In 1957, Miss Edith Manners launched the Royal Infirmary experimental course of training for nurses. Te experiment achieved many of its


objectives. For example, the ‘drop-out’ rate was reduced, and the scheme succeeded in attracting high-scoring school leavers. Most importantly, the course provided valuable lessons on which latter developments were based.


MOBILE X-RAY VANS IN GLASGOW, 1957


One of the great achievements of the NHS was to bring about an enormous reduction in lev- els of tuberculosis. During the 1950s, new drugs provided the opportunity to deal effectively with TB and in an an effort to identify all TB sufferers and treat them simultaneously (so as to prevent mutual re- infection) a massive chest x-ray campaign was conducted in Glasgow in 1957. Tirty-seven mobile X-ray vans screened 714,915 people over five weeks with 2,842 new TB cases identified and treated. Te campaign was a triumph of medical science and of organi- sation and record-keeping.


Epidemics of poliomyelitis occurred across Europe in the years following the Second World War. Polio could cause temporary pa- ralysis of the chest muscles and diaphragm, weakening patients’ breathing to the point where they died from lack of oxygen. In Copenhagen, where there had been


a serious epidemic, clinicians organised teams of medical students to hand pump oxygen for polio patients suffering from paralysis of both the chest and throat. Imitating the rhythm of normal breathing, they were able to save many victims lives. Dr Peter McKenzie, Phy-


sician Superintendent at Belvidere Infectious Dis- eases Hospital in the east end of Glasgow, heard of the Danes’


NHS70 | SUMMER 2018 | 21


BIRTH OF THE NHS, 5 JULY 1948


“Last minute guessing about the scheme has touched on every question from how the gaps are to be filled to the probable rate of progress in those sections which are ready, more or less, for action. Te most intelligent of it suggests that success or failure of the Service will depend on the family doctor. If the beneficiaries of State planning are to catch up with all of their rights he will have to be guide as well as philosopher and friend” – a report in Te Glasgow Herald on the day the NHS was founded.


FIRST ‘IRON LUNG’ IN BRITAIN, 1955


success and commissioned equipment that could imitate breathing. Te first intermit- tent positive pressure ventilator in Britain was built by Aga, the makers of cooking ranges, and installed at Belvidere Hospital in 1955. Te method of treatment and nursing attention required by these patients provided one of the practical experi- ences from which present-day intensive care units trace their origins.


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