My husband, Mike George, was a writer on health and social care and other essential services. Formerly he ran an independent trade union research centre. As well as being a strong environmentalist, he always firmly believed that everyone should have free and easy access to high quality public services including health and social care. It’s why he set up this blog – to be supportive but also to be a critical friend of the NHS and care services.
In Mike’s own words:
The NHS was formed shortly after I was born. It has never been perfect (whatever that is) but he became aware from a very early age that what existed before was often expensive, so unaffordable for many, and that effective treatment too often depended on who you knew, as well as the depth of your pocket.
So I benefited, I had vaccinations, I had free X-rays, I e ven had (somewhat painful and rudimentary) dental treatment. Without the NHS it is really quite possible that I and many others would have died in infancy.
On the other hand the NHS has almost always had to struggle to obtain enough funding from governments, and so it has become all too common for us patients to be uncomfortably aware of the stresses and strains within our health service. More importantly perhaps there is rationing and a continual drive for efficiency and cost-saving in the NHS. Sometimes these pressures don’t impact negatively on us patients, but sometimes they do …
Apart from money, there are fundamentally important management and medical matters affecting the quality and availability of treatment services. These include the very design of some services and how treatments are devised. For example, why on earth is hospital discharge so often sub-standard? Why on earth aren’t there senior doctors charged with ensuring that all patients and their families are provided with all the information and contacts they will need when someone is leaving hospital? And why for example can’t every hospital be charged with having at least one senior doctor with a prime, quasi-legal, task of ensuring that all inpatients are fed well and appropriately?
See Guardian to read more about Mike’s background, his work and many inspirational contributions to society.