National Health Service Quotes

I get involved in lots of Twitter spats with lots of people when I think they're not being fair about the progress the NHS is making.

I think the British people are very, very attached to the idea that the health service is free at the point of use. But there is no reason why every doctor, nurse and teacher in this country has to be employed by the state.

I think I was brought up with an innate sense of responsibility because my dad was in the Foreign Office where you were in somebody else's country, and you were aware of your behaviour. And my mum worked for the NHS, so you were aware of your responsibility to your country.

I love Scotland; I love the NHS. I was born into the NHS; I grew up in the NHS. My family grew up in the NHS.

One of the jewels in the crown of Labour's time in office was the rescue of the National Health Service. As the Commonwealth Fund, the London School of Economics and the Nuffield Foundation have all shown, health reforms as well as additional investment were essential to improved outcomes, especially for poorer patients.

As an ideologically based movement, socialism is no longer vital. Today it's a combination of democracy, rule of law and the welfare state, and I'd say a vast majority of Europeans defend this -- the British Tories can't touch the National Health Service without being beheaded.

He [Clement Attlee] is a modest little man with much to be modest about.

He [Aneurin Bevan] will be as great a curse to this country in peace as he was a squalid nuisance in time of war.

I think saving the NHS is a lifetime's work.

The NHS is something we should put above everything else.

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

People come from all over the world - from Europe and further afield - to work, study, and innovate in our country. More than 50,000 work in our National Health Service, making a vital contribution in caring for our ageing society.

What's happened [in UK] is a private medical practice has started up, people who can afford it are going to into medical institutions, hospitals and so forth, that are not part of the National Health Service, they've opted out.

Look back to 1948 when the British Medical Association denounced Aneurin Bevan as 'a would-be Führer' for wanting them to join a National Health Service. And Bevan himself described the BMA as 'politically poisoned people'. A survey at the time showed only 10 per cent of doctors backed the plans ... But where would we be today if my predecessors had caved in?

Britain, with the most completely socialized health system in the West, now spends the lowest fraction of GNP on health care of any major nation. There are frequent complaints of excessive waits for elective surgery and other inconveniences, but British citizens live slightly longer than Americans, on average, and our overall health conditions are comparable.

The NHS cannot be privatised if that's not the will of the Scottish people, and the Scottish health service will have the funding that's necessary if that's also the will of the Scottish people.

You all know my commitment to the National Health Service. While I am Secretary of State, the NHS will never be fragmented, privatised or undermined. I am personally committed to an NHS which gives equal access, and excellent care.

We dragged the National Health Service from the depths of degradation. I've got a United Nations heart bypass to prove it and it was done by a Syrian cardiologist, a Malaysian surgeon, a Dutch doctor and a Nigerian registrar.

I entered the health care debate in response to a statement in the United States press in summer 2009 which claimed the National Health Service in Great Britain would have killed me off, were I a British citizen. I felt compelled to make a statement to explain the error.

Under the British healthcare system, there is a commission that decides whether or not, based on your age and physical condition, the government should continue to pay for your health.

Why do British people make such good TV? It's so annoying. Stop it. Is it because they have free health care? Uggh.

We will never privatise the National Health Service.

It's become unfashionable to celebrate political achievement, and Labour achievement even less so. And it's positively uncouth to be proud of something that this Labour government is doing. So, slam me for saying so, but I'm really proud of the NHS.

When the British people were asked what was the most important thing that the country had ever done, winning World War II came second. Establishing the National Health Service came first.