A collective Thank You was the least we could do for our wonderful NHS
Ithink that 8pm on 26 March 2020 is one of the dates many of us will remember in days to come.
It was a moment which, quite against my expectation, I found immensely moving and an indication of just how much people want to show their solidarity at this moment.
One of the things that social distancing, no matter how many teleconferences or group calls we take part in, cannot do is provide a feeling of community.
It’s a feeling that I think we often don’t notice until we begin to miss it.
Creating it now is a role that I feel is incumbent on our elected representatives, of all parties and all spheres of government – local, devolved and Westminster.
And, although many of this paper’s regular readers and those who know my politics may find this difficult to believe, it is an area in which I believe we are well served in all parties through this crisis.
At both Holyrood and Westminster.
In one way that has not been a surprise.
Back in 2009 during the swine flu pandemic I attended regular press conference by the then Scottish Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
I was impressed by the sense of calm capability which she brought to those events and the manner in which she presented potentially distressing updates.
That has also been true of her daily press conferences in the current crisis and, it has to be said, of those who might generally be expected to take a less than supportive approach.
MSPS of all political shades are working for the same end.
Each day I take part in a conference call with my fellow MPS from all parties and a government minister where it is abundantly clear that we share the same concerns and aims in this crisis for our constituents.
In this challenging time we have become much more of a community of public servants than a parliament of opposing politicians.
Our common aim is the best outcome for the public and our method is collaboration.
I have seen little evidence of desire on anyone’s part to make personal, or party, political gain, and where I have it has been quickly, and universally dismissed.
The things that have come to epitomise that common purpose most are the NHS and its staff.
They are central to those daily press conferences by the First Minister, to our cross-party collaborations and to every statement from Downing Street in some way.
It was in 1942 that Liberal reformer Sir Wiiliam Beveridge produced a report - Social Insurance and Allied Services, - which proposed major changes to create the foundations for a welfare system and, in its support, a national health service.
Six years later in July 1948 the National Health Service was created.
In the aftermath of the Second World War our leaders created the very institution to which we now turn in the greatest crisis we have faced since then. In the intervening 72 years the NHS has developed, changed, been criticised, had many of its services outsourced and been politicised by every political party in every general election.
When this is over it may have been altered by circumstance and need renewed effort to replenish it.
But on Thursday evening that was all irrelevant. What the public reaction illustrated is the common esteem in which the NHS is still held.
Of course most of that is about the service it provides and the individuals who are at the forefront of providing it.
Doctors, cleaners, nurses, administrative staff, drivers, caterers, ambulance staff.
This past week I had to visit the nurse at my GP surgery for a regular injection which keeps me healthy and is quite important in the current crisis.
I was only too aware of the risk she was taking in accepting my word that I have no symptoms and have been very careful about social distancing for the past two weeks.
And who knows how many others she, and her colleagues across the country, have been putting before their own health each day.
But as well as that respect for personnel our support for the NHS at the moment reflects something much less tangible.
In those 72 years is it possible that we have come to regard the NHS as the ultimate representation of who we are as a nation?
Universal health coverage free at the point of delivery is something we all share and we all depend upon.
In 2012 I briefly questioned why Danny Boyle chose it as a centre piece of his opening celebration of Britishness for the London Olympics and its global audience. Now I get it.
It somehow doesn’t seem to matter if its provision is centralised or devolved.
Whether the reports of how it is dealing with the crisis are delivered by the First Minister in Edinburgh or the Prime Minister in Downing Street.
It is simply our National Health Service.
And when we took to our windows and doorsteps on Thursday we did not limit our appreciation to those closest to us geographically or politically.
Our thanks was to the institution, its people and what it does for all for all of the time.
A national round of applause may not seem a lot, but for those of us taking part it was the only way we have at the moment of saying Thank You.