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A 60th birthday ode to the NHS
Sophie Goodchild and Louise Jury4 Dec 2008
Children's Laureate Michael Rosen today unveiled his latest work -a special poem to celebrate the NHS.
The author and children's novelist was commissioned to pen the ode called These Are The Hands to mark 60 years of Aneurin Bevan's health service.
Artists including Axel Scheffler, who illustrated children's book The Gruffalo, also worked on the project.
Launched at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, the poem has been made into a short film featuring comedian Harry Hill and chat show host Michael Parkinson.
Schools, libraries and museums will be sent copies in a bid to promote good health in young people.
Michael Rosen said one of his earliest memories was of his parents talking of the NHS as "precious".
Het said: "I missed being born into the NHS as I was born in 1946, but I can remember right from when I was very young, my parents talked of the NHS as something very precious.
The NHS was launched by the then health minister Aneurin Bevan. It had been created two years earlier by the National Health Services Act 1946.
Mr Rosen said: "The NHS has mended my nose (cricket ball!), put my pelvis back together (car accident), and discovered that I had spent many years suffering from a chronic illness (underactive thyroid). Since then, I've had free prescriptions. The NHS brought my five children into the world, saved the lives of two of them, and gently nursed my parents through to the end."
He continued: "I wanted to express the idea that it serves us from the cradle to the grave, but I also wanted to celebrate everybody in the service."
These are the hands
Michael Rosen
These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.
These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.
These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.
And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.
Reader views (3)
these are the hands that flinch to be
aross my face when you scream abuse at me
these are the hands that hold the older hand no relative came to sit in your last hours
these are the hands that cleaned the blood from the floor intime for the vomiting brawling more
these are the hands that wash and clean themselves and don the gloves and tie the apron and hold the blanket and make a pillow, and serve the thirsty
and hold the hands of those who are afraid like the hands that flinch to protect the body from your abuse.
- Berry, newcastle, 05/12/2008 11:58
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I can't get a appointment to see my GP as there isn't a free time in the next two weeks. I have been told that I can't make an appointment further away than two weeks as the govenment target is that no one is on a waiting list for longer than two weeks.
Happy bleedin' birthday.
- Ben, London, W1, 05/12/2008 10:33
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These are the hands that picked up MRSA and C Diff
Don't wash at all
Pass it on to the sick and as a result the soon to die
These are the hands of the Consultants who decided to starve to death an OAP because they were 'old and worthless'
These are the hands that Nice decided weren't entitled to Medication that could have extended their life, so they allow them to die. Not econimically viable I guess.
These are the hands that award BMW's and Mercs to 'Managers' whilst running up budget deficits.
These are the hands that dish up inedible food to patients then plonk it in front of the elderly. Then take it away hours later untouched because they couldn't eat and nobody bothered to feed them.
These are the hands that sieze the OAP's house and force a sale to make them pay for a care home. Deeming the cost 'Social Care' (Go Google 'Coughlan test' and see the fight you have to have and then lose anyway).
Not a lot to celebrate about that is there. Try being the relative of a sick OAP and see how much there is to celebrate. Bitter? Yes.
- Rusty Shackleford, UK, 04/12/2008 17:06
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