![]() The various specialist departments within the same hospital. We talk about a National Health Service, but anyone who uses it frequently quickly becomes aware it isn't a cohesive national organisation at all. They seemed a product of a lack of basic management. And they didn't appear to primarily be down to a lack of resources. Over the past couple of years I've seen the NHS up close and personal. 'There were lots of people in the corridor. It then emerged they had a cubicle available to start examining and treating her, but no clinical staff had known she was there.Ībout an hour later, an orderly came to take her down for an X-ray. After sitting for another 30 minutes, my mother finally attracted the attention of the senior ward nurse. She told my mother to follow her, and walked her down to A&E, where she pointed to a chair and told her to wait. She relented, read the letter, and said: 'Oh, I see.' She ignored me and continued asking the questions.įinally, I had to stand up and place my phone in front of the nurse. I explained she'd been referred by the GP, and had a letter on my phone that he'd forwarded. My mother was then seen by a nurse, who started asking a long list of questions about why she had been admitted. Do you know you have a security guard out there who isn't letting any of your patients in?' I replied. So I got up, ignored the guard, and walked up to the front desk. After ten minutes I realised no one was moving. We had to fill in a form and wait, I was told. When we arrived, a security guard was sitting by the entrance. After a lot of protesting, I bundled her into the car and down to the hospital. Several months ago, my mum's GP phoned to tell me he'd just received some blood test results, and that I had to immediately take her to Lewisham A&E. 'We need more nurses and fewer managers' is a mantra beloved by both politicians and voters. 'NHS to slash bureaucracy by recruiting doctors and nurses over pen-pushers' screamed one headline.Īnd it will no doubt prove a popular policy. In a series of briefings, he revealed a new plan to spend £2.4 billion on hundreds of thousands of new clinical staff, at the expense of more managers. She ignored me and continued asking the questionsīut the most significant intervention came from Health Secretary Steve Barclay. Sir Keir Starmer cited his own mother's time working for and being treated by the service, and pledged: 'I now see it as my job to get the NHS off life support and back to a clean bill of health.'Ī service of celebration was held at Westminster Abbey. Rishi Sunak praised it as a 'cornerstone of our national life'. Last week marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the NHS. And, at the very end, it ensured she could rest in comfort and peace.īut she passed 21 days ago. ![]() It could be easily raised or reclined, so she could have a sip of coffee, or a sly cigarette. It had a special mattress that massaged her legs and back, and prevented bedsores. It meant she could spend her final days with us at home. That bed – which was provided by the NHS – was a godsend. 'I was told you have to talk to flowers,' she once explained to me, 'so I shout at them, 'Grow, you buggers, grow!' ' It's sitting in the front room of her basement flat, with a nice view of the back garden and the flowers she used to love tending. As I write this, the bed in which my mother died is still downstairs.
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