Over the first 60 years of the National Health Service, a new study has been published that looks at the experiences of ordinary people and their opinions of their care.

Spending about 40 years working in health and social care and having an MA on the history of the NHS through general practice from the University of Sussex, the study was compiled by Linda Lamont, a former Director of the Patients Association and Honorary Fellow in Contemporary History at the University of Sussex, and Fran McCabe,.

'Ordinary People Tell the Story' is an attempt to bring out what people feel and how expectations have changed.

For making their own recommendations about the future of the NHS, the study authors have drawn on 60 years of comments by patients and health practitioners.

The study found that people were satisfied by the care being offered by their GPs. People however complained about long wait s to see their GPs, problems of access for out-of-hours care, problems with telephone appointment systems and reception staff, about shortage of NHS dentists.

Lamont said, "The work I have done over these years from a patient's perspective has convinced me that the majority strongly support an NHS free at the point of use. They see it as an irreplaceable institution.”