Reflections 52. Misery Grows on NHS Waiting Lists as Politicians Search For Votes, Not Solutions.
Call To Action
For the past 18 months, there have been unbelievable amounts of media coverage on the subject of NHS waiting lists. As people are extremely anxious about what is going on, we have seen reams of column inches, hours of political debate, phone-ins, opinion pieces and more.
The NHS crisis is no longer a situation lasting several weeks in the depths of winter, when ambulances struggle to drop off patients at A&E because of backlogs and overcrowding. Those situations are scary for the public, and many might know someone who’s been affected by an ambulance delay, or a long wait in A&E; but now the NHS crisis has grown, sprawling outwards, and is affecting many millions of people. A significant proportion of the population is now on an NHS waiting list, and this affects people in different ways. There are the obvious things, of course; the pain, the worry, the possibility of symptoms worsening, or an individual’s reliance on medication increasing as they wait for their treatment. But there are other things too. If someone is in chronic pain, their mood may plummet; long-term symptoms can impact peoples' mental health and general sense of well-being. A person might not be able to work any more and could end up in financial difficulties. Ill health can even affect a person’s relationships, leading to a breakdown in their support network just when they need their loved ones the most.
Health problems start with the individual and they spread outwards, affecting every area of our society; happiness, productivity, and the economy itself. We all benefit when our population is healthy, and we are all affected when our population becomes more sick.