This year the National Health Service (NHS) celebrates its 60th anniversary. To mark this very special occasion local NHS trusts and services have planned a variety of events all over the country, in order to pay tribute to its staff and volunteers and to look to the future services it provides.

Wiltshire Primary Care Trust has organised a special celebration meal to be cooked and served to patients at Chippenham Hospital on Friday 4th July.

Wiltshire-based TV chef Peter Vaughan will work with the hospital catering team as they prepare a lunch of locally sourced Wiltshire faggots, home-made pease pudding, carrots and mashed potato with onion gravy, using authentic recipes from 1948.

Peter Vaughan said "The meal is absolutely typical of its day and is extremely nutritious, just right for people in recovery". Patients on the wards and visitors to the hospital cafeteria will be offered a choice of the 1948 meal or a present-day alternative of Thai green curry. Spotted Dick - a favourite then and now - will be served for pudding.

Catering Manager at Chippenham Hospital, Ralph Cottrell commented, "Many of our patients and visitors remember the introduction of the NHS and weíre looking forward to giving them a taste from their past. The faggots have been sourced locally from a long established, traditional supplier and weíre confident the meal will be a popular reminder of bygone times".

Wiltshire Primary Care Trust is also currently developing a library of photographic images which portray the wide range of services it provides and commissions for local people. Throughout this 60th anniversary year, selected images from this library will be displayed in public communal areas of our hospitals, health centres and some GP surgeries.

THE NHS AND WILTSHIRE

In 1948, for the first time, prevention, diagnosis and treatment were brought together under one umbrella organisation to create one of the most comprehensive health services in the world: the NHS.

It's easy to forget that the standards we now take for granted were once novel: In 1948, a cataract operation meant a week of total immobility with the patientís head supported by sandbags. Eye surgery is now over within 20 minutes, and most patients are out of hospital the same day.

In 1958, hip replacements were so unusual that the surgeon who invented them asked patients to agree to return them post-mortem. The NHS now carries out 1,000 of these replacements every week.

The first UK heart transplant patient in 1968 only survived 46 days. The procedure is now routine enough for two dozen to be carried out in the same period.

The world waited until 1978 for Britain to produce the first test-tube baby; 6,000 are now born here annually.

The breast-screening programme introduced in 1988 now saves the lives of 1,400 women a year.

Over the last 60 years, the hard work and skills of NHS staff, plus advances in medicine and the rising expectations of patients and the public, have all helped drive up the standards of health and healthcare which are considered the norm.

In England, people are now living on average at least ten years longer than they did in 1948, deaths from cancer and heart disease have fallen dramatically and Britain is one of the safest places in the world to give birth.

In Wiltshire, we are relatively healthy compared to the rest of the country: early death rates from cancer, heart disease and stroke are lower than the national average, while life expectancy is higher typically, people in Wiltshire live a year longer than the national average.

But there is still room for improvement: In Wiltshire, 686 deaths a year can be attributed to smoking, and smoking is the single largest preventable risk factor for cancer. To get help to quit, please contact the NHS Stop Smoking Service on 01380 733891 (Kennet, North, West Wiltshire) or 01980 626159 (South Wiltshire).

Wiltshire has a lower percentage of adults eating five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day than the rest of England. Five portions a day is the minimum you should aim for a portion is about how much would comfortably fit in your hand. Reasons to aim for five a day include maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

A recent survey showed that Wiltshire was above the England average for physical activity for thirty minutes three times a week. However, latest government advice is to participate in physical activity for 30 minutes at least five times a week. Being active can reduce your risk of developing heart disease and dementia, as well helping to control heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

The NHS has never stood still it has always developed and reformed to meet the publicís expectations and the needs of a changing society, and this progress continues in Wiltshire.

When the NHS was set up in 1948, it was based around buildings, and patients were expected to fit around the priorities and practices of the service. One place for a doctorís appointment, another to get blood tests and X-rays done, a third for further follow-up, and illness of any sort invariably meant a long stay in hospital away from family and friends.

Nowadays, the service is designed to suit the individual, with mothers-to-be offered the choice about where they want to give birth at home, in hospital or in a midwife-led community unit; patients who need care for long-term conditions are provided with this care in their own homes; and when a planned operation needs to be carried out, patients are often given a choice about time and location.

In Wiltshire, the 11 Neighbourhood Teams which were set up last year are now providing their patients with care in their own homes from 7am until late evening, and the teamsí nurses, therapists and support staff are already taking more than 1,500 patient referrals and carrying out more than 20,000 patient visits a month.

And across the county, five new purpose-built primary care centres are in development, following in the footsteps of the Malmesbury Primary Care Centre which opens this summer. With a Primary Care Centre in Devizes, Trowbridge, Westbury and two in Salisbury, many more patients will have access to family doctor services, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation and physiotherapy facilities and a whole range of other health and care services all under one roof, specifically designed to be accessible for people with disabilities.