Thursday, January 21, 2010
National Health Service
Isn't our National Health Service wonderful?
I hope you think as I do on this matter.
I know that there have been unfortunate circumstances - tragic circumstances even - where things have gone wrong for the minority of people.
But I can honestly say that I have had the very best of treatment for almost all the years when I have needed it.
I don't just feel that I haven't been let down - I can positively say that I have been given the very best of treatment and support.
Today my treatment took a very short time - just a few seconds to have an injection of Vitamin B12. But there is always time to chat and Nurse Lesley listened to my worries about the infections that I seem to have within my body. Yes - I think a week after finishing the antibiotics they are back.
She also sorted me out a form for my next blood test, which is not due until March.
The population have so much to be thankful for.
Whenever there is a suggestion that one or other political party might not want to keep the NHS as a service to the population, but to allow private enterprise to take over, there is outrage.
Even the tabloid press who like to accuse very quickly when ever anything goes wrong, suddenly seem to fear the loss of our precious NHS.
We fear losing it.
I just can't understand why the people of the USA - well, at least half of them - fear the introduction of something similar.
Healthcare in the UK prior to the war had been a patchwork quilt of private, municipal and charity schemes and that seems to be the state that the American system is now.
Just as in this country over 60 years ago, there are people in the USA who can't afford to have medical treatment.
The benefits of the NHS are three fold - these were the original aims:
That it meet the needs of everyone
That it be free at the point of delivery
That it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.
How sad that the American people shun these ideals.
Perhaps they have read too many articles as published in the Daily Mail or some such newspaper and misunderstand just how satisfied we really are in the UK.
Although the NHS has a high level of popular public support within the country, the national press is perceived to be highly critical of it. This may have affected perceptions of the service within the country as a whole and outside. An independent survey conducted in 2004 found that users of the NHS often expressed very high levels of satisfaction about their personal experience of the medical services. Of hospital inpatients, 92% said they were satisfied with their treatment; 87% of GP users were satisfied with their GP; 87% of hospital outpatients were satisfied with the service they received.
It looks like the election of one Republican ex male model in the USA might be a turning point and the dreams of having a health service which meets the needs of all might have to be curtailed. I hope not.
I am living proof of what a health service can achieve - the amount of money pumped into my survival, over several long drawn out episodes, must be enormous. I admit I have had more than my fair share and very much more than we or the sub standard health insurance that we might have been able to afford would have been able to pay out.
And even when I had to admit that I was finding it hard to find some true joy in living, the NHS forked out again for some medication to make me see my world more clearly and more joyfully. No thought of reprimanding me with a "You should be grateful for all we have done for you".
Today it has been easier to feel some of that joy.
I know it is just a day - but we have enjoyed a brief interlude of good weather. There really felt to be some hints of Spring air.
But we expect rain by about midnight, which will continue throughout tomorrow.
I worked today on what might be deemed to be a new years resolution - good cooking.
I can cook what I have always cooked - I do a good roast dinner and we love sausages and mash, but I had stopped trying anything new.
Yesterday I used the Internet as my recipe book and today I cooked chicken veronique - chicken breasts in white wine, tarragon, onions and with grapes.
I did potatoes in butter and onions too.
We both really enjoyed the eating - and I enjoyed the process of creating something worthwhile.
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/french/chicken-veronique.html
Bill was also inspired by the springlike air. He went out this afternoon to tidy the back garden. The biggest task was to clear our very small plots of where the cats had been! But he has also made it look neat and ready for the spring and some new plants.
Another snippet of joyfulness is that the 1842 atlas now has a bid of £82.
I hope you think as I do on this matter.
I know that there have been unfortunate circumstances - tragic circumstances even - where things have gone wrong for the minority of people.
But I can honestly say that I have had the very best of treatment for almost all the years when I have needed it.
I don't just feel that I haven't been let down - I can positively say that I have been given the very best of treatment and support.
Today my treatment took a very short time - just a few seconds to have an injection of Vitamin B12. But there is always time to chat and Nurse Lesley listened to my worries about the infections that I seem to have within my body. Yes - I think a week after finishing the antibiotics they are back.
She also sorted me out a form for my next blood test, which is not due until March.
The population have so much to be thankful for.
Whenever there is a suggestion that one or other political party might not want to keep the NHS as a service to the population, but to allow private enterprise to take over, there is outrage.
Even the tabloid press who like to accuse very quickly when ever anything goes wrong, suddenly seem to fear the loss of our precious NHS.
We fear losing it.
I just can't understand why the people of the USA - well, at least half of them - fear the introduction of something similar.
Healthcare in the UK prior to the war had been a patchwork quilt of private, municipal and charity schemes and that seems to be the state that the American system is now.
Just as in this country over 60 years ago, there are people in the USA who can't afford to have medical treatment.
The benefits of the NHS are three fold - these were the original aims:
That it meet the needs of everyone
That it be free at the point of delivery
That it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.
How sad that the American people shun these ideals.
Perhaps they have read too many articles as published in the Daily Mail or some such newspaper and misunderstand just how satisfied we really are in the UK.
Although the NHS has a high level of popular public support within the country, the national press is perceived to be highly critical of it. This may have affected perceptions of the service within the country as a whole and outside. An independent survey conducted in 2004 found that users of the NHS often expressed very high levels of satisfaction about their personal experience of the medical services. Of hospital inpatients, 92% said they were satisfied with their treatment; 87% of GP users were satisfied with their GP; 87% of hospital outpatients were satisfied with the service they received.
It looks like the election of one Republican ex male model in the USA might be a turning point and the dreams of having a health service which meets the needs of all might have to be curtailed. I hope not.
I am living proof of what a health service can achieve - the amount of money pumped into my survival, over several long drawn out episodes, must be enormous. I admit I have had more than my fair share and very much more than we or the sub standard health insurance that we might have been able to afford would have been able to pay out.
And even when I had to admit that I was finding it hard to find some true joy in living, the NHS forked out again for some medication to make me see my world more clearly and more joyfully. No thought of reprimanding me with a "You should be grateful for all we have done for you".
Today it has been easier to feel some of that joy.
I know it is just a day - but we have enjoyed a brief interlude of good weather. There really felt to be some hints of Spring air.
But we expect rain by about midnight, which will continue throughout tomorrow.
I worked today on what might be deemed to be a new years resolution - good cooking.
I can cook what I have always cooked - I do a good roast dinner and we love sausages and mash, but I had stopped trying anything new.
Yesterday I used the Internet as my recipe book and today I cooked chicken veronique - chicken breasts in white wine, tarragon, onions and with grapes.
I did potatoes in butter and onions too.
We both really enjoyed the eating - and I enjoyed the process of creating something worthwhile.
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/french/chicken-veronique.html
Bill was also inspired by the springlike air. He went out this afternoon to tidy the back garden. The biggest task was to clear our very small plots of where the cats had been! But he has also made it look neat and ready for the spring and some new plants.
Another snippet of joyfulness is that the 1842 atlas now has a bid of £82.
Labels: rambling thoughts
