Give health care to those across Falkirk district most in need

Do you ever feel that we lurch from one health crisis to another? There hardly seems to be a week goes by without some dire warning about something that could kill us.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

In February 2020 it’s coronavirus, but it doesn’t seem that long ago it was swine flu and, sadly, I’m old enough to remember when there was a typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen that was caused by, would you believe a contaminated tin of corned beef.

Yet despite all these health threats people are living much longer than their predecessors and that brings with it much more concerns and issues than the latest outbreak of some nasty illness.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As a family we’re very fortunate to have my mum still alive and, for her age, in remarkable health. But we know others are not so fortunate.

My dad died less than 12 months after he retired from a lifetime of hard graft in his trade. Sadly, he and mum weren’t able to enjoy the retirement plans they had made and looked forward to over the years.

All that was taken away from them by a heart attack that took him as he sat reading the football reports in his favourite chair one Sunday morning.

The shock for us all was immense but now we can look back and realise that in some respects we were fortunate that we didn’t have to watch him linger in a hospital or hospice bed as some cruel illness took its time before he breathed his last.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, others are not so fortunate which is why it is vitally important that we have a health service that is available to provide the care for those in need.

I’m going to tempt fate and say that apart from when I was giving birth and when I had my tonsils out when I was eight, then I’ve never had a hospital stay.

I realise that others are not so fortunate but there is still a section of our community who seem to abuse the NHS system.

A couple of months ago I took mum to her GP to get her flu jab. As with many people of her generation we had to be there about half an hour in advance of the appointment which gave me plenty time to be a voyeur on the comings and goings of a busy doctor’s practice.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There were those who appeared genuinely ill: mums with listless tots and those with wracking coughs – but many others seemed to be treating it as an outing for the day.

I appreciate not every condition presents itself as someone looking weak or ill, but the woman who was sitting telling others in the waiting room that she was there for a prescription for paracetamol was lucky that I didn’t explode at her.

I’m not sure if the doctor obliged but I really hope they told her that for a few pence she could pick some up in the chemist or supermarket.

We keep being told that the health service is stretched – and preparations for a coronavirus outbreak is adding to that, but surely something has to be done to ensure that those in most need are the priority, while others are given the education needed to look after their own wellbeing on a daily basis and only need to turn to doctors or hospital care as a last resort.

Related topics: