Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Reimagining the NHS

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14

So, as GP, and with the NHS all over the news right now, I wanted to throw some thoughts into the ring.

Firstly, I am so glad of the NHS. I am so glad that no matter who you are or where you come from, no matter how poor you are, you can get truly excellent free healthcare in this country.

You can read all about the proposed changes that Andrew Lansley is suggesting and why he thinks they are a good idea. You can read all about why Clare Gerada, chair of the RCGP, the RCN, Physios and numerous other health bodies are now vehemently opposing the changes he suggests (or rather the ideological objective behind how these changes might be implemented). You can read Andy Burnham MP’s tweets. You can listen to podcasts, you can watch question time or tune in to radio debates. All very interesting and some huge issues to tackle. In the main it boils down to: misuse of the service, overspending, affordability in the future and the role of private companies in providing ‘services’.

For me, all of this is slightly missing the point. Continue reading →

We are not prisoners of our past……

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11

Barak Obama painted in Williamsburg, BrooklynBarak Obama said this:

“What we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed to what we got wrong in the past”

I think he’s right on this. That doesn’t mean that we therefore ignore the past, or don’t deal with it, or allow it to be healed, or learn from it, or carry the scars of it; in fact, one of my favourite sayings comes from a chap called Johnny Barr who said “you’ve got to deal with the root and not the fruit.” Sometimes we find ourselves, both individually and corporately – in our communities and wider societies – still showing the effects of an un-dealt with past. But my problem is when we say to ourselves, or of our communities and nations “things won’t change, it’s just the way I am/we are/things are,” or  “I/we can’t get over that,” or “I/we can’t move forward until….,” or “I wish we could go back to the time when……” and we wistfully look back to some better day when things seemed more sedate or manageable or whatever. Continue reading →