The NHS is trying to modernise but it needs our help
THERE’S an old joke about the NHS. And like most jokes, it only works because it has some truth to it. It isn’t National – the quality and availability of treatment varies wildly across the country. It’s not about Health but illness – instead of keeping us healthy it’s focused on treating us when we’re not. And it’s not a Service – created in the 1940s, it’s more suited to a time when open rationing was the norm and we were grateful for whatever we were given.
But although there’s a lot that’s still true about those statements, huge efforts have been made in recent years to adapt the NHS to the modern world.
Under its forward-thinking chief executive Simon Stevens – who has been in place since 2014 – the NHS has made great strides in waking up to the idea that the “S” in NHS is critical.
The NHS is there to serve us, rather than making us simply fit in with what is on offer. This is especially true for general practice – the field in which the majority of us have most contact with the NHS.
For many years, too many GPs behaved as if patients were annoyances who interfered with the smooth running of their day rather than the entire point of their existence.
Some surgeries would be open only at restricted times and on limited days – such as between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Friday.
IF THE surgery was first come, first served, you might have to queue for hours just to be seen. So even if you wanted to see the doctor for only a few minutes, you might still have to take a day off work. And even if you were with a GP who used appointments, you’d sometimes have to wait a fortnight for the privilege.
As a patient, you would have to be ridiculously patient. In an age when we can order a threecourse meal on an app and have it delivered within 20 minutes, and when we are used to being in control of every aspect of our lives, that aspect of the NHS was an anachronism.
In Simon Stevens, the NHS has a chief executive who understands that it needs to adapt to the 21st century. And one key aspect of that has been how we are able to access our