It probably was, but it's cost base was entirely different then. Doctors for example were not paid by the NHS, they funded themselves from private practice. Now the wage bill for Doctors is huge.
Nurses went to a nursing school, part of a hospital, and were available for ward work as on the job training. Something that happens much much less now, and are they much better nurses for going to university? No, a number of reports have shown they aren't.
Thats before we start on costs of treatments. Cancer was a death sentence mostly then, and the cost of morphine to relieve symptoms was cheap. Now its a lot more curable, but the costs of those drugs is immense.
The whole thing is to big, it's the third biggest employer, not in the UK, in the world, so it needs breaking down and streamlining. Of course it wont happen because as soon as someone suggests it, theres a hurl of abuse about privatization.