Tony Blair BT NHS Official Sponsors Steering Group   Prime Minister This year sees the 50th Anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service, one of the proudest achievements of the Labour government after the war. The National Health Service has provided care for people and a service for people that would simply have been unthought of years and years ago. It's given people security, it's given them some hope when they're ill, it's given them the ability to be treated irrespective of their wealth but simply on the basis of their need. What's wonderful too is that all the organisations across the National Health Service have united and come together in order to make this celebration happen. We also want to take the opportunity of the 50th Anniversary of the National Health Service to mark our admiration and our gratitude for all those that have worked in the National Health Service. They've given their dedication, they've given their time, they're often working long hours in difficult circumstances. But all the time patients everywhere throughout the National Health Service know that we have the finest staff anywhere in the world to care for them. The National Health Service however, is not simply there just to be preserved, we don't just want to save the National Health Service - there's a lot more to be done in order to do that, to give the people the investment in the health service that it needs. We also want to see it improved, to find new and better ways of treating people, to use new technology, to make sure that we have a service that is modernising and moving with the times as well as dependable and secure. The National Health Service has had 50 years of a very proud and honourable life. We want to give it a future of which we can also be proud.     Copyright © 1998, NHS