Fast Facts on the NHS

The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world alongside the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Indian railways and the Wal-Mart supermarket chain,

The NHS in England and Wales employs around 1.3 million people.

This is one in 23 of the working population.

Around 77 per cent of today’s NHS workforce is female.

Both men and women live an average of 10 years longer than they did before the creation of the NHS.

Patients in England now have the right to choose between at least four hospitals for non-emergency treatment.

This is designed to give people more and more choice and control over where they go for treatment.

The Department of Health is currently undertaking the largest ever review of the NHS.

The Our NHS, Our Future review is led by Lord Darzi of Denham.

The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born on July 25, 1978.

Since then, more than a million test tube babies have been born worldwide.

The first heart transplant in the UK took place on May 3, 1968 at the National Heart Hospital in Marleybone, London.

By 2008, 5,328 heart transplants had been carried out in the UK.

The oldest person in the world to have a hip replacement was a 101-year-old woman.

She was treated at the Good Hope Hospital in the West Midlands.

More than 89,000 hip replacements operations were carried out in the years 2006/07.

A full-time GP treats an average of 255 patients each week.

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