SECOND GLANCE

I’D like to write today on that bastion of Britishness, the NHS – a perennial political hot potato.

For one reason or another my family and I have spent more time than we would care to remember in local hospitals this year.

And, as ever, the quality of our experiences has been somewhat mixed. We’ve all heard the horror stories associated with our health service and I dare say we’ve all had legitimate grievances.

But surely the same can be said of anything as we go about our day-to-day lives?

Customer service can be lacking in a shop and level of care can fall short in a nursing home. Public transport comes in for the most flak and getting into work in the morning is not normally short of incident.

So, first things first – let’s dismiss the view that the NHS is somehow more deserving of our ire than any other facet of society. It simply isn’t true and I’ve no doubt hospitals get more criticism than they deserve.

You’ve only got to walk through the corridor of a ward to see the many ‘thank you’ cards decorating hospital walls – and they doubtless provide only a snapshot of the gratitude owed to dedicated staff.

It is no exaggeration to say that some go over and above the call of duty to ensure patients in their care are properly looked after.

My mother perfectly encapsulated recently the way in which one such nurse operated in her ward when she said: “She looks after them like they are part of her own family – and it’s how you’d want them to be looked after.”

Ironically, in my experience of hospitals in Wales it is the lower-paid staff who are more deserving of high praise than their more senior colleagues.

I can only speak as I find and of those I’ve dealt with first-hand it has been the over-stretched, incredibly strong-willed nurses to whom I am most grateful.

Their hours are long and their patience unwavering – not every consultant, sister and doctor I’ve come across has operated with the same humility, of that I’m certain.

But, as discussed, there will always be good and bad no matter what your field of work and my experience will be totally different to that of another. We must be respectful of differing views – positive or negative.

Then again if standards within our NHS – an institution I think we are all sometimes guilty of abusing – do slip we should not debate its future but find new ways of making it stronger.

In times of financial austerity there is perhaps little wonder the health service cannot perform to its optimum.

Either we invest and expect the best – or cut back and make the most of what we’ve got.

We can’t have it both ways.