‘No matter what, we will be there for you’
FOR DAVID Gaunt, an A&E doctor at Watford General Hospital, the hardest part of his job is losing a patient.
“It never gets easier,” he says after 30 years in the job.
“I suppose the most challenging thing is when a child comes in who dies. It is really hard and I would not be able to do that without the support of my family.”
On an average day Dr Gaunt, who is a member of Stanmore Synagogue, can be dealing with anything from a traffic pile-up, to helping elderly patients who have been hurt at home.
As a doctor working on the front line of the NHS, “you don’t know what to expect from one second to the next”.
Like many Jews in the profession, Dr Gaunt got into medicine on the advice of his father, a dental surgeon.
“When I was at medical school I did a ward visit and I decided it was where I wanted to be. I love the contact with the patients.”
He qualified at Middlesex Hospital in 1988.
Throughout his career there has been debate over charging people to use the service, he says.
“People always suggest making those who turn up in the early hours of the morning due to drink or drugs pay.
“But the answer we always comes back to is no, we shouldn’t do that because that is not our ethos.
“What has made the NHS the respected global brand that it is, is the ability to turn up and be treated.
“You can receive care without being concerned about money. No matter what, we will be there for you.”
The biggest change over the years has been public expectation.
Providing “expert care” has pushed the NHS “to and beyond the extreme. But funding doesn’t match the demand”.
It is “unthinkable” that anyone could suggest dismantling the health service, he believes.
“The public want and need the NHS. When you look at the advancement of medical care from new cancer treatments to keyhole surgeries that were once invasive procedures, we have
saved lives.”