Countering the Narrative

by Rab Bruce’s Spider

 

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

BlueSky: @RabBrucesSpider.Bsky.Social

X/Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

 

 

Labour’s Scottish Branch office have decided to put the NHS at the heart of their election campaign. Given the state of the NHS in England and Wales, that’s a bold strategy, although the UK media in Scotland, led by the BBC, will undoubtedly do their best to ensure that the majority of Scots never see any comparisons or hear good news about NHS Scotland. For that reason, I think it is incumbent on all Yessers to promote good service from the NHS when they receive it.

 

Now, I’m not foolish enough to believe that NHS Scotland is perfect. Like many others, I’ve had to wait several weeks for appointments or treatment, but those have almost all been minor issues with no health emergency involved. When accidents do happen, the treatment and kind service I and my family have received has been truly excellent. Likewise, when an appointment for a minor issue does come through, the service has been uniformly excellent.

 

Because of the constant stream of negative media stories about NHS Scotland, I do like to mention good service when it happens, and I had occasion to do this the other week. I’d been told that a mole on my back had changed appearance, so I followed the standard medical advice to get it checked. I called my GP’s surgery in the morning and was given an appointment that same afternoon. I and my sighted guide turned up ten minutes early. The waiting area was fairly quiet, probably because it was still during the Easter school holidays, and the Doctor called me five minutes before my appointment time. I was very quickly given the all clear, the change in appearance apparently being down to the ageing process. However, the Doctor took a photo to send to Dermatology, and put me on the waiting list to have the mole removed since there is a chance it could start to catch on clothing. I was in and out of the consulting room in five minutes.

 

Now, if that’s not great service, I’m not sure what is, so I went onto social media and put up a post to counter the media narrative. The responses were very interesting.

 

On Mastodon, I had a couple of people reply that they, too, had received excellent service/treatment from NHS Scotland recently. On X/Twitter, the responses were very different. My post seemed to gain the attention of several ardent Unionists whose main line of argument was that I had invented the tale because such things only ever happen in the imagination of Yessers.

 

I’m not sure whether such responses are driven by a belief in the media negativity or by an ingrained hatred of the very idea of Scotland becoming a normal country. Either way, it struck me as sad that any Scot could have such little faith in their fellow Scots that they are incapable of believing any good news about NHS Scotland.

 

What it does show, though, is that we all need to continue to praise NHS Scotland when we do have a good experience because the media will continue to do their utmost to paint our Health service as a disaster area. I can only imagine what that must do for the morale of our NHS staff.

 

Incidentally, I received a digital letter this morning advising me that I am on the Dermatology waiting list, with an apology that it might take several weeks before I can be booked in for an appointment. But since this is a minor, non-life threatening issue, that’s absolutely fine with me. In fact, it shows just how vital our NHS is, because a lot of people clearly need treatment for a variety of ailments.  No doubt I have now become a statistic which Labour’s Scottish branch office will use to attack the Scottish Government. As far as I am concerned, though, I’m perfectly happy that I am in the system and will be treated as a non-urgent case.