Rock ‘n’ roll doctor Hank Wangford’s love song to the NHS

Abstract

The doyen of UK country music implores us all to fight for the NHS. It’s our heart and soul, he tells Richard Hurley A longtime pioneer of British country music, Hank Wangford, aka retired GP Sam Hutt, has released a new song. “NHS Our Precious Thing (Lub Dup)” declares the health service “the heart and soul of our country.”1 It’s under threat, and Wangford tells The BMJ that the public and the NHS’s staff (its “queens and kings”) have to fight for it. “It’s not just an institution,” he says. “It’s an extraordinarily important part of all our psyches.” Indeed, the heartbeat onomatopoeia in the song, “lub dup,” sounds like “loved up.” He wrote the song in postoperative “medicated craziness” after ablation for atrial fibrillation and tachycardia in June. Three weeks later he …