French Resistance and Roman Fiction
UK
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Thank you for your business!You should receive an order confirmation from Paypal shortly.Exit Shopping BasketA World War 2 Trilogy
By FRED NATH (Novelist and Neurosurgeon)
Fred's Blog
Fred's Blog
Blog
Covid-19 [4] The NHS
| Posted on 16 April, 2020 at 18:49 |
I may seem like a bitter old git,
but I have serious reservations about all the praise for NHS workers. I see how
people are clapping and join them unreservedly in praising how front-line NHS
workers are going to work every day facing fears and genuinely risking their
lives to save patients in the present Covid-19 crisis. It is what the NHS
and the wonderful people in it signed up for, are committed to, and execute
with kindness and empathy. I’ve been a consultant
neurosurgeon for 34 years in the NHS and have had the privilege of working
beside the finest nurses, porters and ground staff any system could offer. Many
of them worked without demur despite poor conditions, under staffing and poor
remuneration. The nurses on my neurosurgical ward never went home at the end of
their shift on time because they had to make sure that in the presence of staff
shortages (always there) the patients would be OK. I loved those people for
their kindness, care and empathy. About
time you appreciated them too. But… And there is always a but… Think about it. Those people you
are all praising, and admiring have been doing that job for a long time. What
have successive governments done to them? Yes, not just Tories but Labour
Governments also? Margaret Thatcher wanted to dis-empower doctors and abolish ‘shroud waving’ because she and her Government
were underfunding the NHS and under-paying the hard-working staff – doctors,
nurses, porters and cleaners. She put doctors into management to divide and
rule – setting doctor against doctor to make them blame each other instead of
the niggardly governments. There was a review body which did what the
Government wanted and never paid anyone in the NHS even at the level of
inflation. Next came successive Labour and
Conservative Governments who engaged in and encouraged ‘doctor bashing’ –
vilifying doctors generally. The press joined in and the politicians tried
their best to redress the balance between the public view of doctors compared
to the public view of politicians. NHS workers – all of us- felt
undervalued and underpaid. Morale was rock-bottom and descending. Suddenly – Covid-19! Yes, you are going to die without
our glorious NHS. Well, buddy, let me tell you the NHS was always bloody
glorious! Not only are we there for you
now, we always were, despite what the politicians did to us. They tried to
damage our status (nurses and doctors). They cheated us over pensions. They
underpaid us. And Now? Wonderful NHS – saving lives
– we are so grateful! You for real? We have one of the lowest per
capita rate of cost for health care in Europe. We have had desperately
insufficient ITU beds in the country for years. Patients died for the lack of
them and no one cared. We cajoled, we urged, and we begged for more ITU beds
and were laughed at. No one cared and people died unnecessarily. Perhaps now, even Boris Johnson realizes what the NHS is. It is a wonderful institution and the people working
in it do so and give everything they have, even their lives for others without
complaint (or remuneration). Shouldn’t you be paying them for
what they do? Shouldn’t they have a right to a decent wage and a feeling of
security? Keep clapping and wafting your
virus at the people round you. It wont pay anyone’s mortgage. |
Categories: thoughts
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