A few years ago I was staying in Portland, Oregon with Ceri Shaw, who runs the americymru website and was organising readings for three visiting writers, including me. During my spell there he suffered the most dreadful toothache and was trying all manner of remedies as treatment was far too costly.
I realized just how invaluable our NHS is, even though the reality with devolution is that we now have four different, distinctive health services.
Of course, dental treatment is often not free here and it remains problematic for many to find a national health dentist. I only stayed with mine when they went private as I'd had horrific experiences elsewhere, including nearly dying in the chair from swallowing Novocaine!
The great act which Nye Bevan began 70 years ago still has a long way to go. It's very much an unfinished symphony, awaiting a similar composer.
Like teeth, toes aren't generally covered by the system and when I went to the GP recently(I won't say 'my GP' as I see a different one each time) I was advised to pay to see a Chiropodist.
Like many others, my own experiences range from positive to extremely negative, yet I can't imagine what it would be like to revert to paying for prescriptions (which do accumulate with age) or the regular eye checks I attend.
What was disconcerting recently was that I had to chase up the hospital's Eye Clinic for an appointment, being told several times of a 'serious back-log'.
I wonder if this is a common problem.
Too many people I talk to are forced to go private for hip and heart surgery and cataracts.
This should not happen.
Consultants should work wholly within the NHS and not compete with the very institution which employs them.
Nurses trained by the State and paid for with our taxes should not have the option of working in the private sector and the same goes for doctors.
The manner in which health and social care are gradually being integrated in Scotland under the SNP is exemplary and makes sense both economically and in terms of well-being.
Patients can be visited or deploy hi-tech machinery at home, therefore releasing hospital beds. More social care for the infirm and elderly gives them increasing independence.
In Cymru, with our very high levels of obesity, exercise and nutrition in schools are fundamental. We need school allotments and pupils cooking their own dinners ;also sports which are far more inclusive and which emphasize enjoyment over competition.
I hear you ask , where is the money coming from?
A great amount can be saved by scrapping educational inspectors and the bullying challenge advisors and replacing them with teacher-advisors on sabbaticals. In health care equally, power and decision-making need to be implemented by practioners.
Regarding mental health, our children's well-being is not being addressed. Educational psychologists too often have little contact with the pupils they are asked to assess.
Under the Labour/LibDem administration in the Senedd levels of stress on our children have become intolerable, with a system obsessed by testing and exams and failing totally to consider the effects on mental health.
Doctors, social workers and teachers need to have far more opportunities to work together. The earlier a problem is dealt with the better, yet pupils struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems are brushed aside, with one agency blaming the other.
Health, social care and education should be a trio : sharing and harmonizing. Too often, only dissonance is heard.
From my own experience, it's sadly the negative which tends to stick in memory. My Gran was literally incarcerated in a psychiatric ward when she had Alzheimer's.
Today she'd probably lose all her assets (house and some savings) to keep her in a private home.
Yet on the positive side, my sister has generally received excellent treatment for her serious epilepsy and on-going psychiatric disorders.
There's no point glamourising the NHS in Cymru, but we certainly take it for granted.
Nye's great work of art has some way to go before it's completed.
He struggled against the odds to create it, yet we are too busy preserving what we have , to imagine an even better future.
SAVED
When I came round
didn't know where I was,
thought I was a hospital DJ again
spinning songs all day long.
I had fallen,see,
only had a few this time,
out of the bus
and onto paving stones.
I was often doing it
though never like this;
they operated on my head,
saved me, kept me alive.
Those doctors in theatre
had been like directors
and I was the drama;
nurses script-perfect actors.
The play itself changing
from comedy to tragedy,
but with an ending
to please the audience.
They were quietly applauding
my missus and children
and I could see how much
they belonged in the scene.
This was a work of art,
everyday and extraordinary;
not a brush but a scalpel,
unsigned, beyond value.
I realized just how invaluable our NHS is, even though the reality with devolution is that we now have four different, distinctive health services.
Of course, dental treatment is often not free here and it remains problematic for many to find a national health dentist. I only stayed with mine when they went private as I'd had horrific experiences elsewhere, including nearly dying in the chair from swallowing Novocaine!
The great act which Nye Bevan began 70 years ago still has a long way to go. It's very much an unfinished symphony, awaiting a similar composer.
Like teeth, toes aren't generally covered by the system and when I went to the GP recently(I won't say 'my GP' as I see a different one each time) I was advised to pay to see a Chiropodist.
Like many others, my own experiences range from positive to extremely negative, yet I can't imagine what it would be like to revert to paying for prescriptions (which do accumulate with age) or the regular eye checks I attend.
What was disconcerting recently was that I had to chase up the hospital's Eye Clinic for an appointment, being told several times of a 'serious back-log'.
I wonder if this is a common problem.
Too many people I talk to are forced to go private for hip and heart surgery and cataracts.
This should not happen.
Consultants should work wholly within the NHS and not compete with the very institution which employs them.
Nurses trained by the State and paid for with our taxes should not have the option of working in the private sector and the same goes for doctors.
The manner in which health and social care are gradually being integrated in Scotland under the SNP is exemplary and makes sense both economically and in terms of well-being.
Patients can be visited or deploy hi-tech machinery at home, therefore releasing hospital beds. More social care for the infirm and elderly gives them increasing independence.
In Cymru, with our very high levels of obesity, exercise and nutrition in schools are fundamental. We need school allotments and pupils cooking their own dinners ;also sports which are far more inclusive and which emphasize enjoyment over competition.
I hear you ask , where is the money coming from?
A great amount can be saved by scrapping educational inspectors and the bullying challenge advisors and replacing them with teacher-advisors on sabbaticals. In health care equally, power and decision-making need to be implemented by practioners.
Regarding mental health, our children's well-being is not being addressed. Educational psychologists too often have little contact with the pupils they are asked to assess.
Under the Labour/LibDem administration in the Senedd levels of stress on our children have become intolerable, with a system obsessed by testing and exams and failing totally to consider the effects on mental health.
Doctors, social workers and teachers need to have far more opportunities to work together. The earlier a problem is dealt with the better, yet pupils struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems are brushed aside, with one agency blaming the other.
Health, social care and education should be a trio : sharing and harmonizing. Too often, only dissonance is heard.
From my own experience, it's sadly the negative which tends to stick in memory. My Gran was literally incarcerated in a psychiatric ward when she had Alzheimer's.
Today she'd probably lose all her assets (house and some savings) to keep her in a private home.
Yet on the positive side, my sister has generally received excellent treatment for her serious epilepsy and on-going psychiatric disorders.
There's no point glamourising the NHS in Cymru, but we certainly take it for granted.
Nye's great work of art has some way to go before it's completed.
He struggled against the odds to create it, yet we are too busy preserving what we have , to imagine an even better future.
SAVED
When I came round
didn't know where I was,
thought I was a hospital DJ again
spinning songs all day long.
I had fallen,see,
only had a few this time,
out of the bus
and onto paving stones.
I was often doing it
though never like this;
they operated on my head,
saved me, kept me alive.
Those doctors in theatre
had been like directors
and I was the drama;
nurses script-perfect actors.
The play itself changing
from comedy to tragedy,
but with an ending
to please the audience.
They were quietly applauding
my missus and children
and I could see how much
they belonged in the scene.
This was a work of art,
everyday and extraordinary;
not a brush but a scalpel,
unsigned, beyond value.
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