NHS

I am going to digress from the time line format of my blog to talk about something that is of great interest to me, The National Health Service. Those of you out there that are my conservative friends should get out your poison pens because this is going to be contrary to many of your beliefs. If I do my job correctly I hope I will open your eyes and cause you to think just a little differently. Perhaps I will even nudge you across a threshold and down that slippery slope that you fear so much.
I spent much of my adult life as a strict political conservative. I voted for both Bushes both times. Hell in 1992 I voted for Pat Buchanan in the primaries. But even when I was at my most conservative, I was for socialized medicine. Yes I said socialized. We should call it what it is.
Many of my friends and loved ones know that I came from a financially poor family. Really poor. Five kids in a two bedroom house, buying shoes at Thrifty's, welfare and food stamp poor. As children if we got hurt or sick it usually meant a trip to "County USC Medical Center" in Boyle Heights Los Angeles. For my none Angeleno friend, County USC is a hospital where the poor and uninsured go. It is understaffed and underfunded. The Doctors and staff are dedicated but over worked. As soon as their time is done most choose to move on to higher paying positions. The service is substandard. Even third world.
When I was 22 years old Jemma rushed me there for an unknown ailment. We drove from Pasadena, past Huntington Memorial Hospital (which is a first class hospital primarily for the insured). I could barley walk. My joints were incredibly painful. I was the sickest that I could ever remember being. I was scared and thought that I might even die. I laid on a gurney for 18 hours in terrible pain before I was even seen by the person who took my vitals. An old Korean lady on the gurney next to me died before she was admitted. This is how we treat uninsured people in America.
I mentioned that I have always been pro socialized medicine. I wont pretend to be unbiased. I have studied and listened to the debate in the United States over health care reform. I listened to many conservative pundits describe socialized medicine as evil, Draconian, and of pour quality. Intellectual giants on the right such as Sarah Palin have even said that if America has socialized medicine, or Obamacare, there will be "death panels". Government appointed pencil pushers who decide if you grandma lives or dies. In my opinion Obama's plan is wishy washy and lacks true leadership. He doesn't go far enough.
When we moved to London I wanted to find a job fast. Well I kinda needed to find a job fast. I dropped my CV off at an agency that helps to staff two of the local hospitals, Guys and Saint Thomas'. The agency called me the next day and said that if I agreed to and passed a criminal records check that they may be able to get me a position at St. Thomas' Hospital. I passed the test. I guess Scotland Yard doesn't have the phone number to the South Pasadena Police Department (just kidding).
The assignment was working in the "materials management" division. Basically it involves collecting medical supplies from the sub-basement and delivering them to the wards. These are supplies such as syringes, IV tubing, tracheotomy tubes and even body bags. I guess Sarah Palin is partially correct, people do die under socialized medicine. The assignment is pretty physical. We have to move the carts full of products through the labyrinth of a sub-basement to the different wings and once there, we have to take these carts up elevators to the wards. All of the other support departments at the hospitals are trying to do the same thing at the same time in a hospital is hundreds of years old. It is congested and everyone is competing for space. This is about as blue collar of a job that I have ever seen. It really is hard work.
I am a history buff and an arm chair sociologist. I was, and am, fascinated by this place. It is ancient. The basement area has all of these really cool brick walled corridors. There are hidden places all over. The hospital is directly across the Thames from Parliament. A lot of the building is below water level.
As old as this complex is, it is undergoing constant modernization. Workers are all over the place stringing cable, jack hammering and spending a lot of tax payer's money to keep this place the first class facility that the citizens of London deserve and pay for.
One of the first things that struck me was the dedication of the staff. I am not talking about just the clinical staff. I will get to them later. The folks I am talking about are the ones who take out rubbish, mop floors, haul clean and dirty sheets around, the food people, porters, and the materials management people. These are the people that I fight with for elevator space at 8:00am. These are some of the most dedicated people that I have ever seen. I have sat around the lunch table and heard these guys talk about why they do what they do. It ain't for the money, it is because they care. The people that I work with are as diverse as the United Nations, male & female, White, Black, and Asian.
When we talk about heroes, we often talk about soldiers, firefighters and world leaders as examples of heroes and many are. But someone who sat on a crowded bus in the rain at 6:00 am to come to a cold damp basement and pick through seemingly endless boxes of medical tubes and gizmos and hump them through a Victorian maze and do it right is just as much a hero in my opinion. Remember, this isn't just taking stuff from point a to point b. They have to know what the product is, if they don't people will die. These people know that they can make more money elsewhere. The do it because they want to be here. I do not believe that these folks are are at the bottom of any food chain or the bottom rung of a ladder. They are the foundation of a world class organization. No structure can exist without a foundation. Here in the U.K. they are actually treated with respect, though they deserve much much more.
Working in the wards gives one an incredible insight into how the clinical staff works with patients. One of the fears in the US when it comes to socialized medicine is the quality of doctors, nurses and other clinical staff. These people the best that I have seen. They are hard working, team players, dedicated and empathetic beyond belief. I often work in some of the pediatric intensive care wards. There are some really sick babies there and it can be heartbreaking. Every time I walk into these wards I see worried, sad and desperate parents. Parents whose children might (and some do) die. But what I also see is first class people with first class modern equipment doing their best to make these babies and children well. There are play areas for the older kids. Musicians come in and play guitar and sing with the kids. I see nurses holding and feeding babies as if they are their own. Any sadness that the suffering I see is outweighed by the miracles that happen here daily. The wards are run efficiently by head nurses called sisters and matrons. These are the NCOs of the hospital world. They know where everything is, how its done and how to bust chops. They are incredible people.
What I don't see at St. Thomas' Hospital is a billing department. I don't see financial councilors working on payment plans with parents whose children are on life support. I don't see overburdened parents worrying about how they are going to pay a bill.
This place is not perfect. There are downfalls. There are few private rooms. Some rooms don't have T.V.s. Shit, I think that is it.
Ronald Reagan once said that America can be that "city on the hill", that it is "morning in America". As Americans, we pride ourselves on being the best at so many things. We are now and have been looked up to by the rest of the world for so many things. We are compassionate, caring, charitable and loving. We are smart. We should be smart enough to know when something is broken. Our health care system is broken. I hear health care workers that I know in the US complain about "welfare mothers" and "illegals" taking advantage of "our system". Illegals with no insurance clogging the emergency room because they have a sniffle. If those unwashed poor had access to socialized medicine, they could go to a doctor and receive preventative medicine.
Taxes are high here. The VAT is over 17%. Some of that goes to health care. Everybody pays. Even the unpleasant, un-pretty "illegals" that we see in London. Everybody expects and pays for top quality first world health care. There is no "County USC Medical Center". In fact, County USC Medical Center deserves the same funding and dedication from the US Government that St. Thomas' Hospital gets from the British Government and the British people.
We can't take what the U.K. has and just put it into implementation in America, but we can use it as an example.
The first thing we need to do is take out the profit motive for hospitals and health care in general. Many of us have seen the video of a cab dropping an old lady off on skid row in front of a homeless shelter. That lady was still sick. She was in her backless hospital gown. She was dumped there because she couldn't pay her bill. That is a crime. I talk a lot with the people at work. I am often asked about the American Health care system. The Brits are perplexed that we let sick people die because they don't have money. Did you hear what I just said, WE LET SICK PEOPLE DIE IN AMERICA BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE MONEY!!!
My conservative friends, the next time you feel like "they" are taking advantage of the system in America, I want you to go and tell an uninsured, critically ill child's mom and dad that their hurting baby, the love of their life deserves second best because they don't have insurance. I want to go with you and watch you look into their eyes when you say it. Then I want you to turn the tables, put yourself in their shoes and think about that when you kiss your own baby goodnight.