A few days ago I went to my GP surgery and on the wall was a sign saying ‘472 appointments missed last month.’   I think every surgery does this, every month, and occasionally the tally can run into the thousands.

With the election imminent here in England, the NHS is A Hot Topic.  In the past few weeks I’ve twice seen interviews with doctors saying what we expect of the NHS has changed considerably.  Twenty years ago we would have been content to wait a few days or more to see our GP but now people turn up at A&E Departments with minor ailments because their expectation is such that they should be immediately treated.

It’s heart-breaking to see such a beautiful idea as the NHS fail.   It is only 67 years since its inception when, for the first time anywhere in the world, free healthcare was available at point of delivery based on citizenship and need.   I fervently hope there will be adequate funding to ensure it’s survival for as long as we are here to need it.   But let’s not ignore the role we play.

The noble intention of our Social Care system was that the State take care of those unable to look after themselves.   That’s ‘unable to’, not ‘choose not to’.   We, the individuals living here, make up that State.   We talk as if the government is an alien entity and yet they are supposed to be our representatives.   Without our taxes the government has no funding for the likes of the NHS, and the only way the NHS will have limitless pockets is if we are prepared to pay for it.

There are many ills it is down to the government to address, but let’s not lose sight of the responsibility we all have, as part of this nation.   472 missed appointments.   If those appointments had been cancelled that would be 472 people in my tiny part of the world having a much shorter wait to see their GP.   That adds up to more than a full working week for a GP.   Multiply that by the almost 10,000 GP surgeries in England and that’s a whole lot of wasted time.   Be the change we want to see.   If we want our government to respect the NHS, then perhaps we should do the same.

photo found in the public domain