People and Facts

The whole fabric of our NHS is woven around the stories of people

As patients or members of staff – it is your stories which form the real history of the National Health Service.

You can read some of these stories here. We want to include more.

In this section you can also find out more about interesting facts - historical, current and the off-beat – and test your knowledge of the NHS in its first 60 years.

In what year was the UK's first successful kidney transplant performed?

There were 1.55 million A&E visits in Scotland in 2006/2007 – a significant 50,000 rise on the previous year.

More current facts

In the first year of the NHS 15 million prescriptions were dispensed at a total cost of £2.75 million.

More historical facts

Most nurses in the 19th century workhouses collected their wages in beer.

More bizarre facts