There is no doubt that the NHS is one of the UK’s most treasured institutions, having cared for us from the cradle to the grave for 75 years. When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the point of delivery. Those principles remain as relevant, and valued, today as they did in the years after the Second World War.

And since then, the NHS has innovated and adapted to meet the needs of each successive generation, always putting patients at the heart of everything it does. In recent times, having a single national health service enabled us to carry out research at an unprecedented scale during the pandemic and find the world’s first effective treatment for COVID-19, dexamethasone, making it available across every hospital the same day it was approved. It enabled us to not just deliver the first accredited COVID-19 vaccine in the world but to rollout the NHS vaccine programme with a combination of speed and precision unseen elsewhere.

All these achievements have only been possible because of the skill, dedication and compassion of NHS staff, as well as the many volunteers, charities and communities that support the service. These individuals who dedicate their working lives to supporting the most vulnerable in our society deserve to be honoured for their work, and there is no greater way to do this than at the NHS Parliamentary Awards.

The awards have meant a lot to all those who have been nominated in previous years. To have the skill, professionalism and compassion of the NHS recognised and celebrated is a huge boost for those nominated, as well as for their colleagues and organisations. That is why MPs have become increasingly involved in the awards since they were launched to mark the NHS’ 70th birthday. This has resulted in more than 700 nominations being submitted by over half of MPs representing constituencies in England last year alone.

This year, there are 10 categories in the awards, covering everything from primary and community care, to mental health care to the NHS Rising Star Award – the full list of categories and the criteria for each can be found on the NHS Parliamentary Awards website.

Information on how to nominate is available on our website.