Dr Robert Blundell and his son, both GPs, compare their lives in the NHS.

1948

• Two new antibiotics, aureomycin and chloromycetin are developed.
• First successful internal heart surgery is performed.

• Antibiotic, neomycin, is developed.

• Vaccine is made against polio.
• First successful sex-change operation takes place in Europe.
• Amniocentesis test allows a foetus to be checked for abnormalities.
• First tranquillizer, reserpine, is made.

• Open-heart surgery is performed with the aid of a heart-lung machine.
• Structure of DNA is described.

• Link between smoking and lung cancer is suggested.
• First Kidney transplant is performed on an identical twin.

• Ultrasound is introduced in obstetrics.

• Interferons (natural substances that fight viruses) are discovered.

• The pacemaker for the heart is developed. Methicillin, an antibiotic drug, is discovered.
• Deaf people get hearing aids on the NHS.

• Contraceptive pill is made available on the NHS.

• First artificial hip operation

• First liver transplant is performed.

• Measles vaccine becomes available.

• Live virus vaccine for rubella (German measles) is developed.

• A whole heart is transplanted from one human to another.
• A coronary bypass operation is performed.
• Mammography (an X-ray technique) for the detection of breast cancer is introduced.

• New fertility drugs cause a British woman to give birth to sextuplets
• A vaccine against meningitis is developed.
• Epidural anaesthetic technique, to ease pain in childbirth, is announced.

• A single gene is isolated for the first time.

• First successful nerve transplant takes place.

• Surgeons develop the fibre-optic endoscope for looking inside the human body.

• CAT (computerised axial tomography) scanning provides cross-sectional X-rays of human body.

• Recombinant DNA technique is developed - arguably the start of genetic engineering.
• The first NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) image is taken.

• Endorphins (morphine-like chemicals) in the brain are discovered.

• Insulin is 'manufactured' in bacteria from synthetic DNA.
• First 'test tube' baby, Louise Brown, is born.

• Hepatitis B vaccine is tested.
• The lithotripter, a machine that uses sound waves to break up kidney stones, is developed.
• World Health Organisation announces the eradication of smallpox.

• Artificial heart is transplanted into a patient.

• HIV virus is isolated.

• First human cancer gene, retinoblastoma, is isolated

• First heart, lung, and liver transplant.
• Surgeons develop an operation for removing tissue from the cornea by laser.

• First successful five-organ transplant.
• Entire human knee is transplanted.
• A laser is used to clear a blocked coronary artery.

• The abortion pill, RV486, is marketed
• Combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

• First surgery on a baby in its mother's womb