I HAVE a medical history of coronary heart disease and I am one of the campaigners who fought the proposed closure of the Highland Heartbeat Centre, which is located within the precincts of Raigmore Hospital.
At midnight on Saturday I experienced another cardiac event resulting in an ambulance ride to A&E at Raigmore, followed by a few hours on the Acute Medical Conditions ward prior to a cardioversion procedure in the Coronary Care Unit next door.
I had plenty of time to observe, and take in, the standard of care and attention dedicated to the wellbeing and recovery of those of us who are requiring the service the hospital provides. And it is this dedication to care that is the focus of all of the professionals who we, the patients, come into contact with; all the way from the senior consultants, medical, nursing staff and paramedics down to the porters and cleaning staff.
These are all people dedicated to finding a solution to the problems they are presented with. They are, invariably, not the architects of those problems.
Because of the exemplary way I was treated during my latest stay, I was reminded of my intense annoyance when the chairman of NHS Highland, at a meeting with members of the “We All Need The Heartbeat” campaign and local MSPs last December, told us he had spoken to the leading health professionals and they agreed with closure of the Heartbeat Centre. I am, of course, curious as to the nature of such a conversation given that medics, at any level, don’t seek to create problems: their mandate is to solve them!
Did the conversation start: “Do you think we can improve coronary rehabilitation by closing the Heartbeat Centre?” or did it go something like: “We’re going to close the Heartbeat Centre. Can you cope?” Of course we shall never know. What we can see, though, is a stop-gap situation where the NHS board say “we haven’t closed the Heartbeat Centre” while the centre itself is starved of resource because NHS Highland aren’t going to maintain it and no charitable donations can be solicited for a unit which is going to close anyway.
A huge “thank you” to all the carers I was lucky to meet through the 19 hours I had in Raigmore this last Sunday. It’s such a shame, in my eyes, that you are subject to a management structure more interested in corporate image than patient care. My blessings to you all, and may damnation be visited on all those who hide in offices and polish chair seats.
Ned Larkin
Inverness
WHEN I began my working life 50 years ago I entered into a contract with government. Part of that was me paying to support the NHS. Since then I have seen successive governments renege on the deal.
I have seen the continual reduction of benefit available and also a continual rise in cost to me. Optical care, dentistry, physiotherapy, chiropractics etc – the list is burgeoning.
I went to my GP for an assessment of my hearing. This is no longer provided. If I require this I am bound to go to a private practitioner whose interest lies in providing a hearing analysis that leads to the sale of a hearing aid.
Today I watch television without the aid of spectacles. I read better without them. So why have I spent thousands of pounds for 20 years buying spectacles? Because it is in the interest of those privatised service providers to sell me them?
In an emergency the NHS provides the best service possible, no doubt about it. But, concerned about being 65 and overweight, I asked for my bloods to be tested. This is not a right. GPs can refuse it. Mine did.
Primary healthcare is woeful. It’s already privatised.
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh
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