My very first love was a girl called Jennifer Lewis, she was deffo going to be Mrs Nestor. We lived on the same estate in East London and I remember her looking after me at her halls of residence when she was training to be a nurse.My mum was a nurse, an auxiliary in an old peoples home. What was incredibly exciting was that Jennifer was training to do it properly.That my first big TV role was staff Nurse Cyril James in the hit BBC drama Casualty was the icing on the cake and has meant that the NHS was always going to play a big part in my life’s story.
I played that role for 3 years. I remember learning the gallows humour of people who work in the emergency services when the producers sent me to observe procedures at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. I think it was one of the few times someone survived “falling” from the Clifton Suspension Bridge.Even when I left (was sacked from) the show I had a real interest in how this magnificent service served its communities “free at the point of service”. It wasn’t until much later when a friend got sick in the USA and they wanted a credit card before they even saw her that I truly appreciated how lucky we were.
Before my children were born, the NHS saved my life. I cannot fault my treatment and the care I received. I only wish someone had warned me about the mental toll, then and now.
I get really upset when I see the challenges it has today. Surely we should be working out ways to make it the envy of the world. Not just in words but deeds. There is a shortfall of over 100,000 workers. Roughly 1 in 10 positions is vacant. Staff have barely recovered from the ravages of covid and are having to cover positions which are unoccupied. The prognosis as it reaches its 75th birthday is “challenging”.
What seems obvious is not easy. We have to change the way the service is funded. We have to put more money into preventative care. We have to find a way to retain staff. We have find a way to sort out social care so we can better support those people so cruelly referred to as “bed blockers”. My mum had a knee replacement recently and clearly in an attempt to shorten the 7 million backlog, she was treated privately. The difference was amazing. If we are not careful we will have a two tiered system where those with money will be treated and those that don’t will have to wait.
Hold on, we are already there. I feel sick! Id better book an appointment with my GP.
Oh shit they can’t see me for another two weeks!!!
