Medical advances, new technology, NHS reorganisation and social change mean today's hospitals are almost unrecognisable from what was happening in some of these pictures from the Evening News archives, which capture the health service in Edinburgh in the 1950s and 1960s.
Yet the doctors, nurses and other staff all these decades ago had the same purpose as their counterparts today - to deliver the best possible care and treatment for their patients.
When some of these pictures were taken the National Health Service was less than 10 or 20 years old. Have a look through this picture gallery and get a feel for the atmosphere of the time.
17. X-ray machine
Demonstration of the new method of x-raying patients whilst in cubicles, at the East medical lecture theatre, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, July 1964. | TSPL Photo: Stan Warburton
18. Tattoo performance
Edinburgh Festival 1958 - Members of the Military Tattoo perform for the children of the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital. Five year old Michael Malendola from Queensferry meets Eightsome, one of the Tattoo horses | TSPL Photo: TSPL
19. Dean Nursing College
Exterior of the Dean Nursing College - formerly the Dean Orphanage, later the Dean Education Centre and now the National Galleries of Scotland's Modern Two gallery - in Belford Road, Edinburgh, May 1966. | TSPL Photo: Ian Porteous
20. Queensberry House Hospital
The Queen meets the nursing staff when she visits Edinburgh's Queensberry House Hospital - now part of the Scottish Parliament - in July 1965. | TSPL Photo: TSPL