The UK's NHS has shown that a country can run a socialist healthcare system within a democracy to a great deal of success, but as the years roll on I feel the care is becoming much worse.
It is a similar environment to any office where you can often tell a lot from how hard someone works. It's often down to their bonus scheme and those people drifting tend to be the ones paid the same regardless.
NHS staff remind me of these drifters you meet in jobs you wouldn't want. People who don't care and will avoid any work they don't have to do.
I'm not expecting a bunch of motherly nurses in our hospitals but the sheer ineptitude and lack of interest is saddening.
We've all taken a job we don't like because we need the money or couldn't find anything else at the time. These people however are at times in charge of our lives.
I can't help but compare the NHS to the hospital care I received in South Korea. I was shocked at how efficient, modern and caring they were.
The Dr I saw there was not just dealing with the next patient, he made sure I understood everything that was happening. Explained all the avenues of treatment.
The difference? Money. It cost me to get treated so who knows how you cope without medical insurance/money over there.
I'm not selfish enough to want to change our NHS in favour of a paid model but surely it is a matter of attitudes as much as finances.
I remember the awkward smile which the Dr in SK gave me as I shook his hand on giving me the all clear of pneumonia. The last Dr in the UK didn't even look at me as he told me his assistant would see me out.
~Fraser
I went in to the hospital today to see a surgeon for consultation about having surgery. As I left to fill the forms to book in I heard him talking with another Surgeon;
ReplyDelete"You can't take the job home with you it will be too much."
"I know, I let it affect me when I started."
"I've been here long enough now that I just don't care."
He stopped talking when he realised I could hear him.
I wonder what stopped him. Whatever it was I felt a true sense that I was at their mercy, like never before. What choice do we have but to trust them if we need surgery.
I'm not for one moment of the opinion a Dr should carry the weight of their collective patients around with them. Nor burden themselves in a way that that would alter their objectivity.
They should however not forget they are the same as the people they treat. Just ordinary people trying to love their lives.
Even in an office job it can be easy to detach yourself from the world and view people in terms of roles.
It's good to step back from all the workplace politics and corporate BS every once in a while and remember your humanity.
~Fraser