Two years ago today, I had surgery for prostate cancer. Were it not for the NHS, I would probably be dying a horrible death around now.
Now its amazing staff put their lives at great risk, as they frantically seek to save the lives of others. We are sustained by heroes.
Now its amazing staff put their lives at great risk, as they frantically seek to save the lives of others. We are sustained by heroes.
Our health system is held together by social glue. Each hospital is a community of people working way beyond their contracts to support each other and those in their care. Were it not for this solidarity and goodwill, the underfunded, fragmented system would fall apart.
Yet so relentless and demoralising has been the drive by successive governments to break up the health system, introduce pointless and destructive competition, sack the admin staff and load paperwork onto frontline workers that people have been leaving the NHS in droves.
At the best of times, the NHS hangs together by a thread, surviving on unpaid overtime and the total dedication of its staff. Now it is about to be tested as never before. I pray we do not discover how fragile the relentless assault has made it.
Doctors and nurses are having to treat people without being issued with proper protective equipment or testing. Yet still they go to work - as if going into battle without armour - knowing the tremendous risk they face.
These are true heroes.
These are true heroes.
