Celebrating NHS at 75 – 5 July 2023
BOPF members are very proud of our NHS and grateful for the difference it has made to the health of the citizen of this country. On 5th July our NHS will be 75 years old. Many of us at BOPF have grown up alongside it and benefitted from its development over the years. Some of us in BOPF remember the days before it existed and how difficult it was for poor people. So Happy 75th Birthday NHS from BOPF!!!
We are rightly proud of all its achievements and many of us would not want our lives to go forward without a fully funded NHS to see us into our older age. Beveridge’s aspiration to have a Health service from Cradle to the Grave, is still an aspiration for many of us as members of BOPF. One of the Trustee’s second Grandchild was born 3 weeks ago at St. Michael’s Hospital and despite a hiccup which necessitated her going into the Children’s hospital at day 2 of her arrival (as there was no room at the maternity hospital) it was still reassuring to know that she was being cared for and was soon home after 4 days. She is doing well now. So it is great to know that a publically funded NHS is there no matter who we are.
Recently we hear that increasing number of people are resorting to using their savings ( if they have any ) or borrowing money to get earlier treatment from GP appointments, to diagnosis of illness, to serious surgical interventions because many are having a really difficult time getting appropriate treatment. This is because many of us are just not able to access our basic healthcare anymore. The system appears to be broken and fragmented. We no longer feel we can rely on our NHS to be there when we most need it. This has to be addressed urgently!
The NHS Long Term Plan www.longtermplan.nhs.uk is about improving care for patients over the next 10 years and broadly talks about
- Making sure that everyone gets a best start in Life
- Delivering world class care for major health problems
- Supporting people to age well
To many of us that means absolutely nothing, if we cannot get
- Appointment with our GPs face to face and as soon as possible
- See a NHS dentist when we need to
- Get an early diagnosis for a health condition and treatment as soon as possible
- Get support with mental health as soon as we need it
- Surgery and follow up therapy or support without a very long waiting time and/or delays or cancellations
- Real partnership with various professionals to coordinate our physical and mental health better, especially with social and community care
- Help with living well as we age and have multiple health conditions to juggle and manage – often with diminishing capacity and financial security
Recently a Trustee was part of an inclusive panel with the Patients Association www.patient-assocciation.org.uk called ‘Patient Voices Matter’ (PVM) sharing their joint experiences over many months which were then fed into NHS England. The recurring theme in their experiences, common to all regardless of our background and health condition were:
- Difficulties in getting appointments
- Poor communications between NHS and patients
- Lack of person centred care
So, we ask our leaders in the NHS in marking the 75th Anniversary and celebrations of the NHS to take our concerns outlined seriously. We want to see REAL and TANGIBLE changes in our experiences that results in reversal of some of the negative concerns and transform them to POSITIVE ones as soon as possible. We want our services to remain free at the point of use for all of us.
BOPF Trustees