A regional daily has issued a front page plea for readers to fight for the National Health Service as it marks its 75th anniversary.

The Manchester Evening News has issued a demand for investment in the NHS, warning that it must not be allowed to “become a rickety shadow of its former self, or hollowed out for profit”.

Trafford General Hospital was announced as the first NHS hospital by Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan in 1948 and an image of his visit to the facility provided a splash for the MEN today.

It was accompanied by the headline ‘We’re born in the NHS, we died in the NHS. 75 years on, we must fight for our NHS…’

In its editorial, the MEN said: “The NHS is more than what it represents to individuals. It is significant as the embodiment of the way a government should treat its citizens, of the symbiotic relationship between a country and its people.

“From its earliest days, bringing people from across the country and the Commonwealth together, in service of a higher goal, enabled by science and technology, the NHS symbolised a modern, unifying ideal – arising from the ashes of world war.

“It still speaks of something universal. That spirit of humanity that does not discriminate, does not exploit, does not walk by the other side. The spirit that insists that no matter how much money you have, whatever walk of life you are from, you deserve hope, dignity and the healing touch of a human hand.

“It represents the best of us. We must defend it. If we lose it, we lose a vital part of our nation – and ourselves.”

Other regional dailies to splash on the NHS anniversary included the South Wales Argus, which also played up its links to South Wales-born Nye Bevan, who served as Labour MP for Ebbw Vale.

Editor Gavin Thompson told HTFP: “[The front page] reflects on Aneurin Bevin being local and that the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society was the inspiration and contrasts with the First Minister [of Wales, Mark Drakeford] and former Health Minister [Vaughan Gething] giving evidence to the Covid inquiry yesterday about the state of preparedness or lack thereof for the pandemic.”

In Darlington, the Northern Echo focused on local calls from frontline NHS staff for “radical change if it is to have many happy returns” while the Yorkshire Evening Post’s coverage featured a double-page spread of facts and figures about the service.