Abstract
I read with great interest and enthusiasm your editorial. 1 I agree wholeheartedly with you: if the government continue doing what they are doing at the moment, our health service (a great national pride 25 years ago) will be destroyed. We must not let that happen. I am a retired consultant cardiologist and now 72 years old, and I’m not happy with the changes that have and are happening to our National Health Service (NHS).
I went to medical school in 1963 when the NHS was just 14 years old. I qualified in 1968 and did my junior posts at St Mary’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals with some work at The Royal Brompton Hospital and many posts outside London. I struggled to get into medical school at that time as I came from the wrong background; however, I eventually got in when the medical schools learnt I played county-level rugby. I was so pleased and proud to be a medical student and determined to be a good doctor – we were taught that medicine was not a job but a profession, that one was a doctor all of the time, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, and patients always come first – not us. Medicine is an art practised by scientists – easy a lot of the time, but sometimes one had to feel one’s way through very difficult cases and situations. I loved that statement and have taught my juniors the same and medical students in lectures and tutorials.
Professionalism of our posts has not and will not be lost. When the health service was set up, doctors and nurses were totally against it unless they were left in charge of running it. The government in 1948 agreed with this. With us two groups of professionals running the service, a tremendous health service was formed and became the envy of the world. We should be very proud of this and must not let the government destroy it primarily as a money-saving exercise. Patients come first, not money, not the government, not managers and not us. Yes, the health service has become very expensive with CT and MRI scanners plus Echo equipment and more invasive investigations needed for our patients. We must also realise that the service is still partly private in that patients pay a subscription to the health service from their salaries. The government finds millions of pounds to use for other services, so why not for the health service?
You make reference to doctors claiming more pay for doing more hours of work. We never did – doctors get a very good salary and an excellent pension; we are professionals and get paid that way, we should accept that. We must not – as a profession – let the government destroy the service we have set up and one that benefits all our sick people. We must manage the service with our nurses and make sure the best service is given to all our sick patients. The cost of the service is not as important as our sick patients’ needs – as a keen charity worker, I know that money can be found for the service if we really need it. In my work before retirement and now afterwards with my committees, we have raised millions of pounds for our local hospital and put in new equipments such as CT and MRI scanners. If there is a need and if one is determined enough to make it work, it can be done. So as doctors, we cannot and must not sit still and see the system destroyed by government and managers. We know what is best for our patients, we must fight for them and get the best health service for them.