Today, Dr Kate Granger will take the trouble to introduce herself by name to all patients she meets, and over 2,000 people will pledge to remember to do the same.

Today in Birmingham, Basildon, Northampton, Sheffield and a whole host of other sites, Chief Executives, managers and frontline staff will pledge to read a story to 10 children at their hospital bedside - to make them feel more comfortable and secure when they feel most vulnerable.

Today, in Milton Keynes, a Trust wide initiative will take place - a sale of pre-loved clothes - where staff and the public can buy an item of clothing with the profits going back into the Trust to improve care and facilities.

Today, a young girl will publicly commit that "my mum works lots and lots so I pledge to make her a cup of tea and be nice to her when she comes home after a shift so that she carries on being her happy joyable self."

Today, a new Facebook page will be created called Wonderful Weston nurses, aiming to show appreciation for colleagues and helping local staff learn from each other, generate ideas from each other and to cherish each other.

Today, in George Eliot Hospital, the paediatric team will get together to create and share a Harlem Shake video to break barriers between patients and staff.

Today in Sherwood Hospital, the Chief Executive will recommit to working with the Trust's 3800 staff and management team to deliver their Improvement Plan and transform their services for patients.

Today, the Parkinson's Society will ask all NHS staff, working with people with Parkinson's, to ask them about the one thing that could help them take control today - and make it happen.

In short, today, all over the country, thousands of people will do hundreds of thousands of things - big and small - to make a difference to their own working lives, the care they deliver for patients and their families, or to simply remind each other that they are appreciated and valued.

Each action is small in itself, but coming together they make something big.  As the Director of Nursing at Tameside Hospital puts it, "it's like millions of tiny snowflakes coming together to make something big".

Of course, most of you will have guessed what I'm talking about.  It's NHS Change Day. 

Some people don't 'get' Change Day. They say "shouldn't people be doing this anyway?"  "Isn't it simply their job?"  "Isn't it trivialising the serious issues facing the NHS?   They're surprised when someone like me praises it.  

So let me say - loud and proud - why I love Change Day.

I love it because it's the real deal.  Straight and simple.   It's the raw, authentic voice and suggestions of those millions of men and women who get out of bed at all times of the day and night - every day of the year - to simply care for their fellow citizens.  Sometimes doing it out of sheer dogged determination not to let the system grind them down.

It's a mechanism and a route whereby the frontline staff all over the country get THEIR chance and THEIR voice to give THEIR idea for how to make a difference and for that chance and voice to be equally heard, equally respected and given space to be implemented by their managers and leaders.

It's kept deliberately simple.  But that simplicity gives Change Day its strength and its uniqueness.   It's why it's caught the imagination of the staff, its leaders and even cynical media hacks.  Where else have you heard the Big Beast declare "there are no rules".  When else did you read The Guardian devoting its comment pages to a paean of praise for frontline NHS staff?  Or, more to the point, the Daily Mail calling a truce?

Of course it won't cure all the ills of the NHS.  It won't magic millions of pounds out of the Treasury.  It won't get rid of frustrations, obstacles and lunacies in the current system.  It won't put an end to scandals.   It won't do any of these things.... but it's never claimed it would.

Instead, it simply offers one day when everyone can remember and remind each other and themselves why they work in the NHS and a chance to make something better.  That's all.  But, in my book, that's fantastic.  So today, as you go about your work, do something for me.