"Saved by the NHS"

So here he is ... the competition piece for Potfest 2023 "Nursey Rhymes" competition. The piece is called "Saved by the NHS". He's already had one outing to Potfest Scotland and continues his summer tour next weekend. He is quite marmitey... in that some people love him and some people are disturbed by him, which is actually how it should be. A good piece of art should challenge people. The piece both celebrates the NHS and also challenges our use and abuse of it... and our impossibly high expectations of it. Humpty is seated on a gilded cube representing the NHS and its core values. The cube is cracked to represent the pressures the NHS is subject to, under the weight of patients and politicians alike. In a nod to Victorian satirical cartoons, Humpty's facial features have been modelled on a famous politician who was himself "saved by the NHS". The pills represent the vast wastage in the system and also the burden that modern technology plaves on the NHS compared to when it ws conceived. Our NHS is simultaneously a saviour and a worker of miracles, but it is also cracking under intolerable pressure. What part should we play in saving the NHS itself?