Thought for the Week - 9th July 2023

 

Dear Friends, 

Last Wednesday, 5th July, marked 75 years of the National Health Service. The NHS England website states ‘treating over a million people a day in England, the NHS touches all of our lives. When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the point of delivery. Today, nine in 10 people agree that healthcare should be free of charge, more than four in five agree that care should be available to everyone, and that the NHS makes them most proud to be British’. The NHS has been at the cutting edge of medicine and developments in health care including, ‘Britain’s first kidney transplant in 1960, Europe’s first liver transplant in 1968. The world’s first CT scan on a patient in 1971, and the world’s first test tube baby born in 1987’. It has been at the forefront in vaccination programmes protecting children from whopping cough, measles and tuberculosis, and in the use of robotic systems and innovative medicines to treat various conditions and diseases. NHS England employs around 1.5 million people and it is thanks to nurses, doctors and other clinicians as well as porters, cleaners, admin staff and other ancillary workers that the NHS can give such vital care and support. A service of thanksgiving was held in Westminster Abbey to mark the 75th anniversary and many people came together to offer prayers and testimony for the work of the NHS over this period which has seen so much change and challenge. The Chief Nursing Officer for England, Dame Ruth May, said, ‘The NHS has truly been built upon millions of hardworking NHS staff and volunteers who have shaped its course over the last three quarters of a century, constantly innovating and adapting to the new challenges they have face to care for generation after generation’. As we thank God for the NHS, we pray for its future during these complex and turbulent times, being reminded of the words of the hymnwriter Nahum Tate, ‘Through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy, the praises of my God shall still my heart and tongue employ’.

Grace and peace, 

Neil

A prayer for the NHS

God of healing and compassion, we thank you for the establishment of the National Health Service, and for the dedication of all who work in it. Give skill, sympathy and resilience to all who care for the sick, and your wisdom to those engaged in medical research. Strengthen all in their vocation through your Spirit, that through their work many will be restored to health and strength, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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