It’s birthday time for the NHS this week and staff at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust will be raising a toast at their celebration tea party today (July 5).

The staff will be hosting the party with cupcakes, commemorative pin badges and slideshows of patient's thank yous.

The Mineral Water Hospital building and RUH buildings on the Combe Park site will be lighting up blue in celebration along with historic and high profile sites across the country.

All year the trust has been marking the anniversary of the service’s creation in 1948 by reflecting on the past, celebrating the present and looking to the future.

They have been exploring some of the people and stories that lie behind our ward names, investigating some of the more unusual artefacts from the past, and contemplating how job roles have changed, and will continue to change.

But it inst all about the past, as trust is celebrating advances in science, technology and innovation, including a recent £2.1m grant into Parkinson’s disease research to improve the lives of people living with this condition.

Chief Executive James Scott said: “This is a very special year, and Thursday a very special day, for all past and present staff at our hospital. It’s a perfect time to recognise the great things that happen every day in our hospitals, and to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s made us what we are and everyone who’s helping to shape our future.”