Aneurin Bevan believed that the state should guarantee a free health service for all, and was the founding 'father' of the NHS.

The NHS was established on the 5th of July 1948. Its founding father and chief architect was the Minister of Health and Welshman Aneurin Bevan.

Before the NHS was set up healthcare was provided on a piecemeal and patchwork basis with many people having to pay directly for primary and hospital care services and others not receiving the services they needed.

The NHS was to be funded out of general taxation and was to be based on the following principles:

Free at the point of delivery

Comprehensive

Equity

Equality

The aim of the NHS was to promote:

"The establishment of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness”  (1946 NHS Act).

Under the Tory government, privatization of the NHS has risen by 500%, and is set to continue to rise and across the board, there have been 10% cuts to the NHS budget by David Cameron. In fact, from ambulances to eye operations, private firms are taking cash and ‘easy’ patients from the NHS – leaving the NHS underfunded and struggling to survive.

We believe this is abhorrent and that the values which caused Aneurin Bevan to found the NHS, and indeed the NHS's very public existence, are as important today as they ever have been.

Please sign this petition to let David Cameron know we want to keep our NHS public, and free at he point of use.