I am very fortunate. I admit it and am happy to shout it from the rooftops.
I'm not too far off the respectable age of 80. I appreciate that a good few of my readers have reached even more respectable ages but there's still a few of you youngsters knocking about too.
Despite the fact that I've got more metal and plastic inside me than many people (and have lost more parts than many people too) I am still fortunate enough to be able to lead a very full, active and very happy life.
Since my partial lung removal at the age of 16 and many other life-saving procedures for cancer and its effects and life-enhancing things like a replacement knee (due to the fact that I was a fencer and fencing coach at one stage of my life) everything that has been done to me has been done by our National Health Service.
I hate to even begin to think of the cost over the decades.
Of course if I hadn't had my lung operation (and as it was very major surgery in 1960) I wouldn't have needed the NHS for the next 70+ years because I'd not have existed much after my 16th year.
I would not be surprised if the gross income and national insurance taxes I paid over my lifetime was a net loss to the economy (although it did help pay a lot of NHS wages!).
Despite everything we hear in the news every day of the appalling situation that our NHS finds itself in, the majority of us still are net beneficiaries of the service.
So the fact that the hospital (on the Mainland) has had to delay my uretic stent replacement because there are no beds available, did not stop immediate treatment on Saturday when I presented myself to A & E (Emergency Room) in Stornoway. Longer term readers of this blog will know that I've got an unfortunate tendency to develop sepsis (because of the uretic stent) and constant UTIs. That's what I thought was developing on Saturday. As it happens the sepsis hadn't got established and after lots of tests and treatment I was out later that day feeling great again having been told that I'd done exactly the right thing and made their job easier because the sepsis hadn't got established.
I have no idea what the solution is to the problems of our increasingly aging and sickening population requiring more and more treatment but it's not just money and nor is it wholesale privatisation.
The one thing I am absolutely certain about is that I, and my generation, have lived through the best of the times Britain has seen. I think that subject may be continued at some future blog date.
The treatment there is wonderful to read you are well taken care of.
ReplyDeletePrayers for your health and continued long life
Thank you, Maywyn.
DeleteI am happy that you are still with us and getting such good treatment to keep you with us for a while yet!
ReplyDeleteI am only in my mid sixties and I am apprehensive about the next fifteen or twenty years if I get that long left to me. I intend to live for the moment and just enjoy my life as much as I am able while I still can.
Well, JayCee that's exactly what I've been doing. I only found my youth when I was in my early Sixties and have been enjoying it ever since.
DeleteInteresting your acknowledgement in the last paragraph Graham. It was a comment I made about in-laws some years ago - cradle to grave. They were born at the right time to get NHS support throughout life, free education for themselves and their children (including university) and a livable state pension. FIL even retired early on a salary linked pension and wanted for nothing that he desired of his retirement. A generation later and we are paying for university education (well I started a little late and got caught by fees) and paying for it for our children. We are also being strongly advised to save for retirement. In NZ (as you will possibly know), access to free medical treatment is means tested, and most of us with income over the 'community card' minimum are required to make a contribution to our consultations and treatment. Imagine it that was brought in here! I will be interested to read what more you have to write on the subject.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tigger. As you surmised I am au fait with the New Zealand system. Oddly, though, when I was transferred from the Emergency facility in Napier to the hospital in Hastings (with what was later discovered to be a kidney stone) I was not charged at all (except for the ambulance). I did spend the night in a wheelchair though. I did have to pay for my doctor's appointments at the 'full' rate. The other thing we had that the current generation does not have was affordable housing and mortgages.
DeleteSorry you had another 'incident' (if that's the word) but glad you've learned to recognize the symptoms in time - and that you can get good help in Stornoway. Our health care system (and politics) here is not exactly the same as yours, but also not all that different, and I guess I can probably agree with you about that last paragraph (even if in some ways I sometimes fear the 'peak' may be behind us).
ReplyDeleteMonica, I think you are correct and the 'peak' is, I think behind us but we haven'y yet slid too far down "the slope".
DeleteIt's always good to be grateful for what we have in life andhow far we've come, I'm sure you've got more to live through Graham, medical technology and knowledge has come far over the years.
ReplyDeleteAmy I'm one of the luckiest people alive when it comes to medical advances - especially in cancer - and I freely give thanks for my good fortune.
DeleteIt is amazing to me that people over here often talk against the national health service that you have and Canada and many of the Scandinavian countries because of one or two things said about people having to wait for an operation or such as that. I just think of the many, many people who would never be able to afford to take care of their health or the health of their family without it. I think it is a blessing for all of you and it must be difficult for the government to run it efficiently and without many mistakes. Take care of yourself, my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Donna. Yes, it's not easy. One of the things is that medical miracles are now possible thanks to the billions of £s spent on cancer cures never mind the many many other treatments for what were once inevitably fatal diseases. It's quite simple for me. Without the NHS I almost certainly would have been dead before I was 18. I could go on - my thanks are endless.
DeleteI totally agree with you that we have lived through the very best of times. We've received excellent health care, lived through a good economy, jobs were a dime a dozen. We've been fortunate.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Red.
DeleteDare I say, but I certainly don't think that things will be improved by striking. It never is!
ReplyDeleteWell, Cro, that's a very different subject.
DeleteDepending on whose blog (or comments) I read, I find many complaints about the slowness and lack of thoroughness of the NHS. Therefore, I am always glad to read of someone who has a positive opinion of them, based on personal experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am glad you went to Stornoway A&E when you did, and are obviously back home and in good health & spirits again.
Meike, the NHS is far from perfect. However as a recipient of their medical services more than the majority of people, I have never had any complaint about the wonderful treatment I have had over since I was 15 and was on the way to a potential early death.
DeletePrivatization and profiteering go hand in hand, and one thing that should not be a profit making proposition is heath care. Health care was allowed to become a for profit business under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, and I honestly don't think that we'll ever get back to the mindset that healthcare's goal is making a patient well again, not making a profit.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you Debby and that is one of the great dangers to Britain's NHS at the moment.
DeletePS: Glad to see you back!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Debby.
DeleteGlad you knew what to do so that you avoided sepsis. I have had good medical care all of my life and I am thankful for that. I wish the same for everyone but have no solutions for achieving that, Graham.
ReplyDeleteEllen, I have no solutions either but I do have ideas. The problem is that every idea regarding the NHS is immediately politicised.
DeleteI'm so glad your quick visit to A & E prevented another onslaught of sepsis. Your resilience is a credit to yourself and the NHS. No, NHS can't take credit for that but they have been constant in their care for you. And for that, I am thankful.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I am to be constantly anonymous. Pauline
DeleteAh well, Pauline so long as I know that it's you. I do wonder why though. I had the same problem with a friend's Wordpress Blog for years. Never solved the problem and then it just went away. Weird. As for the resilience I am fortunate in that I've had it so often I recognise the signals early on. The problem would be if I happened to be in England and went to A & E it might be a day before I was even looked at by which time it could be too late. At least in Scotland my records flag up the problem.
DeleteMy impression is that the NHS is generally a very good system. The Australian Medicare system has done a lot for me. I've waited for the various orthopeadic surgeries I've had but I would never have afforded them myself. People should remember the cost of medical care when they are complaining about wait times.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Kylie. I have a friend who paid for private medical care for a new hip. There was a heart problem during the operation. The private hospital couldn't deal with it. They sent for an NHS ambulance top take him to an NHS hospital.
DeleteQuite right too. He's paid for both.
DeleteGood point, Adrian.
Delete