Politics is becoming a popular topic of heated debate between my boyfriend and I. It is not alarming that we have debates about politics, or that they are hot and infuriating. What fills me with increasing despair is how frighteningly right-wing he is. In an attempt to apply a salutogenic approach to the situation, I want to indulge in battle and attempt a political transplant mission. It is thrilling to imagine a reformed man. It is a little like the hushed hope for National political reform. Yet I am hoping for more than a Con-Dem-ing liberal-right wing reformation. He already proclaims to be just that - a liberal right-winger (with a somewhat huge tongue in his cheek).
It'll be worth mentioning here that I am not after much from G. I don't expect him to start some voluntary organisation to care for the infirm, though that'd be lovely. I would just like to urge him to see how fantastically lucky we have been to live in a country with such a wonderfully whopping social state. I am also fairly keen for him place some of his negative experiences with the NHS into context. How many people around the world get access to free health care? How many get sick and get seen? How many die from lack of good care? In our country, our NHS provides a sterling service. Yes, warranted, to get seen for chronic conditions may involve a wait. However this is often so we can be seen immediately if we're about to die.
I am not denying that, like every other service, the NHS can't get better or is immune from piss-poor performance but what I am arguing is that the NHS, as a philosophical concept and practical reality, is bloody brilliant. To consider an alternative we only have to breeze across the Atlantic Ocean. American health care can be explored here, via the somewhat polemic, but refreshingly illuminating Michael Moore Docu SICKO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pCaK0aASE
I suppose my polarity stems from my personal experience of the NHS both as an employee and a patient. I have worked and been cared for in ten different NHS Trusts across the United Kingdom and have built up vast understanding of how the NHS functions and cares for people. Without doubt, on the whole, the care provision and service has been excellent (with only small splatterings of difficulty and frustration).
My love of our NHS took flight following my working trip to Ludhiana, The Punjab, India. There I worked in a University City Hospital and witnessed first-hand the trauma of inequalities in healthcare. I actually saw a man with 80% burns being turned away from accident and emergency because he couldn't pay for treatment. I saw the harsh reality of slum life and the effects of no-health-care.
When I think of the cost-benefit analysis related to the NHS. What we put in and what we take out. It is easy to see it's value. In my life time alone, I have had:
c/section - cost - £12,000
salpingectomy - cost - £8,000
Plus a whole array of free vitamins, pregnancy care, scans, GP appointments, hospital appointments and blood tests.
Considering that one blood test costs the NHS £26, I feel I have had my values worth. Garry on the other hand has had way more:
knee op, ear op, nose op, throat op, and a c/section (well his ex, to meet his son). Garry is the most ill person I have ever met and, since I have known him, he has had more GP/Hospital/clinic visits than I have had in my life time. Yet he is one of the biggest moaners around. His complaints are as follows:
1. waiting times are terrible
2. staff can be rude (e.g. the reception staff at the physio clinic)
3. The physio's haven't helped his knee problem
Garry considers himself lucky to be alive!!!!
Well G if you lived in another country, without an NHS then perhaps you wouldn't be. If you lived in America you'd certainly be very poor.
So do I think Gaz can start to love my beloved NHS. No, not really. This battle is likely to rage for a life-time.
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