Employees in critical services such as doctors should not be permitted to go on strike - Daxa Patel

Since before the pandemic the long waiting list within the NHS for necessary surgery and appointments have been a regular feature. Recent news is we have hit a new milestone, cancelled appointments on account of NHS strikes have affected more than a million patients.

Added to the waiting list problem within the NHS is also the problems within the ambulance services, the lack of beds, the state of primary healthcare and now the junior doctors and consultants’ strike. So far junior doctors have not worked for 22 days and consultants for six days. There will be more coordinated strikes which will cause more harm to patients and yet they have all taken a hippocratic oath. The oath includes the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence. Who suffers here the most? The doctors, the politicians or the patients? You can answer that.

For an elderly person they dare not ring the GP surgery as even if they tried ringing on time at 8am the chances are they will be waiting in a queue for a long while before their call is answered. The truth of the matter is that for the elderly who paid their dues to society, the health care we provide is below standard of what is acceptable.

It is a postcode lottery as to the kind of care we all get and for the elderly this is made worse.

In many ways I am glad my father is no more as I would dread to think how he would have been treated during and after the pandemic. Yes, most GP receptionists, often the first port of call, are helpful but there are some who feel they have a licence to be the gatekeeper and they operate under the mistaken belief that they know more than the patient about their discomfort. This kind of treatment, even if justified, is dreadful.

How many times have we read news about someone’s dad or mum, or grandparent who had a fall and were left in agony for hours before the ambulance arrived and on arrival to A&E, they were left on a hospital trolley for hours if not days before a bed was found. Is this fair? Some people simply cannot afford to go private which means they have a right to timely medical care on the NHS and at primary care level.

Those employed in critical services should not be permitted to go on strike. I accept junior doctors' pay is abysmal, but they are not, I hope, having to go to foodbanks, unlike some of their patients.

The country is going through a cost-of-living crisis which will not impact the wealthy, but for the ordinary family living in a semi or a terraced home or even a council home, the cost-of-living crisis is real. So, what if the consultants do not get a pay rise above inflation? Will they starve? There is a time and place to demand a pay rise and now is not the best time.

The NHS is a national institution, which requires complete dedication and service, and the government is obliged to ensure the NHS is funded adequately to ensure all patients get the care, and treatment they need. We have all become desensitised to the ongoing waiting list.

In a population of say 67 million, if seven million people are waiting longer for necessary treatment then our standards haven’t just dropped, they have vanished.

The NHS was mismanaged and broken even before the pandemic, so it is pathetic to use the pandemic as an excuse by those in power.

The NHS also needs to take responsibility for reducing unnecessary wastage and that includes allowing the medically trained to run the hospital in the way they think fit. That way we might even get rid of MRSA as matrons are more particular about hygiene than managers.

What if you are an old woman of 89 living alone and have no relatives? You are just about managing to live as independently as you can in your own home, but you fear falling. You fear having a wash in the bathtub because you struggle to get in and out.

You are so scared of a fall that you deprive yourself of having a wash though that would make you feel good. You are anxious, and afraid of talking to your GP because if you are lucky enough to get through the receptionist you may not get the chance to share how you really feel to your GP because you are either talking to a new GP or because you don’t feel safe enough to open up.

You live in fear much like parents who are fearful of their child being taken into care, you feel if you ask for help you will be taken away, and you will never return to your cherished home. Just imagine if this is your life would you feel safe?

Daxa Manhar Patel is a leadership coach, author and solicitor (non-practising).