I was 33 weeks pregnant when Frankie was born sleeping, and my heart was broken, he would have been my first baby and I wanted him and loved him so much. Through the devastation of losing him and leading up to him being born sleeping I had absolutely amazing care, support and compassion at Birmingham Women’s Hospital and the Worcestershire Royal Hospital. I have been on a journey of trying to conceive since I was 28, and Frankie was the closest I got to being a Mum. Throughout all the years and all the miscarriages I had the care and support I received was always excellent.
Recently the media has portrayed a disturbing picture of our NHS system in decline, of overcrowded hospitals, A&E departments under considerable pressure and people not getting the treatment or care they deserve. There hasn’t been a week gone by without some stories in the press about how bad things are in our hospitals, and in my area news came of 4 senior consultants resigning at once to go to hospitals in Warwickshire.
So the Chairman of the Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust, Harry Turner, went on to BBC Hereford and Worcester last Friday morning to answer calls from the public about the crisis in our hospitals. The whole hour however was devoted to nothing but bad news stories, and while I agree that priority should be given to those and if someone has had bad treatment they have the right to talk about it, I always thought that the BBC was meant to be fair and impartial, and that they would at least give a couple of views about the good treatment that people have had.
My husband’s Dad had some bad treatment in hospital last year as they misdiagnosed the complications and organ failure he had as a result of type 2 diabetes and said outright it was because he hadn’t looked after himself, when in fact it wasn’t the diabetes at all it he was riddled with cancer and it was completely missed. So I’ve seen both sides of the coin, and my father in law didn’t do himself any favours because to be honest he didn’t watch his diabetes and ate whatever he wanted, so it was obvious that those conclusions would be drawn and I don’t blame the staff or the hospital in the least.
We are SO lucky to have the NHS, having had treatment in the States and the massive bill handed to me afterwards (I did of course have appropriate insurance) it does make you realise how good it is that we have access to the NHS system. Of course it is not perfect, it is run by human beings and humans aren’t perfect, and I think a lot could be done to improve it, but it just would have been nice to have had a balanced view which is what the BBC is supposed to provide. I’m sure that if we suddenly didn’t have the NHS, or moved over to the American system, everyone would be up in arms about it.
The link to the programme is here – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jds6k – it will probably only be up for a few days but have a listen and see what you think.
I hope the staff who are working their absolute socks off in extremely challenging circumstances are resilient enough to keep going despite all the media coverage and interviews like this. I also applaud Mr Harry Turner for holding his own so well throughout the interview.
If you want to read about just how many people have had good treatment have a look at my friend’s blog – www.revdavidsouthall.com. Rev’d David Southall has been a great friend and given me tons of support since I lost my Frankie and he writes a blog dedicated to “Good News” at the Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust. Have a look at this alongside the stories in the media, and then decide.
