Woman who was first baby born under NHS calls for its protection
THE NATION must preserve and protect the NHS, the woman who was the first ever baby born on the health service has said.
Aneira Thomas said the health service has touched the lives of every person in Britain.
The 69-year-old, who is celebrating her 70th birthday on July 5, said she is proud to be named after the founder of the health service Aneurin Bevan.
In an interview to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the health service, Mrs Thomas said if she could describe the difference the NHS has made to people’s lives in one word, it would be “safety”. Her paternal grandmother died at the age of just 34, leaving behind six small children. The names of four full-term babies that died are also etched on her gravestone.
Mrs Thomas was born a minute past the hour on July 5 1948, and became the first ever baby born on the NHS. Nurses pleaded with her mother Edna to “hold on” until after midnight.
By doing so, the family saved one shilling and sixpence on midwifery fees.
After her birth at Amman Valley Hospital, Carmarthenshire, the doctor and nurse who delivered Mrs Thomas asked her mother Edna whether they could name her and she agreed. Just like Aneurin Bevan, Mrs Thomas is known to friends as Nye.
Mrs Thomas, who has been invited to a series of events on her 70th birthday, said: “Everybody is speaking about the NHS because it touches everybody’s lives.
“We must preserve it and protect it for future generations.
“I feel privileged to be part of it and I’m proud to be named after the founder Aneurin Bevan a great man He was the architect and the visionary who changed everybody’s life.” to set up a nursing school. Director of Nursing David Melia said: “The safety and wellbeing of our patients is of course of paramount importance. Having an appropriate workforce in place really does pay a key role in supporting care to our patients.”
At Bradford Teaching Hospitals, nurses raised more than 100 incident reports over shortstaffing in the six months to February.
Bradford Royal Infirmary had 83.1 per cent of the required number of registered nurses covering day shifts in February. The trust was unable to comment last night.
Mr Turp also warned that some hospitals around the country have been hiring extra care staff - who are less qualified than registered nurses - to plug shortfalls in care facing patients.
He said: “They have an immensely valuable role.
“But the fact is they are not educated and trained to the same level in respect of specific nursing and care aspects.
“We do see trusts hiring in extra support staff to help out. But we’re absolutely clear that it’s not appropriate to substitute registered nursing care with somebody who is not registered.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the complexity of nursing care.
“If you have not go the right numbers, then research shows that mortality is higher, readmissions are higher, falls occur more frequently, pressure ulcers happen more frequently.”
At Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, parts of the organisation had more than 130 per cent of the required number of care staff, partly to “mitigate risk for registered nursing shortfalls,”, latest figures show.
But Dean Royles, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Director of HR, said: “Our nursing teams work constantly to ensure safe staffing levels, with an agreed, well designed and tested escalation process to provide additional staffing when required. This sometimes includes the use of unregistered staff to provide enhanced care for patients who need one-to-one observation or support.” PLANS FOR the future of the NHS should set out how England can have among the best health outcomes in Europe, Jeremy Hunt has said.
Speaking at the NHS70 Parliamentary Awards, which have recognised the contribution of local health heroes, the Health and Social Care Secretary said plans for the future of the health service should also focus on medical innovation.
On the eve of the NHS’s 70th anniversary, Mr Hunt praised the 1.7 million NHS staff across the whole of the UK. He singled out paramedics who attended the London Bridge terror attack, bereavement nurses who helped the families of the Manchester Arena bombing and doctors and nurses who stayed at hospitals overnight during the adverse weather earlier this year.
NHS England received hundreds of nominations for the NHS70 Parliamentary Awards, which took place in the House of Commons.
From more than 750 entries submitted, experts chose 10 outstanding nominations which “exemplify the best of what the NHS and its partners do day in, day out”, NHS England said.
A domestic assistant at Solent NHS Trust was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Rose Bennett has worked in the NHS for 46 years. She started when she was 30 and said retirement plans are not yet in sight. IN HOSPITAL with her grandmother who had suffered a stroke, Robyn Dean got an insight into the work of doctors for the first time.
She was 15 when she watched staff at Airedale Hospital help her late grandmother Elizabeth, working together to plan out how they would care for her.
“It made me realise and start to understand what the doctors did day to day,” she said. “From then on, I thought medicine would be something I would be interested in doing.”
Inspired by both the caring and scientific side of the career, Miss Dean, from Grassington, undertook periods of work experience at a GP surgery and on the neurology ward at Leeds General Infirmary.
A year out of education following her A-Levels, saw her work as a receptionist at a GP surgery in Keighley, volunteering for an Age UK shop and running activities for the elderly at a care home. Miss Dean then started studying clinical sciences at The University of Bradford in September and hopes to go on to study medicine.
She said: “I really enjoy the scientific aspect of things. It is a job where I can combine the science element and how drugs work with the caring role. You aren’t only treating a patient, you have empathy and compassion towards them too.”
Miss Dean, 19, has already seen first hand the pressures the NHS is under both in GP and hospital care, with doctor and nurse staffing shortages putting strain on the system.
But she told The Yorkshire Post: “People have learned to deal with what they are faced with and work with what they have got.
“The NHS is very resourceful, always coming up with solutions to change the way things work to make the system better for patients and the staff that work within it.”
And, with the help of dedicated staff and passionate students training in health, she believes the “relic of the country” will thrive into the future.
She said: “There is a lot of people that fight for the NHS and want it to carry it on. With them, it will strive and continue.
“I believe it is a right that people gain access to healthcare, not a privilege, and I think that has a lot to do with why it has thrived for so long.
“People want to keep it going because it gives healthcare to a lot of people. If I am able to contribute to that and give something back, it’s great.”