The NHS - A People’s History

Episode
Episode 3
Broadcast Info
2018 (59 mins)
Description
Alex Brooker continues to chart the history of the Health Service via the treasured memories of patients and staff whose lives it has affected since its inception in 1948. This third episode covers 1997 to the present day and unveils a whole host of unique, highly personal artefacts. We’ll discover the homemade badges dedicated to the first surgeons to carry out gender reassignment surgery after it became available on the NHS...a nurse’s uniform cherished since it was used in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics...and teddy bears lovingly made from the clothes of Ellen Linstead, one of the victims of the notorious Mid-Staffordshire abuse scandal in 2006. It’s a period in which the ever expanding, ever more diverse institution has grown unwieldy and almost impossibly expensive to manage. Budget cuts, privatisation and hospital closures become commonplace - but the public aren’t prepared to see it disappear without a fight. Christine Wharrier and Peter Doyle wanted their NHS to keep pace with a society that no longer tolerated unequal conditions for men and women at work. They share with us the moving ‘thank you’ cards they were sent after they fought and won an extraordinary equal pay deal for female NHS employees, one of the biggest ever achieved in Europe at that time. We meet Chidi Ejimofo, consultant in emergency medicine, as he unfurls the huge placard he has kept ever since he protested against closures at Lewisham Hospital. Then Jonny Banger shows us the prototype of the now iconic T-Shirt he designed in support of the Junior Doctor’s Strike, inspired by the treatment his Mum received on the NHS...
Genre
Medicine; History; Research; Health & Social Care

How to cite this record

The Open University, "The NHS - A People’s History". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/230907 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)