The NHS is currently under threat of privatisation and budget cuts, however the people that work for it, benefit from it and appriciate the National Health Service as free healthcare for all are prepared to fight and stand up for it.

The National Health Service was first introduced after the second world war, as a branch of the new Welfare State. It was established in 1948 as a way for the government to ensure the health of its population was being taken care of. At the time, there was a lot of opposition from doctors, who would've prefered to treat paitents privately and charge them as much money as they wanted, but eventually Aneurin Bevan won the fight and on the 5th July 1948, the NHS was set up. This resulted in free doctors, dentists, midwives, ambulances and opticians for everyone. As it stands today, dentistry has added expenses to certain treatments.

Moreover, nowadays there are talks of changing the NHS, of budget cuts, privatisation and even whispers of passport checks. However, this undermines the point of a National Health Service, which is to provide free, accessible health care to anyone in need. Unfortunately, there have been many incidents in recent years of the NHS not providing the  best quality care to its paitents and this could be traced to the issue of hospitals being under-staffed and over-suscribed. This is probably isn't helped the closure of Accident and Emergency centres all over the country. Approximately one in six A&E departments face threats of closure or downgrades, including Ealing, Kingston and Charing Cross hospitals.

In spite of all of this, the people took to the streets on 4th March 2017 to protest the risks to the health service. An estimated quarter of a million people marched from Tavistock Square down to Parliment Square. There were many speakers, using their voice to promote the NHS for waht it is and what it stands for, including Larry Sanders, the brother of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. 

All in all, once again the general public came together to show support for this cause.