Something we can all be proud of
Posted: June 22, 2012 Filed under: Reflections | Tags: Hanoi, healthcare, hospitals 9 Comments »I often write bits and pieces for my Word Hanoi column that I change my mind about and end up writing on a different topic instead. I was reminded of this piece, written during the Jubilee, when I read this moving post about Clive James who is losing his battle with cancer.
The above linked article includes the snippet:
Writing last year, Clive praised the NHS for his treatment. He said Addenbrooke’s Hospital can “make me burst into tears of gratitude.”
“It isn’t quite as beautiful, perhaps, as the Taj Mahal. But it can save a life. It has been quietly busy saving mine.”
***
My thoughts….
Something you might have missed amongst the pomp and ceremony of the recent British Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but 20% or Brits would prefer not to have a monarchy at all.
In times of Royal disgrace that swings to nearer the 40% mark.
Frankly I’m a little more apathetic than that. Live and let live that’s me but can we do it without the expense and what one Guardian blog commenter called being forced to “celebrate our oppressors”?
But anyway, the celebrations happened at the same time that I re-opened the file marked “health insurance claims” in a bid to get at least something back from our growing investment in both international and local healthcare in Vietnam.
On tweeting how much I missed Britain’s National Health Service it struck me that there was something worth this level of celebration. That morning I had read of a British kid being sent to the US by the NHS for specailised treatment on a brain tumour. It’d be easy to see that as an NHS failing but I see it as a very humble action. Especially when the same treatment wouldn’t be open to many US citizens – a country where two out of three personal bankrupties are health related.
What does this have to do with Vietnam? Lots.
A pregnant friend visiting an international clinic was told by the local doctor the procedure she was about to undergo would be a lot more painful if she hadn’t been one of the doc’s private patience.
My wife undergoing an operation in a Vietnamese hospital came to afterwards and was asked by a fellow patient how much she had left in her pyjama pockets for the doctor. She hadn’t. It was hard for her not to worry about the implications of that.
Many international organisations will offer a level of health care cover for their employees and for that they deserve credit. Except that, it’s often the case that Vietnamese people don’t get the same packages as international staff. Usually it’s the same kind of organisations that are pretty vocal about equality and human rights.
So, from my position here in Vietnam, let me use this column to celebrate not the Queen but the (free) British National Health Service. My mother gave her working life to it – my father paid his taxes towards his whole career and now, in his old ages, he’s more than getting that back in drugs and treatment for his knees that would otherwise have effectively crippled him.
As a nation, how better to celebrate our NHS than to use is as a model to be copied by developing countries. Here in Vietnam there is already a Women’s Day and a Teachers’ Day. How about getting behind a Doctors and Nurses days? Let’s see the NGOs and the diplomats standing up for free care. Surely one of the most important human rights.
From a British point of view I’d love to see us shouting about our National Health Service as loudly and widely as we do our Royals. In a country where the best healthcare means leaving Vietnam altogether and the worst is, it appears, vindictively painful, the NHS would offer a role model to strive for.
Ironic that socialism in Viet Nam doesn’t mean free universal health care (or education – I was talking to one young man yesterday who had to drop out of medical school because he couldn’t afford it). Obviously, there are limited resources – limitations that don’t exist in Britain – but do exist in countries like Cuba that still have universal health care.
Of course, all of this has to be contrasted to my home in the US, which has the most bloated and expensive health care system on the planet that still fails to serve wide sections of the population.
Totally agree – the NHS isn’t perfect but it’s a damn good model for other health services across the globe. I’d always wanted to live in the US but their health care model differs wildly. It’s massively expensive if you have a pre-existing condition, even one that’s cheap to care for like I have (asthma), and it’s a state lottery if you get some religious-controlled state healthcare dictating womens’ abortion rights etc etc…scary stuff.
I hope the government see sense and stops trying to break up the NHS, it’s something we should be proud of and fight to keep.
Well said. It scares me here in the US that the haves are so fervent in their efforts to ensure the have nots never get access to reasonably priced healthcare. Personally I believe free and equal access to health care is a basic human right, one I am happy to pay taxes for.
Thanks all – I guess the problem is that no system is perfect and whenever they fall short there will be people with their own agendas trying to capitalise on it. It’s sad that the profit element of healthcare is what stops it being a human right. Having grown up with the NHS it’s very strange to suddenly encounter a situation whereby you have to choose whether or not to go to a doctor depending on your current finances.
A shame the NHS is currently being torn apart by a bunch of over-privileged bastards who have no need for it as they can afford private care.
Despite the best efforts of the coalition to destroy it, the NHS is still a wonderful institution. My husband, elderly, with multiple health problems including a recent heart attack, is currently being cared for with superb skill, tenderness and courtesy in a beautiful, light, airy new hospital. He routinely sees one of the top consultants in the world for one of his problems and receives a battery of medication free of charge. Of course there are flaws and failings and these get highlighted – perhaps too much. Like Clive James, I could weep with gratitude for the blessing of the NHS in the ten years since my husband’s health collapsed.
I grew up in the US, experienced having good, crap, phenomenal insurance and none at all. I worked in social services for years and watched families be completely devastated financially and emotionally because they did not have insurance or services were not covered by what they did have. I’ve lived in the Netherlands for 10 years now and *everyone* has insurance. It has it’s flaws as all systems do, but overall the care is excellent and no one is worrying about whether or not they will get the care they need. It took me years to get used to that.
I had the opportunity to spend time at two hospitals in Hanoi. One was private (?) state of the art and filled with westerners and wealthy Asians. The other (state?) was falling apart, dirty, chaotic and filled with ‘regular’ people. Lines out the door, frantic and stressed staff and patients lying on the floors. It was an eye opener and heartbreaking to say the least. Going for a walk one day with a Vietnamese friend, we passed by a building with scores of people outside- many of whom didn’t look well, sitting in the blazing heat. There was a woman in the door way with a clip board and an older woman passing out soup to some of the folks. My friend noticed me looking and said, ‘That’s a clinic for people with cancer’. The strange thing is, I have seen free clinics in the US (particularly cities) with a similar scene: regular people sitting out side in a line waiting for care. Shameful.
Mosh, agreed – there will always be someone who think they can make political capital out of running down the NHS. We won’t miss it until it’s gone.
Annabel, it’s incredible but not surprising how the NHS bring these emotions out in people. We need to bring them to the fore again when people consider cutting vital funds to it. Thanks for your post.
Kerry, for assorted reasons I’ve been spending time in and around a city centre very local hospital reasons (not the cancer place you’ll be relieved to hear) but there’s still plenty of the activities that you describe. The crowds inside remind of queues for the bar at a football match and the concrete surrounds completes that. The massive crowds waiting help really split my emotions. Half of me thinks – this is disgusting, can’t the government provide better than this. The other half is just bowled over that people are working in these conditions to treat people. Very humbling.
As it happens, I’ve just been following matters regarding the US Health Reform Bill which is effectively *bringing* an NHS to the US. And which is being protested against in a vociferously by a bunch of selfish, small-minded idiots.
I simply for the life of me cannot work out what they have against a system which will help prevent (I gather) 1 in 3 bankruptcies – the number of people whose descent into poverty is triggered by an inability to fund necessary medical expenses.