An Anniversary

I have been looking at old records and discovered that today is the twentieth anniversary of my by-pass operation in Waikato Hospital.

I have great admiration for the staff there, who did their job so well that I have survived till today!

And I am very grateful for the health service which provides all sorts of life-saving interventions from our taxes, the system which was introduced by the first Labour Government in 1938.  

My first memory of the personal value of the health system goes back to my first visit to the Dental Nurse, which must have been around 1940. In those days not every school had a clinic and we had to travel to a neighbouring school. But by the following year the clinic at our school had been built and it was a much easier trip. Not that I enjoyed any ot it because in those days I had lots of fillings-- no fluoride then.

But just think how much work went in to the job of setting up the Dental Nursing scheme.

So a vote of thanks to founders and past and current staff of our health services!