Royal tribute to the frontline
BORIS Johnson led the nation in a clap to honour the NHS on its 72nd anniversary.
The Prime Minister praised the health service for keeping the country safe and said the public was eternally grateful.
Mr Johnson stood on the steps of Downing Street with the Clap For Carers campaign founder Annemarie Plas to lead the nationwide celebration.
He also hosted NHS workers for tea in the No 10 garden, including nurses Jenny McGee and Luis Pitarma and doctors Nick Price and Nick Hart, who saved his life when he was struck down with coronavirus.
He said: “This year has seen the NHS gallantly respond to the greatest challenge it has ever faced and rightly receive unprecedented support.
“Week after week, we saw people take to their doorsteps, line the streets, lean precariously out of rainbow-bedecked windows to clap their hands and bang their saucepans to show their appreciation.
“I am proud to be once again clapping for our heroic NHS staff, alongside Anne-Marie Plas who launched this inspirational initiative.
“I am also celebrating today with staff from St Thomas’ Hospital who, quite simply, saved my life. “As we mark seventy-two years of the NHS, I want to say how thankful I am of this world leading institution.
“As Prime Minister, I have given the NHS a £34billion funding increase, the biggest in decades, and made sure it has every penny it needs to cope with coronavirus. “I’m immensely proud that the organisation built by Beveridge, Bevan, Willink, Godber, and so many others, has grown into the spritely seventy-two year old we see today.”
Ms Plas said she felt very honoured to be joining the Prime Minister for the “very special moment”.
Second World War veteran and NHS fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore joined the applause from his home in a video he shared on social media.
The 100-year-old, who raised millions for the NHS, said: “Happy 72nd birthday NHS. Thank you for all that you do for us.”
Paramedic William Young was one of around 25 staff and patients who marked the event outside Bridlington Hospital in Yorkshire.
“I’ve worked for Yorkshire Ambulance Service for over 12 years now and I’ve never felt prouder than I have this year,” said,
“The NHS has really stepped up to the Covid-19 pandemic and some of my colleagues have made some tremendous sacrifices.
“I think today’s clap has reminded us all that while we are still fighting
Covid, we have so much to be grateful for in our NHS.”
The Prince of Wales paid tribute in a video ahead of the event, which it is hoped will become an annual tradition.
The prince said: “The current pandemic means that the NHS – and the entire country – has been through the most testing time in the service’s history.
“Our remarkably selfless nurses, doctors, paramedics and countless other staff have made costly sacrifices to provide treatment for more than a hundred thousand patients with coronavirus and thousands more who needed other care.
“And, in tribute to them, we have come together as a nation to thank them for their skill, professionalism and dedication.”
Labour leader Sir Keir said the health service had a personal resonance for him as his late mother was a nurse and later relied on the NHS as she became ill.
He said: “Many, many times she got gravely ill and it was the NHS that she turned to, and I remember as a boy, a teenager, being in high dependency units, in intensive care units, with my mum, watching nurses and other support staff keep my mum alive.
“They did that on more than one occasion – it’s etched in my memory. For them, it was just the day job. They were doing that every day.
“So, it’s very personal for me and I’m very grateful to the NHS and my mum was very grateful, she loved the NHS through the many decades that she absolutely depended on them.”
The NHS marked its anniversary after facing the most challenging year in its history. More than 100,000 hospital inpatients have been treated for Covid-19 in in the UK.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said hospital workers have only been able to pull the country through the pandemic thanks to a “national mobilisation” of all key workers, from care assistants and supermarket shelf-stackers to transport workers.
He said: “I think for NHS there will be a sense of relief, having coming through this huge first spike of coronavirus patients, but also people have been working incredibly hard.
“So there’s a need to take a moment to reflect and recharge the batteries while at the same time doing all the other brilliant things that the health service does. This is a huge national effort and the NHS is hugely grateful for all the support it has received from all of the rest of the country.”
The clap was organised after a letter from the Together coalition, in which influential figures including Sir Simon Stevens and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby voiced their support for making July 5 an official day of commemoration.