The NHS is perhaps our most treasured national institution, and one which almost everyone has had reason to thank at some stage.
Increasingly though, along with many others, I’m wondering if it is on life support.
It seems beset by problems at every turn, from mundane cases to very serious ones.
I’m not alone in finding that my hearing isn’t as acute as it once was.
Whether it’s the result of a 35-year broadcasting career wearing headphones worn by countless others and of occasional dubious quality, or simply the march of time, who can say!
But the frustrating daily struggle to pick up wee missed bits of conversations forced me to address the situation a while ago.
I made an appointment to have my hearing checked with a well known High Street outfit around six months ago because I’d heard NHS waiting times were very lengthy.
I had a consultation within a couple of days and sure enough was told my hearing would be much improved by hearing devices.
I was quoted around £3,500 for the hearing aids which I could have had within a week or two.
I’m in the fortunate position that if I need to I can find the funds for them, and also that while my imperfect hearing is annoying, especially to family members, I’m not at the Grandpa Broon stage yet, and can still pick up the bulk of conversations without too much grief.
However, on reflection, I wondered why I should pay privately for something I’d been contributing to since the age of 17 via my taxation contributions.
So I waited around six weeks to see my GP who then referred me to the NHS for a hearing test.
That was four months ago.
I phoned the NHS this week to query when I might see the audiologist and was dealt with promptly and pleasantly by someone who told me that I was around halfway there.
The waiting time he told me is between eight to ten months, so friends and family alike will need to exercise more patience with my dodgy lugs, as I continue to ask them to repeat something that the rest of the company has heard clearly enough.
But I’m hearing – no pun intended – similar tales of a struggling health service from many other folk.
Long NHS waiting lists are commonplace
From lengthy appointment waits at GPs, to dentists refusing to take on NHS patients, and indeed some going completely private.
An acquaintance in Glasgow told me he had been told by the hospital to see a cardiologist for an ‘urgent appointment’ on December 30th 2022, and was given a date of August 8th 2023.
This week The Courier reported the case of a midwife at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy suspended due to ‘unacceptable’ clinical skills, having failed to demonstrate the standards of knowledge, skill and judgement required to practice without supervision.
Meantime, the long running saga of the disgraced Ninewells surgeon Sam Eljamel, who the Courier has relentlessly worked to expose, rumbles on, with those whose lives he has made a misery with botched operations, waiting to see whether an independent inquiry will be held amid ongoing allegations of a health board cover-up.
I was brought up on tales from my parents and grandparents of a pre-NHS generation who knew first hand of the heartbreak and misery unaffordable costs of medical care could wreak on families.
If our NHS is in crisis then we need to find solutions to fix it and fast, because it’s a very precious thing.
If we lose it we might never get it back.
The View are among Dundee – and Scotland’s – best
I was at the Caird Hall on Monday night to see Dundee band The View finish their British tour.
Their Sunday night gig was a sell-out and this was one bouncing, with the grand old hall rocking as the home crowd welcomed them ecstatically.
Dundee has a rich musical heritage to compete with any other Scottish city; I’d argue it’s as good as Glasgow’s, which tends to blow its own trumpet better than we do since it has the national media both broadcast and newspapers based there to talk themselves up.
There’s no need to talk The View up though.
Their sheer energy, drive, and musical ability have won them fans in the UK and beyond since their Hats off to the Buskers album in 2007 topped the UK charts.
They’ve had their rocky moments and well publicised fall outs which tends to go with the territory in their game, but in a city which has produced a rich seam of talent like The Average White Band, Billy McKenzie, Danny Wilson, Michael Marra, Ricky Ross, and many others, the band who originally hail from the Dryburgh area of Dundee are firmly embedded in the city’s lexicon of musical maestros.
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