The right prescription

After spiralling down the 'nothing works' doomloop for the past fourteen years it's easy to imagine, when suddenly something does, that it must be a fluke.

As a Labour voter (albeit often a reluctant one) I'd like to believe that the government I voted for really is swinging into action to fix broken Britain. Maybe it is - although Labour has been criticised for making a slow start - but, after only four months in power, can it really be the case that things are turning round already?  

Maybe recent positive signs indicating this are merely coincidental? Only time will tell but here's something I've experienced in just the past fortnight or so that seems to offer a glimmer of hope.

Like millions of other Brits since the Pandemic I've been frustrated by the sheer dogged persistence required to get a face-to-face appointment with a GP. The '8am scramble' has been an irritant for so long that it was almost a shock to receive a text out of the blue recently from a doctor in my local group practice inviting me in for a health review.

It was to be preceded by a blood test administered by a nurse, followed a week later by the appointment with the doctor to discuss the results. "Yeah, right" I thought, having been suckered that way before. But, no, it duly happened and all was well. Much encouraged, I seized the initiative to raise the issue of my worsening arthritic pain, half expecting him to ask me to go through the rigmarole of making another appointment in accordance with the 'one issue per visit' rule.

They say if you don't ask you don't get - and, amazingly, it worked! He got me on the couch, manipulated my gammy leg, prescribed painkillers (which are already having a beneficial effect), fixed me up with a physiotherapy session (actual hands-on physiotherapy not just an exercise sheet - although he gave me one of those too) and put me down for an MRI scan. An MRI scan! To my astonishment, this was bookable online a day or two later with availability in a week's time. 

Now, I'm a pensioner who no longer works, but had I still been in the workforce my pain would have forced me to call in sick as I could barely walk, or stand for any length of time without severe discomfort. I even contemplated getting a walking stick to aid mobility - and possibly guilt-trip those sitting in disabled seating on buses and trains without justification that I really would appreciate their offering it to me.

Given the level of treatment I am now receiving, had I been working I would have been able to return to work. As it is, my mood has lifted and I can walk to the supermarket almost with a spring in my step rather than hobbling there like the old geezer I haven't yet reconciled myself to being. But sod the economy, such pain relief is priceless to anyone, working or not.

My personal experience would seem to validate the government's assessment that improving the NHS will not only improve wellbeing but boost productivity (not mine, obviously, but let's move from the particular to the general) and help the long-term sick get back to work. 

Viewed in this light, Rachel Reeves' budget, coupled with Wes Streeting's obvious determination to fix the broken health system, could see the NHS get back on track improving the welfare of the nation while (to use the cliché beloved of today's 'tech bro' politicians) turbocharging the economy.

It won't be easy, and certainly not cheap, but it may just work.

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