Reporter Adam Trimingham, who until recently worked for The Argus in Brighton, was this year diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Here, the 65-year-old writes about the NHS in its 60th year and why there is still much to love and loathe about the service. (First published on The Argus website).

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I have reason to thank the National Health Service for it saved my life.

Back in 1991, I was desperately ill with blackwater fever, the very worst type of malaria, contracted in Kenya despite taking all the necessary precautions.

If this had happened prior to 1948, it is unlikely I would have been here to tell the tale. But thanks to expert guidance, I managed to recover although it was a mightily close call.

There is a lot of moaning and groaning about the NHS but most people’s first hand experiences of treatment are, like mine, largely favourable.

The NHS is particularly good at dealing with emergencies whether it is treating a provincial reporter with life-threatening malaria or saving the lives of road accident victims.

What it is less good at is the more mundane treatment of common but boring complaints such as mending hernias or removing varicose veins.

It is not being helped by our tendency to view it through rose-tinted NHS spectacles. As a nation, we are still basking in the post-war glow of starting one of the first free health services in the world.

Many of us do not seem to realise that other nations such as the French have caught up and surpassed our achievement.

The NHS was started by high-minded men like Nye Bevan and Clement Attlee. It is often touted as a Labour achievement, which it largely was, but Winston Churchill, when wartime Prime Minister, set it up.

It was a struggle in those days of post-war austerity to spend so much Government money on such a service.

It soon became impossible and there were resignations in the 1950s when the Government felt forced to introduce small charges for prescriptions.

Further charges followed including those for dentistry which have now become extensive.

There is much gnashing of restored teeth over them but Britain simply could not afford a free dental service now.

The unpalatable fact is that it cannot really afford to provide many other services free but every time this is mentioned, great cries go up that the NHS is being privatised.

No-one is saying that the basic principle of the NHS, free treatment for those in need, should be compromised. But it is surely time to think whether we should emulate other nations who fund their health service by an insurance system for those who can afford it.

A basic charge of say £10 for those not on benefits to visit the doctor would raise millions of pounds and make people less likely to skip appointments as too many do these days.

Huge sums have been poured into the NHS by this Labour Government and its Tory predecessor and there have been improvements we can all see. But we, the patients, have unrealistic expectations of the NHS.

We expect a full accident and emergency system to be provided at every hospital when this work is so specialist it simply cannot be done.

We complain that beds are closing but it is surely better for patients to be treated in local clinics or their homes whenever possible than staying in hospital.

There is an outcry over the rise of polyclinics amid fears that GP surgeries will shut as a result. Have these critics actually been to a polyclinic, such as the one which has been functioning very successfully in Hove?

I have and it is a pleasure to be there receiving prompt, professional aid rather than waiting in some Victorian outpatients’ department.

This is part of a revolution in the NHS which is benefiting millions of people. Waiting lists have been cut and the current climate is for consultants to co-operate with patients rather than play God with them.

GPs are encouraged to go in for preventative medicine rather than wait for their patients to fall ill before dealing with them. I am a good example of all this.

Although I’ve tried to keep fit, my GP took a blood test, which revealed worryingly high levels of cholesterol. I changed my diet and started taking statins.

He also found that I was suffering from an irregular heartbeat, probably an inherited condition unnoticed until then but potentially dangerous in increasing the risk of stroke.

More medicine and annual visits to an expert heart consultant are reducing that risk. This year I have had Parkinson’s disease diagnosed which is both progressive and incurable.

I saw my Dutch grandmother stricken by it in the 1960s with dire effects on her. But I am being seen regularly by a consultant and a nurse who both specialise in treating it.

With additional help from the Parkinson’s Disease Society, I hope to be able to lead a reasonable life for far longer than my grandmother.

Where I do find fault with the NHS is in the bureaucracy although I do not share the views there are too many managers and they are overpaid.

In fact there are fewer in the NHS than in comparable private industry and most could earn far more in the private sector.

What’s wrong is the constant changing of health trusts which benefits nobody. People do not care what the section of the NHS dealing with them is called as long as it is efficient and effective. They probably do not even know its name.

It is time for the Government to stop this constant tinkering with the system which lowers morale and also forces many good managers on to the NHS scrapheap well before their sell-by dates.

Comments

Chris (22/07/2008 08:09:02)
Did I hear the word ‘free’ in this article? There is nothing ‘free’ about the NHS. It is not ‘free’ anymore. Care for the elderly is a dispicable shambles where those who have worked hard for their country are forced to pay vast sums of money for their own care. There is far too much bureaucracy and too much waste on pathetic government targets.