Not my health. I would much rather not have these problems but nobody's fault. I don't even have an evil and capricious god to blame, shit happens quite easily without the connivance of a higher power.
No it is the ongoing threat to our national health service that is fuelling my inner rage.
Now the NHS is a pretty simple concept.
It is national so everyone from Shetland to Cornwall can expect the system to try to give them the same opportunity for excellence.
Obviously Health is at its centre.
But so is Service. The NHS is a huge organisation but nobody works in there to get rich. 1.3 million staff report for work in return for a fair wage and the chance to help their fellow citizens.
Of all the things Britain has achieved nothing should make us more proud than this service which provides us with excellence at some of the lowest costs in the world.
And yet we have a government which has decided to dismantle the system. What is lacking, they have decided, is the ability of large international companies to take 15 or 20 % profit from the budget. Easily paid for by paying people less and by reducing staffing levels so that there are enough people on quiet days but perhaps not for peak days. Never mind there will be a private company to fill the gap.
Our junior doctors have been driven to strike, not because they want six figure bonuses a la banking industry, but because they can't afford to pay for decent places to live and raise families, and because they see, day by day, the erosion of the ability of the NHS to provide the excellence we have come to expect.
I am old enough to remember governments all the way back to Harold Wilsons labour government but this present Tory government seems to me unique in its single minded pursuit of their narrow self interest.
David Cameron is uniquely worthy of contempt. His disabled son had huge help from the NHS but now Cameron is deliberately bringing about a situation where a similar child couldn't expect the same help.
He shares with Hunt (had ever a talentless functionary such an appropriately rhyming name) the certainty that what he is saying is untrue and that he knows it is untrue.
They cast envious eyes on the American health system.
I am sure this is wonderful if you are wealthy enough to have full health insurance but they don't even try to provide excellence for the whole population. The tories wring their hands about our bloated 1.3 million staff. In the US there are 460000 working in the health insurance industry. Not Doctors, not nurses nor hospital porters. No these people check insurance forms. Perhaps they get a wee bonus if they can find a loophole to save their employers a bit of money.
Now the US health service is none of my business, they are (apparently) a democracy, their health is their business. BUT FOR PITIES SAKE DON'T CAST ENVIOUS EYES IN THAT DIRECTION.
Of course the heads of those insurance companies earn multimillion dollar salaries. Enough I suspect to make perfect sense to a certain type of Tory politician.
They cast envious eyes on the American health system.
I am sure this is wonderful if you are wealthy enough to have full health insurance but they don't even try to provide excellence for the whole population. The tories wring their hands about our bloated 1.3 million staff. In the US there are 460000 working in the health insurance industry. Not Doctors, not nurses nor hospital porters. No these people check insurance forms. Perhaps they get a wee bonus if they can find a loophole to save their employers a bit of money.
Now the US health service is none of my business, they are (apparently) a democracy, their health is their business. BUT FOR PITIES SAKE DON'T CAST ENVIOUS EYES IN THAT DIRECTION.
Of course the heads of those insurance companies earn multimillion dollar salaries. Enough I suspect to make perfect sense to a certain type of Tory politician.
Sitting here the day before a major scan which will tell me which multi buy tumour pack I am hosting makes me very much want for these young women and men to be happy and fulfilled.
So far I have had 2 assessments by junior doctors. The first was in Dundee by a startlingly attractive young woman. (OK, not strictly relevant but I am a middle aged man). She didn't claim to know everything but was happy to keep going back to her superior until they were both happy they had asked and answered the right questions. I found her humility and work ethic hugely comforting.
The second was at a TIA clinic in Kirkcaldy. A busy young man had time to send me round the hospital for tests and scans. Everywhere I went I found people with just enough time to make me feel cared for. When my day came to its end he sat us down and gave us the earth shattering news calmly and accurately.
No comments:
Post a Comment