Medicine and money are linked whether we like it or not, or whether we have a Health Service or not. In the 30s I don’t remember people running to see the doctor, the way they do today, but then one visit cost a twelfth of the basic weekly wage, today that would equate to £25, plus prescriptions. Lately I have been visiting doctors surgeries for repeat prescriptions and hospitals for premed assessment. I have found that in every department there is high pressure on the staff, insufficient staff and delays, because there is heavy under funding. The 3 year old grandchild of my neighbour was prepared with needles and tubes for a serious operation twice in one day and then the op was cancelled, each time because of emergencies. Can you imagine the trauma to the child and the parents? In my own case my delay was such that the small incision, through a delay 9 times what it would have been in Scotland, meant a large section of healthy flesh had to be removed. Another operation delay was doubled for me. I’m not complaining for myself, on the contrary, I know I am very lucky. I am complaining on behalf of the medical professionals in the health service, We need to consider them, I know of cases in which experienced surgeons had to retire early through induced heart problems. I also rail against the general way taxes are used for repeated legal wrangles, in pointless publicity in millions, in a massive bureaucracy, and schemes which are notional and do not get to the heart of need. I include the way globwarm is presented, its ramifications financially and personally, beyond what is reasonable when the effect of the alleged remedy is measured against the estimated improvement it might have wrought.
This Government has a propensity for acting without evaluating all the possible ripples their decisions might generate, The Northern Rock is a glaring case. Take also the report on their programme costing billions for providing work for our unemployed since 1997, 1.4 million of the 1.7 million places were taken up by people not born in this country. I also have previously mentioned that the proposed schemes for training young people in usable skills for employment, are open to those from other countries.
I cannot see how the whole infrastructure can be reinstated to the state it was in, in the 80s, when we have all these additional demands on a problematical economy, such as sea revetment, ID Cards, replacing lost info, flood prevention, new housing, public transport revival, and all the other essentials staring us in the eye, without fanciful pipe dreams like the Olympics – and don’t forget Globwarm. I ain’t got it! My income reduces year on year, as do most OAPs find, I still have to fund my own place in a home, if it ever comes to that, because I’m not on relief.