The NHS is 60 years old this year, having come into existence with the opening of the Park Hospital in Manchester on July 5 1948 under the principle that treatment should be "free for all at the point of delivery."

The new service was the crowning achievement of Clement Atlee's post-war Labour government and its principal architect was then Health Minister Aneurin Bevan.

The Old Operating Theatre is planning a celebration to mark this historic event, details of which will be poste on their website in June.  

Here is a brief timeline of 60 years of the NHS:

1952: charges of one shilling are introduced for prescriptions. They were abolished in 1965 but re-imposed in 1968

1954: Sir Richard Doll establishes the first link between smoking and cancer. His research among lung cancer patients had at first been expected to reveal that the disease was the result of fumes from cars, coal fires or even tarmac.

1960: first kidney transplant takes place at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

1961: the contraceptive pill becomes widely available.

1967: Abortion Act passed, making abortion legal up to 28 weeks. The limit was lowered to 24 weeks in 1960.

1968: Britain's first heart transplant. The unnamed patient died after 46 days.

1978: Louise Brown became the world's first test-tube baby, born as a result of in-vitro fertilisation.

1986: the first Aids health campaign is launched -- 1988: breast screening introduced

1990: health authorities start to manage their own budgets and buy health care from hospitals and other health organisations. In order to be deemed a provider of such health care, organisations become NHS trusts -- independent organisations with their own managements.

1991: the first 57 trusts are established.

1998: NHS Direct launched, as the start of a growing number of alternatives to traditional GP services, such as walk-in centres.

2002: primary care trusts launched overseeing 29,000 GPs and 21,000 NHS dentists. Primary care trusts are in charge of vaccination administration and control of epidemics and control 80 per cent of the total NHS budget.

Timeline couresty of LONDON (Reuters).