The University of Manchester and the British Library release a unique NHS record

A unique historical record of the NHS, captured by historians at the University of Manchester, will be archived for the nation at the British Library. The voices of our National Health Service covers the entire period of the NHS from its launch in 1948 to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patients and staff who appear in the collection were interviewed by volunteers in the five-year study coordinated by historian Professor Stephanie Snow.

Since 2017, the ‘NHS at 70’ team at the University of Manchester have recorded over 2,000 audio interviews with 1,300 people across the UK about the history of the NHS and its place in everyday life and work, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A grant of £1 million from UK Research and Innovation through the Arts and Humanities Research Council in July 2020 enabled the research team to link up with the Oral History Unit of the British Library to form this permanent a public resource that will also inform policy and practice.

The interviews are preserved for future generations at the British Library and the Library will make the full collection available online in early 2023.

The voices of our National Health Service sits within the British Library’s wider Covid-19 collection initiative, which includes other streams of Covid-related content covering broadcast, website, video and written accounts.

Unique accounts from The voices of our National Health Service are highlighted on the ‘Covid Stories’ web resource: www.bl.uk/covid-stories, to which content will be added over the coming months.

The project involves more than 160 volunteers across the UK and is supported by a diverse group of stakeholders including the NHS, TUC, Age UK, Stroke Association and many other health, community and cultural organizations

Other participants in the project include patients, policy makers, front line NHS staff, young people and people with high risk conditions.

Historian Professor Stephanie Snow of the University’s Center for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine is the project’s principal investigator.

She said: “Until this project, there was no detailed historical record of the people who depend on the NHS and those who work in it.

“The focus of historians of the NHS has always been on politics and policy, but the incredible array of voices from different communities who have been affected by the NHS has not been captured.

“Because The voices of our National Health Service is an invaluable record for anyone – from patients to politicians to historians – trying to understand and learn about the NHS’s unique place in our everyday lives, from routine treatments to caring for people with emerging diseases such as HIV and Covid.’

Interviews were conducted face-to-face until March 2020, when Covid-19 began to impact lives and communities and the team, including volunteer interviewers, switched to telephone interviews.

She added: “Covid has caused seismic changes in lives and communities and its social significance in terms of a public health crisis is unprecedented in living memory.

“This was a watershed moment in the longer history of the NHS, which raises the question of how public attitudes towards the NHS have changed, what care means and who should deliver it?

“These are some of the vital questions answered by the personal testimonies collected in this collection.”