Windrush Day 2021: The early years of the NHS
‘ ‘Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others’ – Booker T Washington The National Health Service is famously the largest employer in Europe. Equally importantly, it relies on a wide range of occupations, an estimated 350 , from over 200 nationalities , to keep the system functioning. Approximately 170,000 of NHS staff report non-British nationality , over 100,000 of whom are from non-EU countries. This represents approximately 1 in 7 of all NHS employees, with a large proportion working in London and the Midlands. The roots of this critical component of the NHS workforce grow in the soil of the establishment of the NHS. Understanding the origin story helps explain the demographics, and the challenges, of the current workforce. There were less than two weeks between the docking of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury on 22 nd June 1948 and the launch of the NHS on 5 th July that same year. The British Nationality Act of 1948 created the status of "citizen of th