If today I needed reminding about just how wonderful our NHS is – and I didn’t – it took me all of 10 seconds after walking into one of our local hospitals. I am not going to say that going to hospital, even in a visiting capacity, is something I enjoy. The place is full of people who are ill, so it’s just about the unhealthiest place you could ever find. But the whole place was just awesome.
As someone with no sense of direction to speak of, the blizzard of signs and directions had me scratching my head in bemusement. As I stumbled my way along the corridors, there was someone whose job was to make people better. And they all seem to be so young. I don’t just mean the nurses, though. Those doctors who Jeremy Hunt hates so much seem barely old enough to drink, never mind carrying out lifesaving treatments. Actually, I am glad they don’t seem barely old enough to drink because it would have a negative effect on their ability to carry out lifesaving treatments.
Aneurin Bevan gave this country its greatest institution. Forget about the royal family, whether you like them or not. The Queen does an excellent job of queening and she brings in millions of pounds through tourists etc etc, but Liz can’t hold a candle to the NHS.
Thanks to Bevan and despite every Tory government since the NHS was established, there are no lines of tills at the entrance, demanding fees from the sick people coming through its doors. There are no pawn shops for people to hand in their valuables in exchange for a hip replacement or a tumour removal. The greatest example of everything I believe in, that’s the NHS. Free at the point of delivery, paid for by everyone through taxation. My, what a socialist revolutionary I am not.
The hospital seemed to run like clockwork. No one, apart from me, seemed to be struggling to find where they were going and what they would be doing. It was far more personal than a conveyor belt but relentlessly efficient just the same.
Many of us could literally not live without the NHS. I was pleased to leave when the appropriate time came, but I was proud that we still have something in this country that is truly world class and well worth preserving.
