Up and down the country UNISON is organising and joining its many supporters in highlighting and celebrating the amazing work performed 24/7 by the NHS and its staff.
It treats more than 1.5m patients every single day; 14,000 babies are born each week and more than 9m procedures and interventions performed each year.
Every patient is seen on the basis of medical need – not on how much they can pay – and UNISON wants to keep it that way.
I was delighted to be invited to Cardiff to speak at a rally yesterday and I am in Manchester today speaking up for the NHS and its future at our Labour Link conference and later at a rally in the town hall – come and join us.
Because, make no mistake, the future of the NHS is on a knife-edge.
So while we are celebrating, we will also be using the events to raise the profile of the huge threats to the health service posed by the Tories and their privatisation agenda.
This government is systematically, and cynically, running down the NHS verbally, at the same time as cutting it physically.
Pointing an accusing finger at “failing” hospitals, long waiting times and “uncaring” nurses, it creates a vicious circle where the only saviours are private healthcare companies gearing up to ‘come to the rescue’.
And it is down to this government that the NHS has gone through such a massive upheaval and period of uncertainty over the past three years.
The introduction of the disastrous Health and Social Care Act coupled with demands for £20bn in so called ‘efficiency’ savings, the cuts and freeze and squeeze on pay have all taken its toll.
Although our health service and its workforce have, as always, done their best to weather these storms, the NHS has already entered dangerous waters.
Waiting times are edging up, A&E problems show alarming signs of turning into a full-blown crisis with ambulances and patients regularly left queuing outside for hours on end.
And in furthering its privatisation agenda the government could not resist tampering with the successful NHS Direct and introducing a fragmented market of 111 providers, with the inevitable consequences of patient complaints and failures.
The role of healthcare companies is expanding substantially, with a 10% increase in NHS money spent in the sector in the past year and analysts predicting a £20bn “opportunity” for companies through both provision and commissioning.
With a government determined to destroy the NHS as we know it, is it any wonder that we are fearful it will not make its next important milestone.
And that is why the events organised for the 65th birthday are being used to warn people of the dangers facing our NHS and to rally support for the fight to preserve a health service under threat.
It’s time to get involved, make your voices heard and support the events that UNISON, the TUC and others are holding over the summer and beyond.
At UNISON’s own conference a couple of weeks ago I called on the TUC to organise a mass rally in support of the NHS at the Conservative Party Conference.
We are already mobilising branches for the lobby in Manchester on 29 September. We will be taking our message to the heart of the Tory party that they mess with the NHS at their peril.
As Nye Bevin the founder of the NHS said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it” – fight we must and fight we will.