Watching TV again….

I was watching the same tv series about a day in the life of the NHS (National Health Service) here in the UK. They featured a GP (general practice doctor) who saw 40 people in the one day, including a family in which the father and son both have terminal cancer. Then they mentioned that the doctor herself had also recently been treated for cancer.

They also showed a lorry that travels around offering free chest x-rays to people in vulnerable groups, as tuberculosis is becoming more common again. What was really interesting were the things they were doing to get people to have an x-ray taken. There was a lovely middle-aged nurse, who was rather posh and very 'head-girlish', who was tempting in homeless people with a voucher for a free breakfast and pairs of warm socks.

I thought it was amazing. There are so many people in the world who have no, or very little access, to health care, let alone free health care. But here the NHS is cajoling people to take advantage of the service any way they could.

We are so lucky.