The NHS, the HNU and U by Anna Glanville-Hearson

Fashionable though it is to denigrate almost every aspect of the British National Health Service, the reality for most people on the ground is very different than the media would have us believe. I can go to my local GP suite at the nearby Health Centre and within a day or two, sometimes less, have an appointment for anything from having my ears syringed to discussing my inability to make relationships. If he can't fix it he invariably knows someone who can.

He also offers a full primary care service that includes on the spot x-rays and blood sampling for complaints requiring further investigation. My most recent foray into the higher echelons of the service came when I was admitted to the Head and Neck Unit of a large south coast NHS hospital for an operation to "drill out" my sinuses with the aim of improving my breathing and relieving the sinus headaches that I had suffered from for many years. A CT scan had been done to identify the problem area and I arrived at breakfast time (nil by mouth for me though!) on the appointed day.

My companions in the ward were a mixed bunch - Annie, a tiny Irish lady with a wicked sense of humour and a habit of waving to every passing man despite her fragile state, and Gwendoline, a classic upper class English lady, no nonsense and practical, an avid theatregoer and gardener. Both were in the eighties and had been brought to the HNU with a complaint (what another one!) which is apparently common in old age - sudden and uncontrollable nose bleeds. And this is one area that the media doesn~t mention when comparing the pros and cons of the NHS system with the private healthcare now available for those who can pay a regular sum.

The private healthcare organisations do not deal with any type of emergency treatment, be it road accident or nosebleed. In fact Gwendoline has private healthcare insurance, but since the private hospitals were not able to deal with her complaint, her healthcare organisation would be reimbursing her for the cost of a stay in the NHS hospital where she had received exactly the same level of care and attention as the rest of the patients.

The third member of our group was a younger woman with a serious breathing problem who had been admitted as an emergency patient and within a few hours had been given a tracheotomy that saved her life. As for me the surgeon paid me a visit later in the day to explain what she intended to do and in due course I trotted down to the operating theatre along with the attendants who would be taking care of me.

We headed for Operating Theatre 15. Drilling out sinus cavities is an operation that requires a lot of skill and care and that has inherent risks such as severing the optic nerve thus causing blindness or puncturing the sac of fluid around the brain with obvious consequences! I returned to the ward some time later with sight and brain intact, but suffering some fairly gruesome side effects including loss of blood and continuous vomiting. What this description doesn't convey is the love and care that was shown to me by everyone from the ward receptionist to the surgeon, and the nurses and doctor who cared for me throughout the following night.

The doctor visited me three times in the night and, though looking a little more tired and dishevelled each time, he was invariably smiling, considerate and positive. I wanted to kiss him. The nurses too seemed to me like love incarnate that night. However revolting my symptoms they dealt with me like the best of loving parents - leaving me to manage whatever I could do for myself, but somehow always being there just at the moment when I needed them to provide encouragement, skill and kindness. I have never felt so cocooned in loving care and competence as I have in an NHS hospital, and always at times when I have been at my least lovable. Age is no bar to this level of service either. My mother is 83 and has rheumatoid arthritis, a painful auto-immune disease in which the joints are constantly inflamed. Despite her age, her consultant continues to treat her condition with every weapon in the medical and technological armoury that is at her disposal: everything from special high-tech insoles to make the feet more comfortable to replacement knee and hip joints as required.

Mother also receives regular injections of gold, a conventional treatment for the disease, and though the cost involved in these and the many operations she has had over the years must be considerable, the consultant would throw her hands up in horror were anybody to suggest that the investment is uneconomic. Add to that the personal interest that the consultant takes in mother's welfare: did she enjoy her recent trip on the London Eye - something that she couldn't manage before the hip replacement. How is she managing at home and is there any item of equipment that would make things easier or less painful?

The consultant gives my mother time and reassurance as well as a regular medical service. If there's a down side to the NHS system I haven't encountered it in forty years of looking after myself, my parents and my children. True there are 57 million of us in Britain and we sometimes have to wait for our turn to come, but I only waited nine months for the operation on my sinuses and that is acceptable when you consider that ear, nose and throat complaints are among the most common problems in the population.

No doubt the NHS will change over the coming years and private medicine will play an increasing part in our healthcare system; but if the time comes when our accident and emergency services are provided by private companies, and people in their eighties are considered to be not a viable business proposition, then we'll look back on these years and know that we've never had it so good.

Anna Glanville-Hearson,

June 2002. All Rights Reserved.

This article courtesy of http://www.health-resources.co.uk.