Hundreds join North Mid tea party to celebrate NHS’ 70th birthday!

Hundreds of local people and patients joined North Middlesex University Hospital’s staff on Friday 5 July to celebrate the 70th birthday of the founding of the NHS in 1948.

The occasion was marked with a tea party and the ceremonial cutting of a giant, seven-tier birthday cake which was then shared into portions for the hospital’s inpatients. Inpatient wards and departments also received boxes of traditional biscuits to share.

Fifty-six children from Wilbury Junior School opened the day of festivities with a rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

Doctors, nurses and other clinical and non-clinical staff staged a series of special stalls to show the changing face of NHS services over seven decades in mental health, sexual health, HIV, pathology, histopathy (the microscopic examination of changes in human cells), breastfeeding, and maternity. Other advances on display included the hospital’s new Freedom to Speak Up Guardians who support members of staff who raise concerns about patient care = a national change since the Mid Staffordshire Hospital Inquiry.

A brief history of the hospital in pictures showed the scale of change at the Edmonton hospital since it was founded in 1919. After 1948 the hospital has been transformed with new buildings and services.

A new tower block was built in the late Sixties and the hospital’s brand new main building and maternity unit were built and opened in the last decade. Over 90% of the hospital’s services are now delivered from buildings that are less than eight years old. The hospital has grown to 3,250 staff, over half of whom live and work in Enfield and Haringey.

The tea party including biscuits, cake, tea and squash was provided free of charge by the hospital’s catering suppliers, Medirest, as a birthday gift and was received very gratefully by staff and patients.

The Trust’s Chair, Dusty Amroliwala, who cut the giant cake made by a patient, said: “I’m delighted to celebrate the 70th birthday of our National Health Service and to acknowledge the tremendous change that North Mid has seen during this time in the quality of care provided to our local communities. We wish the service every continuing success for the future.”

Chief Executive Maria Kane said: “Seventy years is a fantastic milestone for any organisation and North Mid has come a long way thanks to our incredible and dedicated staff, over half of whom live locally. We are all very grateful for the many kind birthday wishes and the support we have received from the local community on this great occasion. We are proud to be able to provide local people with such high quality health services, free of charge, thanks to the NHS and we will continue to do so.”