The National Health Service has been granted Britain's highest civilian award for gallantry, the George Cross.

The team of workers that make up the service are only the third group of people ever to receive the award collectively.

The service has been granted the award for its work throughout its 73-years existence and not just for what it has done during the pandemic. 

Usually the George Cross is only  given to individuals.

NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “This unprecedented award rightly recognises the skill and compassion and the fortitude of staff right across the National Health Service - the nurses, the paramedics, the doctors, the cleaners, the therapists, the entire team– who under the most demanding of circumstances have responded to the worst pandemic in a century and the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War.

"Out of those dark times have come the best of what it means to be a carer and a health professional.

“In the face of adversity we have seen extraordinary team work, not just across the NHS but involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers, millions of carers, key workers and the British public who have played an indispensable role in helping the health service to look after many hundreds of thousands of seriously ill patients with coronavirus.

“And so, as we congratulate staff across the health service on this award, we recognise that completing the NHS COVID vaccination programme which is in the final stages is now the surest way out of this pandemic and provides a sense of hope.”

In 1942 George VI awarded the George Cross to the island of Malta, then a crown colony, for the resistance and endurance of its people under intense siege by the Axis powers. The island's official flag and coat of arms bear the George Cross in their top left corners.

In 1999, his daughter Elizabeth II awarded the Royal Ulster Constabulary the George Cross for its work during the Northern Irish Troubles.

Today is the 73rd birthday of the NHS.

Its joint patrons, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will attend a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral this morning before hosting the NHS Big Tea at Buckingham Palance.