Dear NHS-consuming readers let me
tell you a tale: Last week I had to go to the A&E department of my district
hospital, the Hospital Comarcal de Río Tinto, Huelva, Spain. I was
admitted and seen by a doctor in less than ten minutes. Was I spouting gouts of
blood? Was I about to pass out from an asthma attack? Was I carried in on a
stretcher with broken bones various and innards become outards?
No.
I needed a copy of a piece of paper from a previous visit that, stupidly, I had misplaced.
Was
I given a justifiably long, hard, stare by an overworked doctor and
overstretched auxiliary staff for wasting their valuable time with trivia while
having to attend to more deserving patients?
No.
I was treated with the utmost courtesy and civility and informed that the only
person who could give me the said document was my GP (whose receptionist had
told me I needed to go to A&E).
Rather
frustrated with having had to make a futile 80+-km round trip and cursing the
GP's receptionist, I stumped off back to my car parked in the (free) hospital
car park. Back in the car, remembering, and easing myself upon, the freshests[1] of the receptionist and
waiting for the air/con. to kick in, I realised, however, that I'd be back home
and having a cup of tea long before anyone would have seen me in an NHS trust
hospital.
So,
why the rapid attention for such a pettifogging reason? The answer is quite
simple: here in Andalusia, the regionally-run health service is, compared with
the NHS, "inefficient". In other words, there is still slack in the
system - as yet, it hasn't suffered the reforms that has brought the NHS and
its overworked, overexploited staff to their knees. Each hospital, for
example has an A&E department, as do many local clinics. Some misguided Brits I
know over here still regard the Public Health System with suspicion - one idiot
even badgered his heavily pregnant wife to fly to GB to have their baby there
at a time when premature babies were being shunted around the UK in
under-equipped ambulances searching for a space in an ICU, some even dying en
route. This is something that would never be allowed to happen - at least in
Andalusia.
Please
don't think I'm in the business of bashing the NHS - I come not to judge the
NHS, but to praise the devolved Spanish system. Too many politicians and
bureaucrats have meddled with the NHS. They should be ashamed of themselves
and of what they have done to that noble institution.
My
aim here is quite simple: to thank the professionals of the Servicio Andaluz
de Salud (Andalusian Health Service) for their commitment to
good service delivered with courtesy and good humour, both last week and every
time I or my family have had need of their kind, good-humoured service.
[1] A rather
strong Spanish insult, translated literally, just for the fun of it, however, I should really have been doing all of this to myself. I lost the paper, not her.
