Happy 75th birthday NHS

July 5th 1948. As we approach the 75th birthday of the founding of the NHS by the then UK Labour government, I find myself torn between news reports of a troubled NHS with doctors striking for improved pay and conditions, nurses balloting on strike action (again), alongside recent memories of Thursday evenings, during the 2020/22 Covid19, pandemic standing outside our homes clapping to say thank you to the dedicated health care professionals working above and beyond to save people’s lives, and sometimes giving their own in the process. We watched our Queen grieve alone for her beloved husband Prince Phillip, only to learn later of politicians and senior officials, led by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, partying in contravention of their own rules about socialising in groups.

I also find myself reading AJ Cronin’s The Citadel. A novel set in a mining village in Wales in the 1920’s, credited with being an early influence on the founding of the NHS. Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the politician widely viewed as the ‘father’ of the NHS having himself a teenaged Welsh miner not that long before the book came out.

The book’s introduction says it all: “The Citadel is greatly influenced by Cronin’s time as a doctor, and a number of situations in the book are taken directly from his own experiences….. [the main character] Andrew Manson feels helplessly confused when he has to deal with real patients for the first time. Much of the illness that he is expected to cure is, in fact, caused by the poor living and working conditions of his patients.”

Introduction to The Citadel, A J Cronin, Pearson English Readers Edition, 2008, Essex, England

In the story the young Dr Manson struggles with a system where many of his colleagues appear to be just in the job for the money and often prescribe coloured water for diseases they either know nothing about or cannot cure. His attitude of wanting to actually cure people and save lives and livelihoods in poor mining communities earns him friends and enemies. His discoveries and successes bring him to the attention of powerful men in London, and he leaves Wales to work in London. The desperation of his own impoverished lifestyle affects his own outlook and he becomes more and more money focussed, taking his share of the pickings from the rich willing to pay for little more than his time and attention. Eventually he comes to realise that he has become the type of doctor he once despised and the book ends with him setting up in a new practice, with old friends, in order to return to the practice of medicine for the benefit of those who need it most, but not necessarily able to pay as much.

It was only a little over a decade after the book came out that World War II began. The poor health of the working class men who were conscripted to fight in the war, meant many were barely fit to fight. The way in which medicine was being practiced, as described in The Citadel, no doubt went some way to explaining why. And, three years after the war ended, the NHS was born. Brought about by Labour, resisted by the Conservatives. Underfunded ever since we must never give up the fight to save and keep our NHS working for the benefit of everyone.

Is Capitalism the problem [behind our mental health crisis]?

This is a blog post I wrote nearly six years ago, on another blogging site tackling the issues of ‘clutter’ and hoarding. Already the mental health crisis we are now facing was even then being considered an epidemic. And that was before the Covid19 pandemic was even a rumour. The message, the linked article and the video are perhaps even more relevant in 2023.

In August 2017 Red Pepper online magazine published an essay suggesting that Capitalism is the cause of the seeming epidemic of mental health problems in our modern society.  It’s a long article, but well worth the read.

Capitalism, consumerism, the neo-liberalism that has dominated our political system for years, have collectively changed our society from one of communities working together to support each other, to a collection of largely selfish individuals who have bought into the advertising message that to be happy is to spend money and buy more goods.  When the spending and buying hasn’t brought consistent happiness then depression and other mental health problems have set in.

It is in the beginnings of mass production that began with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century that created the environment in which consumerism could flourish.  But it was the fledgling advertising industry that took the theories of Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays that created the obsession with image and buying, and the concept that our happiness is rooted in our spending and possessions.

It’s a long documentary (nearly 4 hours) but well worth watching.  Understanding the con could be the beginning of tackling that clutter (and our 2023 mental health crisis).

After the pandemic

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/?fbclid=IwAR2gp3cJk6jEcimCktet6AI_LzXJ8W_kstZ8fkcCKo5IPO3TBX-PAKWTHhM

A view of what the world will look like and the lessons we need to learn.   Can we learn them?

Foreign aid v. charity begins at home

I live in Britain.  We have not long voted for Brexit.  Mainly, it seems, so we can control our borders, locking out foreigners and their influences and just depend on and look after ourselves.

But now we have COVID-19.  Which is showing that none of those reasons for Brexit are worth a dime (which some of us knew anyway).

My only expertise on COVID-19 and virology is what I get from the news: the TV, the papers, the internet.  And given that the experts are learning something new every day, my knowledge is woefully incomplete.

However, there are a few things that so far appear to be agreed upon.  It’s a new virus that humanity has no immunity to.  It is more contagious than the viruses we are used to (such as the common cold and flu).   Death is caused by a form of pneumonia, drowning in your own bodily fluids.  Those with underlying health conditions that lower the immune system and the elderly are the most likely to die (but not exclusively, as younger and healthier people are dying too).  The death rate is relatively small as a percentage of those who contract the virus (so far as we know) even though the actual death rate is rising exponentially.  The development of any vaccine would normally be expected to take 12-18 months (let’s hope this one will be quicker).

What we don’t know (or don’t know for sure yet) is: the long term effects of contracting COVID-19 on the health and immune system even for those who have only mild symptoms or recover; whether or not we can develop immunity or it can be caught again and again; the frequency with which the virus can and will mutate into new forms (it is already believed to have mutated at least once since first discovery in December 2019), and whether or not immunity to one mutation will provide immunity to other mutations (probably not).

What we know is: initially we were too complacent and now the healthcare systems of the ‘advanced’ nations are overrun and not coping with the crisis.  Hospitals are running out of beds and supplies.  Nurses and doctors are overworked and exhausted and scared.

This is a GLOBAL crisis.  It pays no respect to the concept of ‘foreign’.  It requires no visas to cross borders.

COVID-19 is showing us the folly of the cry “charity begins at home” when the matter of FOREIGN AID is raised.

If the health systems of the European nations (including Britain) are struggling to cope then what hope is there for the peoples of nations with less well developed health care systems?

Only the hope of experience.  Southern Hemisphere countries such as in sub-Saharan Africa and China have dealt with serious outbreaks before, such as SARS and Ebola, and these countries have taken or are taking prompt action to stem the spread of the disease.  They know about devastating death tolls.  They know the weaknesses in their healthcare systems.  They know that this time around they won’t be getting any help from the countries with more developed healthcare systems, because those systems are already overwhelmed.  Overrun and underdeveloped healthcare systems will slow down the global progress in beating this virus.  (So too will the denial of healthcare to the poor in wealthier countries such as the US of course.)

When we come out of this crisis (and we have to believe we will) the world will look a more subdued place, at least for a while.

My one abiding hope is that we learn the lessons.  We learn that we are not invincible.  We learn that what we do on this planet not only affects ourselves, our families, our immediate neighbours, but potentially others living in far flung lands also on this planet.  We learn that looking out for our neighbours is another way of looking after ourselves.  We learn compassion and community are values we should treasure, for our own sakes.  We may even (in the UK) come to realise that isolation (Brexit) cannot save us from the invisible enemies.

When we empower others we help them develop skills and resources to look after themselves, and maybe reciprocate that help in other ways.  Giving FOREIGN AID is a positive version of being selfish.

Can you share these hopes with me and carry them forward into the new world?

Behind Brexit lies a yearning for a past we destroyed.

This excellent blog speaks to my socialist leanings – a reality check as to why so many voted Brexit.