Father pawned gold coin to pay for daughter's burst appendix treatment before the NHS

A father had to pawn a gold sovereign to pay for his daughter's burst appendix treatment before the NHS existed.

Shirley Smith, who now lives in Buckinghamshire, was born in 1934, 14 years before the NHS was founded in 1948.

When she was six years old her appendix burst and she had to go to hospital by ambulance. Her family had to pay for the treatment but couldn't afford it.

She said: "There was quite a hefty bill to pay and the only way my father could pay it was to pawn a gold sovereign.

"We had to find some way of paying and it was something that couldn't be altered - the bill was there so how do you pay for it? You've got to do your best to pay whatever way you can and that's what he did."

• Shirley's father had to pawn a gold coin to pay for her treatment

Mrs Smith later went onto become a nurse explaining it was what she always wanted to do.

At the age of 18 she started nurse training where she had to live in the hospital.

It was here where she attended anatomy lectures and learnt how to make food attractive for people who were sick to encourage them to eat.

She then went onto become a district nurse visiting people in their homes.

She said: "To do a job that you've always wanted to do you can't help but enjoy it can you?

"There are good parts, there are sad parts but there are parts that you think you have done your best that's all you can do and you meet such interesting people, such very interesting people, and when you go and see them in their own home they're more relaxed than say when they're in hospital.

"They welcome you like a friend so the atmosphere that you work in is very different to the atmosphere in a hospital."

The NHS is today marking its 75h anniversary but it has not gone without its criticism over the years, with medical professionals fearing that General Practice (GP) services will soon become a thing of the past.

The number of GPs leaving the profession is said to be at a record high but demand from patients has increased.

It often means GP surgeries are seeing many more patients a day than is deemed "safe" with appointments less than 10 minutes long.

Speaking about working in the early years of the NHS, Mrs Smith said: "You didn't feel overworked you would work overtime or longer than when you should have finished because the job needed doing and you were there and you could do it so that's the way that you approached things. I would say it was almost a way of life rather than a job."

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