It was recently announced that many people suffering from what could be a serious illness refuse to see their G.P. or make a visit to hospital because they are too embarrassed. And who makes such announcements? Well, of course, people in the Health Service.
Now it might well be true that many illnesses could be cured, or the effects of them reduced, if earlier visits were made. Why such visits are often delayed may have something to do with embarrassment, but it might have a lot more to do with a complete loss of faith in and respect for the National Health Service.
Who would doubt that workers in the Health Service, without exception, genuinely care about the well-being of their patients? Unfortunately recent astonishing hospital events appear to give another impression.
Accordingly there is a continuing and growing unwillingness to let the National Health Service get its questionable mitts on us Brits! The Elderly fear above all else ending up in a hospital where they have a very strong belief that whatever may, or may not be wrong with them, will be aggravated by a lack of care, mis-diagnosis, lack of food and drink, and verbal abuse. They know that many patients end their days in hospital - not because of what they went in for, but because of death by superbug. They fear lack of care. And if that doesn't do for them, they fear superbugs will. Wonderful.
On a slightly different tack many Brits report difficulty fighting their way past G.P receptionists. Receptionists who give the impression of being more highly qualified than the G.P they serve! Nurses who ignore patients pleas for water; Consultants who seem to have forgotten that patients are human and not exhibits to assist the teaching process. Administrators promoting unnecessary bureaucracy in the belief that it's helpful !
When it comes to the need for investigative or curative surgery is it any wonder many Brits fear the worst? If you can't trust the NHS to feed you and keep you clean, how can you possibly confidently relax on the operating table while some (generally arrogant) bugger cuts you up, after a lesser mortal has rendered you unconscious?
No. It's time for the National Health Service, and all of its workforce, to change attitudes: from the nurses who claim to be overworked and understaffed, to the consultants who might well be over-paid whilst underachieving; from the army of ineffectual administrators to the plethora of unhelpful political "support". Yes. This is a perception. Regrettably the perception is reinforced by the never-ending NHS stories reporting alleged neglect.
If the NHS is going to survive it must show at every staff level, and in every doctors surgery and hospital, in every political party, a harmonious willingness to change for the better in the interests of patients' wellbeing. Equally important it must have the guts to recognise it's seriously ill and seek, and swallow, early treatment.
Alternatively the NHS should not be surprised if it is abolished.
