MANY of the 3,000 staff working in the NHS in Herefordshire weren’t born when the service started 60 years ago.

But they had the chance to compare the “then and now” at a special exhibition set up in Ross-on-Wye this week to mark the ‘diamond occasion’.

Both Herefordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Hereford Hospitals Trust gathered together photographs and artefacts to illustrate the progress of the health service in the county over six decades.

It was staged at the Chase Hotel where some long-serving NHS staff were invited to lunch to mark the occasion.

There was a good response from the public who found much to interest them in the exhibition.

Among them were retired nurses, some of whom had completed their training in the old General and County hospitals in the 1940s and 1950s, and were able to explain the differences in the NHS over 60 years.

THe PCT chairman Joanne Newton paid tribute to the dedicated work carried out by all all NHS staff in Herefordshire and presented awards to long-serving members.

Special awards for their work went to the acute stroke team and the infection prevention control team at the County Hospital and the community alcohol service and assertive outreach team from the PCT.