Feature - The Magdalen - December
in the UK in the late 1950s, and today more than 37 million prescriptions a year are written to treat a wide range of cardiovascular disorders. Vaccinations, in their infancy when the NHS began, helped define the service and its goal to prevent illness wherever possible. Mass vaccination programmes were introduced to prevent some of the most serious afflictions of the day, including Tuberculosis (TB). The advent of the NHS saw vaccination programmes grow and become enormously sophisticated. Smallpox has since been eradicated from British shores. Diseases that had caused mass deaths or permanent disabilities, such as polio, are going the way of smallpox, with rates of infection dropping significantly. The first UK organ transplant was performed in Edinburgh in 1960. It marked the first of many successful NHS transplants which paved the way for more ground-breaking procedures that continue to benefit thousands every year. Following the development of more sophisticated drugs, organ rejection is far less prevalent with almost 5,000 organ transplants performed in the UK each year. The number of people alive due to organ donation surpassed 50,000 for the first time last year. In 1953, Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). One of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century, it turned the global scientific community upside down. After winning the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine, their discovery marked the beginning of genetic medicine globally. Understanding DNA ultimately allows scientists to better understand diseases caused by defective genes, such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease. In 2003, NHS clinicians were among a team of
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Design by Molly Porteous
international researchers who completed a thirteen year, multibillion-pound project, to sequence the human genome which propelled scientists, researchers and clinicians globally into an era of personalised medicine and advanced genetic testing. The project’s legacy continues to improve diagnosis and treatment throughout medicine, and provides the basis for the ‘100,000 Genomes Project’ which is sequencing whole genomes of NHS patients. The project is focusing on rare diseases, common types of cancer, and infectious diseases. The data is being shared with researchers, to improve knowledge of the causes, treatment and care of the diseases affecting our nation. The NHS will always need to change to match emerging science and shifting disease profiles. The forefront of progress is NHS supported scientific research into gene therapies. Today, doctors hope inherited and incurable diseases could one day be treated with gene therapies such as gene editing. Researchers at NHS hospitals have shown that clinicians may be able to insert healthy copies of defective genes into patients. Although research still has a long way to go, gene therapies may well be the answer to many previously incurable afflictions.
The NHS Today and in the Future The NHS continues to prove itself today, especially in the wake of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester along with the Grenfell Tower tragedy which saw all emergency services, including frontline NHS staff at the heart of the response, react with world-class skill and bravery. Even today, the NHS continues to provide mental health support for victims of the 2017 tragedies. However, there is no doubt that the service is very much under attack.