Describe the state of the NHS in under 70 words

Nadia Bukhari
I am incredibly proud of the NHS. The service’s guiding principle is ‘free healthcare for all’, and 70 years on this is still being honoured.Despite the chronic lack of funding and staff are working tirelessly to provide the best quality of care. It is important to value our committed staff and, therefore, supporting staff appropriately must be a key priority for the NHS.
Nadia Bukhari is senior teaching fellow, Pharmacy Practice at UCL

 

Aneez Esmail
We learnt that healthcare does not depend on what you earn and that we can look after everyone from cradle to grave.
We have learnt to do this with dignity and compassion because we are all in it together. Happy birthday to one of the best health services in the world. We will fight for its values – because no one should fear ill health.
Aneez Esmail is professor of general practice at University of Manchester

 

Kailash Chand
Over the past 70 years, the NHS has transformed the health and wellbeing of the nation and become the envy of the world. But it is now in crisis. A world-class institution with world-class staff is being torn apart to achieve political ideology by politicians. In its 70th year, what the NHS needs is not reform but revolution. We must make sure it is fit for decades to come.
Kailash Chand is honorary vice-president of BMA

 

Mark Lim
I am more optimistic for the NHS at 70 years old than I was five years ago. I was initially concerned about the loss of most clinical epidemiology from primary care trusts moving to local councils instead of staying in clinical commissioning groups [CCGs]. But the recent inclusion of indicators for big killers such as diabetes in annual assessments has urged health systems to retain focus on clinical outcomes.
Mark Lim is programme director for Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG

 

Umesh Prabhu
The NHS is a kind, caring, compassionate and great institution. Over the past 36 years of my career I have worked with fantastic colleagues. Health is the wealth of the nation. The NHS is the best asset we have and it is our responsibility to make sure we respect, value and care for it and to make sure it goes from strength to strength.
Umesh Prabhu is a paediatric consultant and former medical director at Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

 

Rob Webster
The NHS is made up of more than 1.3 million NHS staff and joined by more than three million volunteers. There are also more than one million care staff and 2.6 million people who are unpaid carers. The future of the NHS will require the skills and imagination of all these people to build hope for them and public confidence that a better NHS will be delivered.
Rob Webster is chief executive of South West Yorkshire Partnerships NHS Trust

 

Partha Kar
Astounding. Fair. Evolving. Irreplaceable. Complicated. Some of the common words used about the NHS – depending on who you speak to and the ethos they hold true to. The NHS needs to modernise – but the passion it evokes makes this a conversation that needs to be had sensitively. The NHS and its ethos will survive – but its modernization will need a lot of grit.
Partha Kar is associate national clinical director for diabetes at NHS England

 

Rahul Thakur
The NHS is the best and most unique healthcare system in the world. However, the state of it is like crumbling cookies. Despite so much money being poured into various schemes and projects, there are issues of workforce capacity and basic infrastructure that impact delivering these as aspired. Waiting times for GP appointments, ambulance and A&E transfer and discharge rates are all overstretched now and reflect the urgency to act immediately.
 
Rahul Thakur is diabetes clinical lead at East Lancashire CCG