From cradle to grave – public are an essential part of NHS

A view by health and wellbeing campaigner Barabel McKay, chairwoman of the volunteer public forum, Mid Argyll-based Health and Care Group.

Remember what they say about reading the small print? It can keep you out of trouble and may even save your life.

I’ve been reading the Scottish Government report on the future of the NHS, the primary care part. This is all the stuff in the community that helps us to keep well and directs us to hospital if we need that sort of care. It involves GPs, nurses, an army of health professionals and lots of support staff. It is essential if we are to achieve what the public (us) say is a priority, enjoying a healthy life. As the founders of the NHS said: ‘From the cradle to the grave.’

Hiding in plain sight in this report, in the small print, is this statement: ‘Politicians, health care professionals and the public must all be involved if our primary care system is to survive.’ As Oprah Winfrey would put it, ‘WHAT?’ If this is what is at stake, why have we not heard more about it? Why was it enough to contact so few people among our diverse population?

Why has health management locally cast our group out in the cold?

We are open to all and represent a wide cross section of community interests. And their latest distancing act is to ‘temporarily suspend’ public representation on its Integration Joint Board.

I am coming to believe that this critical situation has overtaken long-held belief systems that need to be challenged.

In NHS values, the first statement is ‘working together for patients’.

That is well out of date. Increasingly, the patient has been a participator in their care and the duty of obtaining consent means you can’t have treatment without co-operation.

This report goes on to make clear that ‘collaboration’ is a key requirement. That means we are an essential part of the system. It seems clear that we are going to have to fight to get past the unconscious assumptions of decision makers. It is literally a fight for the lives of ourselves and generations after us.

We need all the support we can get.

The health and care group aims to represent the views of service users and their families.

Email Barabel McKay – barabelmck@gmail.com – for more information.