It’s a wonderful institution, but it really is creaking at the seams. It is envied the world over and it certainly is marvellous.
Almost seventy years ago, a British politician, Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, championed the idea of a health service which was paid for by taxes.
This revolutionised health care and it is difficult to overstate the positive impact that this has had on the health and well-being of the United Kingdom.
Please note that I do not refer to Britain, but the UK.
In some British islands, such as the Isle of Man, health care is, indeed, free at the point of need, but not in others.
In the Channel Islands, for example, primary health care, that is, initial appointments to see a GP, are not free, but incur a cost.
Recently, there was a headline about hospitals being, in effect, closed over the holiday period.
Many hospitals asked that patients seek help from emergency rooms only for urgent or life-threatening matters.
Now, I confess that I was under the misapprehension that attendance at emergency rooms was only for urgent or life-threatening issues, but it seems that I am wrong. Some 12-15 per cent of admissions at A & E (accident and emergency) departments across England are related to alcohol consumption.
Towards the end of last year, there were news stories emerging that the NHS was going to set up so-called ‘drunk tanks’ so that inebriates could simply sleep it off instead of clogging up the emergency rooms.
I am probably a bit old-fashioned and it’s best to stand back whilst I mount my soap box now.
I am not at all in favour of people being denied alcoholic beverages; I am not averse to a tipple myself, I freely admit. An imbibition of Bacchus’ best is part of my regular routine, I confess.
However, when, as a friend of mine would have it, ‘drink has been taken’, why should anyone else’s taxes be used to pay for you to ‘sleep it off’ or be treated as if there was a medical issue?
In my view, it’s not a medical issue at all; it’s a responsibility issue. If you wish to get yourself into a state which involves you falling over, fighting or creating havoc for others, why should you expect us all to pay for you to be sorted out?
So, to return to the main reason for my being up here on my soap box; if hospitals are restricting access because they are dealing with, and paying for, non-essential, alcohol-related need, and genuinely quite poorly folk are being turned away, that’s simply unacceptable.
If the NHS is so stretched that it needs to turn away the ill, that’s not right.
In my opinion, your first visit to a GP should cost a small fee.
That would discourage the malingerer who just wants to spend some time in someone else’s heated room. After that, it can be free.
If it’s alcohol or drug related, it should be charged for at the full cost.
Otherwise, we run the risk of the NHS becoming the ‘National Hangover Service’!
- Mike Gaunt is a former headmaster at St Christopher’s School, Bahrain
– mikegaunt@gmail.com