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Welcome to my Blog. I hope you find the posts interesting, informative and perhaps even entertaining(!). I'll update this Blog with my responses to topical stories of the day, important news and tales of my travels up and down the UK, meeting our inspirational nursing staff.

The RCN represents almost 400,000 nurses in the UK and is the country's largest nursing union.

Thursday 13 August 2009

A health service to be proud of...

As anyone who keeps an eye on international news will know, the debate on healthcare in the US has dramatically heated up, with both sides clamouring to be heard.

Over the last few weeks we’ve heard much from our friends across the pond about our own healthcare system. There have been a number of untruths and myths touted about how our system refuses to treat the old, denies care when it’s needed and considers cost before care.

I hope the truth is heard eventually and that President Obama’s proposals are not defeated by erroneous claims and fanciful misinformation. The NHS in the UK may have its flaws but it is an institution that we can be hugely proud of. It’s an organisation that has saved the lives of millions, irrespective of their age or salary.

As Mahatma Ghandi famously said ‘the best test of a civilized society is the way in which it treats its most vulnerable and weakest members’. I can only hope that those currently shouting down a fair system of healthcare for all heed this message.

4 comments:

  1. "There have been a number of untruths and myths touted about how our system refuses to treat the old, denies care when it’s needed and considers cost before care".

    This is not a myth nor is it untrue - it is an accurate representation of the NHS.

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  2. How can you be proud of a health service that leaves dying people in soiled bed clothes, left crying in agony with no pain relief, only to be verbally abused by a nurse when they beg for help? How can you be proud of a health service that cannot diagnose properly and has waiting lists so long that people die waiting for treatment? How can you be proud of a health service that leaves an elderly person on a toilet floor for two hours covered in bruises and dripping with blood? How can you be proud of a health service that wastes money hand over fist by booking appointments for scans etc that aren't needed and then fails to book appointments for things that are needed - but nevermind, because the ambulance turned up to take the person to the scan that wasn't booked?! How can you be proud of a health service that bullies patients and scares relatives of dying people so much they're afraid to complain?

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