What money cannot buy – Parish magazine article Feb 2018
Despite the daily news reports of NHS failures at the beginning of the year the reality, certainly in the South West, is that it does a very impressive job most of the time in most of the places. Good news rarely makes the news and there are dangers of trumpeting success in such an uncontrollable environment. However we should recognize and praise our local hospitals for coping so well with the recent Flu outbreak. This is an example of forward planning, a coordinated high standard of hospital and community care together the excellence of Devon GPs. However pride comes before a fall so everyone will be quietly getting on with doing their jobs in the hope we will soon see winter pressures subsiding whilst all knowing that there is always the possibility of a sharp turn in the other direction. The balance of supply and demand is always precarious in a system that is driven with efficiency as one of its core values.
There are calls from all parts of the system for the Government to give the NHS more money. The fundamental question is what this money will be used for. Whilst more doctors and nurses are required they cannot be produced from thin air and what the NHS immediately needs, more than anything else, is carers to provide more support for patients at home. Currently the system is struggling to find these employees. One immediate option would be for the politicians to relax local budgeting rules, look at healthcare investment over 5 years or longer and hopefully enable carers to be paid at a higher rate so making the job more attractive.
Of course the most important and unsung heroes of the NHS are not the employees but the voluntary carers who work 24/7 looking after their relatives. I come across amazing care provided by families on a daily basis. It is going to be more and more essential to offer these carers on-going support. In the near future The Friends of Wyndham House will be setting up a Carers Support Group in Silverton hopefully with regular meetings at The Lamb Inn. Keep a look out for the adverts, come along if you are carer and, if not, see if you can maybe help to ensure someone who looks after their relative next door or across the road could be freed up to have a break to make the meeting. These are the people who are not employed, do not get paid, do not shout about what they do, never make the news and yet are one of the cornerstones of the whole system – they need our support and thanks. Without them the NHS would not function.
Anthony O’Brien (Wyndham House Surgery) Feb 2018