UK should recognise NHS’s value

Oct 5 2008 Sunday Sun

THE National Health Service is hardly ever out of the news but, being political conference season, it has been hitting the headlines.

Labour traditionally pose as the protector of the service, which is one of Europe’s biggest employers. The Tories are generally cast as wicked and heartless, wanting only to get into office in order to privatise it and cut it to ribbons.

I’m not sure what the Lib Dems policy on the NHS is. Maybe, like their leader’s lack of knowledge about old-age pensions, they don’t know what it is either.

But it’s not the Tories who are responsible for running down a new hospital in County Durham’s Barnard Castle, only opened six years ago and now facing having its Accident and Emergency Department “rationalised.”

There’s a consultancy period on at the moment. Those of us who protested against the closure of local post offices will know what that means. It’s all to do with resources, according to the NHS Trust doing the rationalising. In other words, a lack of money.

The Post Office debacle earlier this year was brought home to me this summer when I was in Canada’s province of Quebec.

Venturing out, I was struck by how almost every small village and town had a Post Office with signs prominently displayed.

I was told by a friend of mine that their smaller communities have a postal service which is mobile or part of a small store . . . exactly the sort of sub post offices that our country apparently can’t afford. We seem to know the cost of everything, but the value of a Post Office or A&E department seems to be lost on the UK’s bean counters.

Returning to the subject of the NHS, I’ve been the beneficiary of it recently, when I needed to have a small camera have a look at my stomach. From the inside.

From start to finish I was treated wonderfully by all the staff I came into contact with. Not just doctors and nurses, but back-up staff too. I couldn’t have been treated better if I’d paid thousands of pounds.

Of course every taxpayer, including me, has paid thousands of pounds so that medical help we need is available when we need it.

It would be nice to think that it will be possible in some way for budgets to be adjusted so that the hospital in Barnard Castle can continue to provide the full service so many people want. Judging by my recent experience, it won’t be for lack of commitment or expertise from the staff.