- Check against delivery -

60 years ago this July, the Attlee Government established one of this country's greatest institutions, the National Health Service.

As Nye Bevan said at the time - its birth did not follow, 'an altogether trouble-free gestation'. There is a myth about the creation of the NHS - as if it emerged perfectly formed from a deep and powerful consensus. In actual fact it was fiercely opposed by the medical establishment and at every parliamentary stage - including Third Reading - by the Tories.

But there was public support and if Labour hadn't had the guts to take advantage of the post war mood to establish this living embodiment of social solidarity its doubtful if the NHS would ever have been created.

It was. And from that moment, the availability of comprehensive health care universally available and free at the point of need has been cherished by the British people. But not because it has stood still. The NHS has grown and developed through the years.

50 years ago we were one of the first countries to adopt universal polio and diphtheria vaccinations. 40 years ago we carried out the UK's first heart transplant; 30 years ago we produced the first test tube baby. 20 years ago we introduced nationwide breast screening and 10 years ago we established the first NHS walk-in centre.

Today Lord Ara Darzi - one of the world's top surgeons - a man who pioneered keyhole surgery and robotic technology within the NHS is developing a vision for the future of health care as a Minister in our Government.

Ara is one member of my star studded Ministerial team with Ben Bradshaw, Dawn Primarolo, Ivan Lewis and Ann Keen.

In the last ten years this government has provided the NHS with the level of resources it has too often been denied in the past. We now have more doctors and nurses than ever before. The biggest hospital building programme in our nation's history. Deaths from cancer amongst the under 65s is reducing by 2% a year and two weeks ago we were able to announce that we had achieved our target of a 40% reduction in deaths from cardio-vascular disease five years earlier than planned.

And we are on the verge of an achievement unimaginable ten years ago - taking waiting lists off the political agenda by reducing them from around 18 months in 1997 to an average of just 8 weeks by the end of this year.

Of course, the public outcry on waiting times has reduced as the memory of the misery they caused recedes. This is in the nature of politics. But nothing better illustrates our progress than the story that Liam Donaldson our Chief Medical Officer tells of how when he was running the NE Regional Health Authority in the 1980s he received a letter from an 82-year-old man who had been waiting for a cataract operation for 15 years. He wrote to ask if he could use his will to bequeath his place in the queue to his 60-year-old nephew who was just beginning to develop similar eye problems. His was not an uncommon experience. Today we guarantee your cataract operation within 13 weeks.

There are other health care systems in the world that achieve good results and short waiting times. However, the real social value of the NHS is that the care it provides is there for everyone, and used by everyone, irrespective of income or background.

Sixty years on from its foundation, the principle of universality is even more important today.

Developments in genetic testing and profiling means there is now the potential for insurance-based systems to deny people essential treatment. Using their genetic profile to remove the risk and uncertainty from insurance cover.

Labour's case for a universal, tax funded health service has never been stronger - the NHS will protect Britain from the development of a genetic underclass who are unwell, uninsurable and unable to get the care they need. Our health service is available to all irrespective of class, creed, income or genetic make up.

It's even available to obnoxious Tory peers with their powdered hair and foul breath.

In 1948 it was Labour that was willing to take the tough decisions in the long-term interests of the country. Then, as now, we faced a clear choice on the future of health care in this country.

As Nye Bevan predicted, a successful health service will always appear inadequate because it will continually be highlighting the challenges ahead.

Despite the dramatic reductions in deaths from cancer, heart disease and stroke, these remain Britain's biggest killers.

Despite real progress in reducing smoking, new lifestyle diseases, such as

obesity pose huge problems for the future.

The UK has growing mental health problems and an ageing population in need of better social care.

It is for these reasons that we will put increased investment in healthcare for all, before tax cuts for the wealthy few.

Just last week I set out our plans, backed by investment, to recruit an additional 4,000 midwives to improve the quality of maternity care and 3,600 psychological therapists to oversee the biggest revolution ever seen in mental health services.

We will give more power and resource to matrons and nurses to keep our hospitals clean. And we will be the first country in the world to screen all elective and emergency patients for MRSA.

Where clinicians put forward a clear case to change services to save patient lives, we will back them. In Greater Manchester clinicians had been trying for 40 years to reconfigure maternity services in order to save babies' lives. We backed them. The changes are taking place. The Tory policy for a moratorium on change is in effect a call for a moratorium on saving lives.

Incidentally, I don't know what the Tories are suffering from but I hope it's not catching.

In the summer they were putting out press releases seeking to defend hospital services that didn't exist.

One minute the Shadow Chancellor is pledging tax cuts, the next minute the Health Spokesman is promising extra health spending of £28 billion to be funded by cuts in schools, police, defence and local government. In a recent press release they criticised "Pollyclinics" - obviously concerned that we are planning a network of health centres for parrots. As Winston Churchill might have said never criticise a policy that you can't spell.

It's no wonder the public don't trust them with our public services.

There is one element of the original NHS vision that we have not fully realised over the last 60 years. As the 1944 White Paper said, the NHS "should promote good health rather than only the treatment of bad". Predicting and preventing disease is our next frontier.

We are already committed to vaccinate all girls against cervical cancer saving 400 lives a year. From next year, we will start screening men aged 65 for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, the so-called "Triple A" which is a dangerous weakness of the main artery that kills over 3,000 men a year. And by 2011 we will have extended breast cancer and bowel cancer screening to an extra three quarters of a million people.

But we can and will go even further. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of breast and cervical screening - a programme that saves 7000 lives every year. In this anniversary year, we will pledge to invest £120m in new digital equipment to give women more accurate and quicker results.

The right to screening is there for all but I want to save more lives by specifically targeting the third of women from lower socio economic groups in some inner city areas that are still not coming forward. I have asked PCT's in the worst effected areas to increase awareness and the take up of screening.

Later this month we will also be setting out revolutionary plans to put Britain at the forefront of screening for diseases such as stroke, diabetes, heart and kidney disease - taking full advantage of emerging technology.

As we make the NHS more preventative, we must also make it more personal. This means making primary care more accessible with 100 new GP surgeries in the most deprived areas of England and a further 150 new health centres open 7 days a week in every part of the country.

People should have more choice over when they are able to see their GP. I hope that in the BMA ballot GPs will vote to provide extra appointments at weekends and evenings. This is not just for the benefit of commuters. When surgeries in Canary Wharf opened early in the morning their first patients were not city hot shots, but hourly paid manual workers who lost money, or worse their jobs, if they didn't go to work.

The number of telephone consultations has trebled over the last 10 years and we can do more to ensure that this important choice is available everywhere.

The days of patients being the passive recipients of a one-size fits all service are over. When a couple have lived all their lives together they should not be forced apart near the end of their lives. This week Ivan Lewis and I will be setting out plans to enable elderly couples to remain together when one of them has to go into care. This will be part of our increasing focus on adult social care.

And I would like to see employers do more. We must explore how we can create healthier workplaces, with better health advice, good diet, greater access to exercise and even health screening at work.

This quiet revolution should extend to the accountability of our local health services as well.

Our hospitals and primary care trusts should not be remote from the communities they serve. They spend billions of pounds on healthcare and I want local people to have a greater say in the leadership of and decisions taken by their local NHS.

But we will not follow the Tory plan for the creation of a giant unelected national quango. Putting in place a huge structural upheaval to pass power to the unaccountable, while responsibility remains with those stripped of the ability to exercise it.

Instead we will set out the rights and responsibilities of a modern 21st century health service in the first ever NHS constitution.

Let us today pay tribute to all those who work in our national health service - the doctors, nurses, physios, midwives, psychiatrists, cleaners - all of them demonstrating that selflessness, compassion and professionalism are not the preserve of a previous generation.

This year more than ever we should be proud that a Labour Government created the NHS and thankful that today a Labour Government is able to protect the values of an institution that has done more to improve this country than any other.

Gordon Brown's government will ensure that for the NHS - life begins at 60.