My depression (2)
I don't rush off to the doctor when I have a cold - I take Lemsip and buy extra hankies. I consult the local pharmacist for minor problems (Mackie's - their pharmacists are excellent) and to find out if something is serious enough to bother the doctor with. I'm not one of the 'worried well' who, I'm told, take up the time of doctors. But I do wonder how many 'frequent flyers' there really are.
Like many people, I have the highest regard for the professionals who work in the NHS. I've been treated very well by (almost) all of them and I am sorry to see unhappy people rushing to the newspapers and online websites to complain about just about anything - like hospital food. You're not there for the food. Just eat your boiled eggs and shut up.
To whom do I owe my health care? Partly to myself: I paid into the UK's National Insurance scheme from the age of 15 to the age of 60.
But largely I have to thank the Labour Government of 1945 which set up the NHS. My childhood - and that of many others - was a long round of NHS dried milk, vaccinations, school medicals, free school milk, free dental appointments and orange juice. If you've ever wondered how today's 25+ generation is so tall and has such good teeth, thank the NHS that looked after their parents so well.
The UK couldn't afford the NHS in the 1940s and it seems it still can't. Medicine, it appears, is much more sophisticated than it was and so more expensive. I'm not sure the two things go hand in hand: the NHS needs access to better technology and better drugs, but in the case of the machinery it is bolstered by a lot of charities paying for the machines. And if drugs cost more now, we should be asking if the balance in the drugs companies between profit for them to invest in new product research and what the NHS can afford, is right. And, in any case, the the real in the NHS isn't machinery or drugs. It's trained people - and they cost.
Today I read that the Tories' Damien Green - barely a couple of days after the general election - is already telling us we need to pay more for the NHS. How much more? Who will pay? Will the elderly and the very young and the disabled and those with long-term health problems be exempted? No answers are provided to any this, so I conclude that this announcement is just softening us up.
Most of us in Scotland knew this was coming but did people in England and Wales realise we now live in an extreme right wing 'democracy' where you only matter if you are able to contribute?
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