It’s a funny old world.
I heard the “news” that Brent Cross shopping centre in North London did open yesterday. I understand angry ‘would be’ shoppers were turned away on Saturday due to unsafe conditions in the snow bound car-parks. Shopper panic seems to me a bit premature with five shopping days left until the ‘big one’.
On a drive back with our Christmas tree I glided on black ice into a wooden gate, thankfully no harm done to me, my daughter, car or gate but it did shake us up. I’m still nursing a sore head following a slip during the earlier inclement weather.
So, getting out and about is genuinely hazardous. What does it say about our values when a shopping centre closure is a top story ahead of NHS workers responding to appeals to battle through and help keep services running?
NHS managers say that staff are responding brilliantly, health professionals and the battery of support staff are making huge efforts to ensure we all will be cared for if needs be.
It’s not too late to turn back from the disaster inherent in the coalition government’s so-called reforms that will hand over the NHS to the private sector who by definition put profit first.
The UK’s NHS is unique and we love it warts and all. Nye Bevan said that the NHS will be safe for as long as there are “folk to fight for it”.
The NHS is about people. Dedication, skill and endurance are descriptions I would apply to the very many NHS workers I know. They deserve better than the government’s wrecking ball and so do we.
NHS services run 365 days a year and I wish staff and patients all the best for 2011, let’s count ourselves among the folk that fight for our NHS.
Nice post Gail.
Posted by: Roger McKenzie | Dec 22, 2010 at 10:29 AM