As I am writing this with a major operation only days away, health is very much on my mind, and coincides with plans to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS on July 5.

Nothing is perfect, but I think we have every reason to be proud of the NHS as one of our country's greatest achievements. Heroically started by the Labour Party when the country was economically on its knees in post-war Britain in 1948, it is a service which is available to all based on need - not on the ability to pay.

The NHS was created by the Labour Party, and it is arguably its greatest achievement.

Since 1997, our investment in the NHS has trebled to £100 billion. This has paid for 38,000 more doctors, 80,000 more nurses, more than 100 new hospitals, new community health centres - such as the one being built by Vicarage Lane - and the shortest waiting times since records began.

There is more to be done, and we have started to do it. We are campaigning for improvements to make the NHS a more personal health service, fitted to the needs of families and focused on preventing ill health as well as curing it.

We need an NHS which is fit for modern life, with patients given greater control, greater choice and a strong voice in our local services in Newham. It's no good having a great GP if you can't go there after work when you need to.

For people coping with today's manic lifestyles, from next year GPs' opening hours will be extended to include at least one weekend or evening session a week. And by working with the British Medical Association we have got the backing of 92 per cent of doctors for these longer opening hours.

We're also continuing to build local health centres and walk-in clinics to fit around people's busy lives. More than 100 new GP practices plus 152 new GP-led health centres - to be open 8am to 8pm seven days a week - are being built.

Despite increasing numbers using the health service, by the end of this year almost nobody will have to wait more than 18 weeks for hospital treatment - most waiting times are already significantly shorter.

In a bid to fight super-bugs such as MRSA, hospitals continue to undergo deep cleaning programmes and we have appointed more than 5,000 matrons. Non-emergency patient screening for MRSA will be introduced by next March.

We have already seen improvements in care for the big killers locally - heart disease and cancer. To help beat heart disease, everyone aged 40 to 74 will be able to have free health checks on the NHS starting next year. And in the following year an additional 500,000 women will be screened for breast cancer, two million men and women for bowel cancer and this year we give teenage girls the opportunity to have cervical cancer vaccinations.

There have been so many changes in medicine and health services over the past 60 years. And this means that there are new challenges for our NHS. New drugs, medical technologies and better clinical practices provide us with huge opportunities, whilst diseases such as obesity and diabetes as well as an ageing population present big challenges.

I think we should give thanks for the NHS, as I expect to do in the weeks to come when I am recuperating and reliant upon the expertise of the health professionals and my friends and family.

If you have any comment on this, or other issues, or if I can help, write to me at Lyn Brown MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, email me at brownl@parliament.uk or call my office on 020 7219 6999.