In Praise of NHS Scotland
by Rab Bruce’s Spider
Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot
BlueSky: @RabBrucesSpider.Bsky.Social
The Unionist onslaught against Scotland has been
unrelenting, and it is appalling that it is left to Prof Robertson to counter
the propaganda on his Talking UP Scotland website. I really wish the SNP’s
Rebuttal Unit would be a lot more prominent, but we’ve been asking for that for
years now without the SNP doing anything serious about it. So the attacks
continue, with the Unionists submitting one Freedom of Information request
after another, then selectively highlighting anything they deem negative, with
the compliant media gleefully trumpeting their findings. They do this, of
course, because the majority of the public still relies on the mainstream media
for their news, so negative stories sink into the consciousness, portraying
Scotland as a basket case. Almost all of these so-called news articles can be
debunked, but the public rarely gets to know about the true context.
What has really infuriated me has been the number of attacks
on NHS Scotland. I’m particularly annoyed by Labour parachuting in MPs from
England who then dutifully slag our NHS when they must know that it is
considerably better than the NHS they were used to in England. As for Scottish
MPs and MSPs who delight in highlighting alleged problems in NHS Scotland, I
regard them as beneath contempt. And don’t even get me started on the UK media in
Scotland who love to run a bad news story without checking it for accuracy or
doing any sort of comparison with other Health services.
As for NHS Scotland, I’ve used its services far more than I
would have liked in the past 12 months. I broke my shoulder in a bad fall, I
had some very severe nosebleeds, I was called in for a routine AAA scan and had
my bowel cancer screening kit sent to me. In every case, the service was prompt
and efficient. When I did need to visit a hospital, every single member of
staff was kind, helpful and efficient. I could not have asked for more. In
other words, my experiences were distinctly at odds with the picture the media
portrays of our NHS.
But there were even more positive things I should report. After
my shoulder break healed, I needed some pretty intensive physiotherapy to help
get movement back. I was a bit worried about attending the hospital for this
because, being blind, I need a guide, and I might need to cancel appointments
if a guide was not available. What I did not know is that the Physiotherapy
unit have an outreach team who do home visits, and they contacted me out of the
blue to arrange for a physiotherapist to visit me at home every couple of weeks.
What a great service.
On that point, I can’t forget my GP. I need to attend the
practice every couple of months for blood tests. When I broke my shoulder,
getting there was difficult because I need one hand to control my long cane and
the other to hold my phone so that I can get a sighted guide to help me via the
phone’s camera. So the nurse now comes to my home to take the blood samples,
which is a great help as even familiar trips can be stressful when you can’t
see where you are going.
MY GP also told me about an online service for ordering
repeat prescriptions. I can log on, see all my prescriptions and place an order
which is automatically sent to my preferred pharmacy. Once the prescription is
ready, the pharmacy sends me a text message so I can arrange to have it
collected.
All in all, NHS Scotland is a terrific service and we need
to keep it out of the hands of the private sector. Sadly, with most Westminster
Parties now devoted to privatising the NHS in England, it seems our only chance
of keeping our wonderful health service is for Scotland to become a normal,
self-governing country. So it’s over to the SNP for some action and leadership.
Good to hear your praise for the NHS in Scotland, and hope you are doing better now
ReplyDeleteI agree that John Robertson is great at firing out statistics and facts not making it to the mainstream media, he certainly paints a much more positive picture. The challenge for him and any SNP attempts at rebutting false info is finding a way to reach more people. If you look how the BBC and others promoted Farage and a right wing narrative you can see that invitations to appear on TV shows like Question Time, inviting Tufton St think tank reps to build and normalise their narrative, and of course page after page in newspapers devoted to either pushing this narrative or demonising and attacking any alternative
My view is that both Tories and Labour are getting sizeable donations to accommodate private health companies ambitions. They have made steady progress in normalising this in England but need Scotland to fall in line for maximum profit opps and to avoid any awkward comparisons that having a functioning NHS in Scotland would provide. Hence Anas Sarwar and Jackie Bailie's weekly attacks, swiftly taken up and regurgitated by our unionist press, hence the desperate attempts to force John Swinney to say the NHS is broken and needs the "temporary" assistance of private health providers. No party short on funds can afford to counter the power of the MSM, all we can do is to keep talking to each other, to share posts and to comment in debates, phone ins etc. I think if the SNP MSPs felt they had strong backing in the country they might be bolder but the intense scrutiny, the constant criticism and the weight of keeping alive the varied hopes of indy supporters must take it's toll.
Maybe along with posting your positive feedback on the relevant NHS feedback sites you could also send a message to Scot Gov to thank them for the work they have done so far to preserve the NHS? I'm sure the gesture would be much appreciated and might hearten them for the 2026 campaign