The Parish Magazine January 2024

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30 The Parish Magazine - January 2024 THE ARTS Rev Michael Burgess begins a year-long series looking at great works of Christian music . . . ‘Glorious the song when God’s the theme’ The Shofar, or ram's horn, is one of the earliest known instruments. Tomert, dreamstime.com Those words of the 18th century poet Christopher Smart remind us how faith and music have always gone hand in hand, faith inspiring the music and music expressing the faith. In this series we shall consider 12 pieces of music inspired by the Christian faith, beginning from its roots in the Old Testament. Among the earliest references to music in the Old Testament is the Song of Moses and the Israelites, thanking God for Israel’s deliverance in Exodus. There is also the music of the shofar, the ram’s horn, proclaiming God’s jubilee in Leviticus. Hebrew music came into its own when performed in the temple. A small choir, using mostly strings and including a harp, would sing from the psalms, that incredible Poetry Corner Redeemer Revealed by Steven Rolling Matthew 2: 1-12 part. Tune: We Three Kings 1. Three called Kings, they wise men were then Made their journey, travelling when Christ-child's star in the east they saw Come to worship, adore collection of 150 hymns of praise to God. All human life is found in the psalter, and inevitably they passed into Christian worship through the monastic daily office of prayer and praise. Possibly Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, is the most loved psalm. THE VICAR OF DIBLEY St Francis of Assisi sang it on his way to visit the sultan. Most of us know the tune Crimond, while Howard Goodall’s setting became the theme music for The Vicar of Dibley. Leonard Bernstein’s setting of Psalm 23, the ‘Chichester Psalms,’ set six psalms in their original Hebrew for solo voice, choir and orchestra. The middle movement begins with a boy soprano, or countertenor, singing a beautiful melody to the opening words of Psalm 23. Bernstein’s melody has a bluesy, Jewish feel, and is accompanied by a harp, as we remember David playing the lyre. Suddenly the men’s voices interrupt the soloist’s song of trust with the words of Psalm 2, Why do the nations so furiously rage together?’ But their outburst cannot halt the serene outpouring of the soloist which sounds out clear and strong amid the threat of war and division. The movement leaves us with the melody of Adonai ro-i in our heads and hearts, assuring us that, because the Lord is our shepherd, we need not fear, even in the darkest valley. Even when the world hurls the threats of Psalm 2 at us, God’s goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. 3. Precious gifts to Christ they did give Saviour, in whom all may now live Gold, frankincense, myrrh presented By star they to Him led Chorus Chorus O here be the Epiphany Christ revealed unto all, see To the Jews and to the Gentiles Here stay, contemplate a while 2. Bethlehem, though you little town Noe be of an endless renown Chosen by God, in you be born His Son, redemption morn Chorus 4. Guide us, Lord, that we too humbly Present gifts and selves to you, see Serving you in freedom, gladness Desiring you us bless Chorus 5. Bright your light, you Light of the world At your Epiphany unfurled Sharing with others your gospel Light o’ercomes darkness all Chorus Jacob 09 BK, dreamstime.com
HEALTH — 1 The Parish Magazine - January 2024 31 Dr Simon Ruffle writes . . . NHS v the World? As we move into 2024 let’s compare our NHS in 2023 with other countries. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Listen to any talk radio or read any newspaper and you will receive verbal diet of anecdote and sad stories. Good news is no news. Comparing our data with other, comparable countries is important as we have nothing else to compare the NHS with except our own historical data. That data shows fewer doctors and nurses, beds, CT and MRI scanners and spending per patient, falling from 2012 onwards. This links with falling spending per person in other public services. However, does this mean we’re not performing against our neighbours? Pre-COVID waiting times in the UK for common procedures were hovering in the middle and efficiency was very good because the NHS was performing well with fewer resources than other countries. Post COVID that performance has fallen. This is a direct result of the resource provision; other countries have been able to catch up. The UK is very good at protecting people from financial costs and bankruptcy through medical bills. However life expectancy and deaths are performing less well; but may I refer you to last month’s article health and wealth are linked. In saying the above is not a call for a wholesale change to the funding or running of the health service. I quote: 'There is little evidence that one particular ‘type’ of health care system or model of health care funding produces systematically better results than another. Countries predominantly try to achieve better health outcomes by improving their existing model of health care, rather than by adopting a radically different model.' — The King’s Fund June 2023. According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2021 we have lower numbers of doctors and nurses than our comparator countries (19 high income nations). We have high numbers of foreign trained nurses and doctors and our wages are on the lower side. Only New Zealand and Australia are more reliant on foreign born nurses and doctors than the UK. The UK recruits little from New Zealand and Australia but 25% of foreign trained staff are from the UK in New Zealand and Australia. In 2022 we saw nurses and doctors on strike. OECD 23 show that nurses wages are just lower than the average worker with France, Finland and Italy being lower. GPs in Portugal and the UK have seen their wages fall against other countries and for specialists, Belgium join the UK and Portugal in letting their wages fall. RETAINING OLDER STAFF The UK reports the highest level of over 55s leaving the UK, medical profession or stopping seeing patients in the next 1-3 years with 67% At the same time OECD shows that Britons report higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of physical activity but mid range of self reporting of obesity than the comparator countries. OTHER RESOURCES Milosdrn, Dreamstime.com Japan has 166.7 CT and MRI scanners per million patients, the UK has 16.1. This is a little unfair as a comparator due to the manufacturing capabilities of Japan in this area, there is even a scanner housed in a petrol station in one area! The age of our scanners is in the middle of the pack based on surveys or the major medical imaging companies, Cannon, Fujifilm, GE, Philips and Siemens. BEDS Data for 2019 shows 2.5 general beds per 1,000 people and 7.3 per 100,000 intensive care beds. Only Sweden has a lower number of general hospital beds and we are 14th out of the 19 countries. DRUGS Our healthcare spend on medicines is the lowest in terms of percentage of healthcare spend. We spend 9% whereas Spain spends double. There is some good news in that. The buying capacity of the NHS helps and the tight control and regulation of medicines in the UK. But the access to medicines is quite restrictive in the UK. What this translates to is that prescribing is evidence based with high rates of more cost effective medicines being prescribed, especially in antibiotic spend and appropriate use. The UK was pretty good at licensing and introducing new medicines. Now that the European Medicines Authority is now in Brussels instead of London we will see if that performance is maintained. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) seems to drag its heels when approving new medicines and technology, especially where patients are waiting for new advances to come through, but it does mean TURN TO PAGE 33
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Page 19 and 20: feature — 1 My Cancer My Choices,
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Page 33 and 34: FROM PAGE 31 HEALTH — 2 Dr Simon
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The Parish Magazine January 2024

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