KIDDERMINSTER Hospital are busy celebrating the 70th birthday of the NHS by looking back at seven decades of care work with an interactive display.

This week, patients and Staff at Kidderminster hospital, as well as Alexandra and Worcestershire Royal hospitals, can see old photographs, read about the development of the health service, and listen to audio clippings of old interviews with staff discussing the medical advances, and policy changes within the NHS.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have also given visitors the chance to personally wish the service a happy birthday by recording their own messages in special memory books.

Today (June 5), staff at the hospital treated themselves and patients to a tea party, also inviting retired nurses including 91-year-old Carol Rees who used to work at the hospital.

Joan Lowe, a Senior Sister in Outpatients at Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Sister, has shared her own memories of her time working for the NHS.

She started her career as a cadet nurse at the former Bromsgrove General Hospital in 1971 and gained experience in a variety of specialities but recalls her time working in A&E as being particularly memorable.

Joan said: “It really was my passion.”

“I was able to really develop my knowledge across so many different areas, and the opportunities we got as nurse practitioners gave us so much confidence.”

She also met her husband when she was working as an A&E nurse after he sustained a head injury from playing rugby.

Joan said: “He says it was the best accident he ever had!”