I remember medicine before the NHS, I had my tonsils out for example. It was an unpleasant experience in a nursing home before the NHS. I remember my mother having to pay the bills of the doctors, and that sort of thing, and I remember my first essay at school, at the age of about six, I was asked to write an essay having been told that doctors were going to be nationalised. I wrote an essay in favour of it. So I’ve always been a great supporter of the NHS...  Seaton, Anthony: transcript of a video interview (16-Aug-2016)

Professor Anthony Seaton CBE MD DSc FRCP FRCPE FMedSci (b. 1938) qualified from Cambridge in 1962. He trained at Liverpool in general medicine, cardiology, and neurology. After senior posts in respiratory medicine in West Virginia, USA and Cardiff, he became Director of the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh (1978-1990). He was also Head of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Aberdeen University from 1988 until his retirement in 2003 (now Emeritus). His research from 1969 to 1990 largely concerned asthma and occupational lung diseases, and led to the development of UK protective health standards in coalmining, asbestos work, and the silica, wool, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industries. Throughout his career he worked as a National Health Service (NHS) Consultant, and taught respiratory and occupational medicine. He has written seven books and over 300 papers on respiratory and occupational medicine, and other topics, and has lectured on these subjects internationally. He was the Editor for Thorax from 1977 to 1981, and in 1999/2000 he was President of the British Thoracic Society. He chaired the UK Government’s Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards, and sat on the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants from 1991 to 2003, and the Royal Society’s Working Group on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from 2003 to 2005.