I published a blog the other day called Conscription. You can read it here . At the bottom of my blog there was a comment from one of my patients and in case you missed it, it said this:
“Hullo Colin, you provided fantastic implants for my late husband, Tim Lister, and I therefore keep a sharp eye on your blogs! This one I find particularly interesting, in that many of us are now unable to afford decent dental care - esp those who are vulnerable and on benefits. My very ill son is one of these. I have therefore seen at first hand what Mr Hunt, aided by the Mail on Sunday's campaign against NHS scroungers (i.e. those on welfare benefits) 'fraudulently' obtaining dental care, manages to do via NHS Business Services. Presumably, those at the bottom of society must put up with rotting teeth, just as we did before the NHS came into being.
The service the Campbell Clinic provided for my husband and myself was superb. It is on another planet from the penny pinching care - dental and general health - now available within the NHS under Mr Hunt and colleagues.
End of rant!
Best wishes,
Pat (a patient, a late patient's wife, and a patient's mother)”
The bit in red is why I do this, it’s not often that somebody is generous enough and takes the time to distill it down so perfectly as Pat has done here.
It was a really tough decision for me when I gave up the NHS in the end but it was becoming absolutely clear to continue to do so I would have to do a job that was less than the job that I wanted to do. I had tried to save the NHS single-handedly for as long as I could.
My wife is much more important that me. She is a MacMillan nurse who looks after children.
I hope that she does this for the rest of her working life but the problem is the system is changing so much that I wonder how long she can dash herself against the rocks to save the service herself. We all want to do this. We all (or certainly most of us) want to do this to help other people but in order to be able to help other people we have to first be able to help ourselves. Mr Hunt and his colleagues are not letting us do that anymore.
Blog post number: 1393