NHS ( part two)

We do not have too many rules on the Rust but we are not encouraged to repeat the same theme two days running. However I make no apology for returning to yesterday’s topic of the alleged demise of the NHS.

Yesterday I saw my private doctor for a flu jab. I very much like my doctor as he is “Old School’, reminds me of my father and trained at the Middlesex Hospital. My consultation followed its normal course. One minute to administer the jab, which injection he performs with great expertise, so I barely felt the needle and 19 minutes on whatever we feel like talking about: Harlequins rugby, know-all life coaches and nutritionists are recurrent discussion issues. I asked him if the NHS was in crisis. He said it was but less because of under-funding and more the allocation of funds to a great raft of unnecessary management. These interfere to such an extent that as a NHS doctor, which he once was, he was stopped from performing routine operations like removals of adenoids and gromits. I mentioned that for years my father ran the vaccination department for the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. He had one nurse and vaccinated 5,000 patients a year. After he retired they replaced him with a whole team but never reached those numbers.

I showed him some pigmentation on my leg which a know-all masseuse on the cruise ship advised was due to poor blood circulation. Rubbish, he said. My father too had a great aversion to those who had not studied anatomy to the levels that an aspiring doctor is required to attain, but nevertheless hold forth on matters medical. The good doctor is portly and enjoys a drink, thus satisfying the definition of an alcoholic (“Someone who drinks more than their doctor”) …