We recently sent out our VERY limited edition Post-It notes, with 100 interesting, surprising and sometimes little-known facts about the NHS.
Did you get yours? In case you missed out, here are a few of our favourite facts:
- The Park Hospital in Manchester was the first hospital to open in the NHS in 1948.
- In 1960, Edinburgh doctor Michael Woodruff performed a kidney transplant for an identical set of twins – it was the first transplant to take place in the UK.
- Lords Health minister Earl Howe’s father, George Curzon, acted in over 35 films and was also a Royal Navy Commander.
- On 3rd May 1968, 18 doctors and nurses operated for seven hours on a 45-year-old man to perform the UK’s first heart transplant in the National Heart Hospital in London.
- The oldest person in the world to have a hip replacement was a 101-year-old lady who was treated at Good Hope Hospital in the West Midlands.
- Junior health minister Anna Soubry is a former This Morning presenter.
- Quarry Hill, location of the NHS England headquarters, was the site of 17th century plague cabins.
- Great Ormond Street Hospital opened on Valentine’s Day 1852 with 10 beds.
- The NHS is the fifth largest employer in the world. Only the US Department of Defence (3.2m), Chinese Liberation Army (2.3m), Walmart (2.1m) and McDonalds (1.9m) employ more people.
- The NHS deals with over 1 million patients every 36 hours.
- The NHS helps to deliver an average of 791,000 babies a year.
- Pharmaceutical companies discovered 15 of the world’s top 75 medicines in the UK.
- Community pharmacies dispense an average of 926.7 million prescriptions a year.
- Approximately 170,000 people (the capacity of the Glastonbury music festival) go for an eyesight test each week.
- Most nurses in 19th century workhouses collected their wages in beer.
- One of Jeremy Hunt’s early business ventures was exporting marmalade to Japan.
To get your hands on a set and impress your friends and colleagues with your knowledge about the NHS, email the answer to this simple question to justask@havas.com:
Which NHS hospital owns the rights to Peter Pan?