, and we started at 18,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21so there had to be rules and regulations,
0:22:21 > 0:22:28because they were responsible for your moral and spiritual welfare, as well as your training,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30so they took it very seriously.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35We'd go out on a pass until 10 o'clock at night,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38and once a month we were allowed a pass until 11 o'clock at night!
0:22:38 > 0:22:42But you had to go to Matron and ask for it, and you couldn't get married.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47"To your patients," she says, "you are the nearest link with the outside world."
0:22:47 > 0:22:52Most of those people had a lot more hair than I can remember us having!
0:22:52 > 0:22:56A lot more hair! And that surprised me quite a bit, actually.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01- It was...hairstyles were different earlier, weren't they? - Well, perhaps they were, but...
0:23:01 > 0:23:04it still seemed to me a lot of hair.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07You weren't allowed to have hair showing.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Birmingham was a pioneering nursing school.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15And Anne Carol and Marion are reminded how their studies mixed academic lectures
0:23:15 > 0:23:22with the purely vocational training of the past, sometimes with a few surprises in the closet...
0:23:22 > 0:23:25One of the first-year subjects is anatomy.
0:23:35 > 0:23:41We certainly had not seen a complete skeleton like that, so you didn't know really what to expect.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46It was quite jolly, really. A skeleton in the cupboard!
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Today, NHS nurses are rarely responsible for more than 15 patients each.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01When Anne Carol and Marion qualified, they could be responsible for many more,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03some a little more difficult than others.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Oh, you got frisky patients! You had to be careful with some of them.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13You had to remember our skirts, although they were quite long, actually...
0:24:13 > 0:24:18- you had to be very careful of bending over certain people's beds! - Oh, yes!
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Trained, skilled,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22utterly reliable,
0:24:22 > 0:24:27the nurse develops both as an individual and a willing servant of humanity,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31her future devoted to an honoured service.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Today, on Reel History, we're celebrating the birth of the National Health Service
0:24:51 > 0:24:58in Birmingham. This fantastic new Queen Elizabeth Hospital cost £545 million.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05It's the culmination, I suppose, of over 60 years of commitment to our Health Service.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10And none have played a greater role than our nurses.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16As the decades went by, the NHS needed to keep on recruiting them,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18so they started to look further afield.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25There was a big recruitment drive overseas looking for men and women willing to come over here
0:25:25 > 0:25:30and work in our system. One of those women was Nola Ishmael.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Nola came to Britain from Barbados in 1963,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38and trained at the Whittington Hospital in London.
0:25:40 > 0:25:46The British Council came to Barbados to recruit nurses and we were very persuaded, I have to tell you.
0:25:46 > 0:25:53And we came in our droves and we went to different hospitals across the country,
0:25:53 > 0:26:00and our aim, whatever it took, we were going to train and become a State Registered Nurse,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- that was our ambition. - How did you find it here?
0:26:03 > 0:26:05I loved it.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09I loved being a nurse.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15And I was fortunate that the people with whom I worked saw my potential and encouraged me.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17We worked to achieve.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22Our parents back home expected us to pass our exams.
0:26:22 > 0:26:29They expected us to do well and to send them photographs of the different changes of uniforms
0:26:29 > 0:26:32or any prizes that we may have won.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36They were expected from us and we delivered.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41Nola became one of Britain's top nurses, receiving an OBE in 2000,
0:26:41 > 0:26:46and dedicating over 40 years of her life to the NHS.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48The NHS established itself,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52and did you feel a mood in the country that they were very proud of this NHS system
0:26:52 > 0:26:55and that people felt it was theirs?
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Yes, indeed. We did what we had to do, worked hard,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03and ensured things were as good as we could make them,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07given the limits of the treatment available.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12- The introduction of the National Health Service, what did it change? - For the first time,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17you had coherence, systems, you had policies and procedures,
0:27:17 > 0:27:23everybody working to the same direction to make things better for people.
0:27:32 > 0:27:39When the NHS started in 1948, hospitals treated almost 4 million inpatients.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Today, that number has more than tripled.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45We've come a long way since the days of Aneurin Bevan.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54There's no doubt from the people I've talked to
0:27:54 > 0:27:59that everybody involved had a passion for it. It was their NHS.
0:27:59 > 0:28:05One man, Aneurin Bevan, had the vision to put it over and people wanted it.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09He made them think they owned it, and they do!
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Next time on Reel History...
0:28:13 > 0:28:18..we're in Glasgow, remembering Britain's shipbuilders in the '30s.
0:28:19 > 0:28:25Down here, right below here, there were 10,000 people at work on this one yard,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28not on the Clyde as a whole, just on this one yard.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:43 > 0:28:47E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk