BBC Radio Podcasts from National Health Stories

Never Enough

The NHS has never had enough money. How have health ministers dealt with it?

From cleaning bedpans to treating broken bones: how nursing in the NHS has changed.

Breast screening highlighted the issue of over-diagnosis and over-treatment in the NHS.

When MRSA and other hospital bugs hit the headlines, the NHS had to clean up its act.

How the NHS responded to a new fatal disease, Aids, in the 1980s.

A baby died, wards were closed and nurses went on strike. An NHS crisis in the 1980s.

How the Black Report in 1980 and others exposed inequalities in health in deprived areas.

How the NHS responded to the birth of the first test tube baby in 1978.

How Cecily Saunders' 'modern hospice' movement forced the NHS to plan for a 'good death'.

How unsung heroine Barbara Robb exposed glaring gaps in the care of the mentally ill.

How the contraceptive pill forced the NHS to acknowledge women sexual health needs.

How the new 'modern' hospital designs changed the relationships of staff and patients.

How the life-saving 'artificial kidney' machine brought moral dilemmas in its wake.

How life in the new NHS gave some hospital doctors the time and freedom to innovate.

How lung cancer forced the new NHS to ask: should it just treat disease or prevent it too?

The highs and lows that followed the launch of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948.

How Aneurin Bevan convinced his harshest critics, the doctors, to sign up to his NHS.

How the Second World War helped to shape the National Health Service.

How some enterprising individuals addressed the health problems in their own communities.

How the nation coped before the NHS, with basic treatments and kitchen table surgery.