//…written by one NHS hospital's 'poet in residence'.... I didnt know they had them , wonder if its a paid position//
Almost certainly, bob. And I would not be surprised if the resident poet had deputy, an assistant deputy and an administrative team.
//A civilised nation ensures all it's citizens have access to a health service as needed.//
Indeed it does, OG, And in the UK that’s not currently happening (bearing in mind your “as needed” qualification). Access to a health service here is not available “as needed”. It’s available as and when the NHS can fit you in, which usually means months if not years of waiting, often in pain and discomfort, for routine procedures which would end that suffering.
//The NHS saved my grandsons life so I’ll give it all the gushiness and accolades it deserves//
We’ve all got similar tales we can call on, Bobbi. The NHS (or at least a vigilant ENT consultant) saved my life when I was just twenty-one. Unfortunately such episodes do not disguise the overwhelming areas of failure to provide a readily accessible, efficient health service. The vast majority of people do not need their lives saved - they need their hips and knees replaced and their boils lanced.
The NHS is a complete mess. It has been strangled by its own bureaucracy and inefficiency and you don’t have to look far to see this. It cannot be sustained by public money alone and some other form of funding must be introduced. Unfortunately as soon as this is mentioned, up go the cries of “privatisation” and other such nonsense. Well I’ve got news: the NHS is completely unsustainable in its current form, so you can either have a revised model, which will almost certainly see some people putting their hands in their pockets, or you can carry on with the ongoing decline in the country’s health service.
Many people are having to pay for private treatment now anyway because the timescales to get debilitating conditions fixed on the NHS are not tolerable. Time is ripe to ditch the “free for all at point of delivery” mantra and instead inject some realism into the topic. I’m not suggesting you must produce a credit card before you are shovelled off the pavement (which is what some people immediately cry when any alternative scheme is suggested) but something has to give. Unfortunately I cannot see any political party willing the grab the bull by the horns so the end result will be those who can pay for treatment doing so, whilst those who cannot continue to suffer.