A 60th birthday ode to the NHS

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
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.