We venerate the health service and howl at governments to fund it better. But, as individuals, what can we do to help this institution we profess to love so well?
We love the National Health Service. It’s a pure, unconditional love. Most of us have experience of great treatment within the NHS, and terrible treatment too, yet our love for the institution seldom wavers. When things go well, we praise the NHS, but when things go badly, we tend to blame individual hospitals, doctors, or whole groups of doctors such as GPs – who are getting a disgraceful kicking just now. But it’s never the NHS’s fault.
We venerate the NHS and howl at governments to fund it better. But, as individuals, what do we do to help this institution we profess to love so well? I love my dog, so I feed and walk him. I love my football team, so I follow them everywhere. But what about the NHS? Yes, I pay my taxes and, during the pandemic, applauded in the street. Why, such was the vigour of my saucepan-banging that I broke my favourite wooden spoon. I’ve also, on occasion, slotted coins into charity tins. But now I’m wondering what else it is we should be doing. In other words, I ask not what the NHS can do for us, but what we can do for the NHS.