By Cllr Prue Bray
Something unexpected happened to me in on the Friday before the local elections. I tripped over an open water meter cover on someone’s drive, and fell and broke my hip.
This is not something I would recommend. Painful doesn’t anywhere near cover it.
At the moment, three weeks on from a full hip replacement, I am on crutches, and thanking goodness for all the Pilates, aquarobics and gym training that meant I was in a good place to make a full recovery.
And I am also thanking goodness for the NHS.
A fellow Lib Dem councillor, Paul Fishwick, got me to the Royal Berks. It took only 10 minutes to triage me and get me some pain relief. I had to wait four hours in A&E in total.
Then I was X-rayed, given better pain relief, a sandwich and a cup of tea, and taken up to a ward. That was Friday.
My hip was replaced Sunday, and on the following Saturday I was discharged.
Throughout that week every single member of staff – doctors, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, physiotherapists, radiologists, occupational therapists and all the others – were absolutely fantastic.
They were competent, they were caring, and they treated all the patients with respect and dignity.
Sadly, that was not true of how all the patients treated the staff.
Patients with dementia can get frightened and confused but the abuse that staff had to put up with from some other patients was appalling. Yet they never lost their cool or their professionalism.
The NHS has also been fantastic since I came out of hospital. They have loaned me the equipment I needed to manage at home.
The district nurse has come every day to give me an injection and check me over. The occupational therapist has assessed my progress, and the physiotherapist has made sure I understand the exercises I have to do.
The GP has phoned to check up on me, and follow-up appointments have been made for me to check my bone health.
But among all that good news, there were signs of a system in stress. Staff numbers were under pressure on the ward. Some equipment is in short supply. Being wheeled about the hospital it was clear that some parts are not in good repair and that more modern facilities are needed.
The Royal Berks is on the list of 40 hospitals that the Conservatives promised would be rebuilt, but progress has been slow, and we still don’t know when it will happen – or even where the new hospital will be.
Meanwhile it is hard for the hospital trust to make decisions on whether to spend money on major repair work.
The NHS is not perfect, but it is the most amazing institution.
Despite all the stresses and strains it has been under, it is still something we should all be proud of.
At the forthcoming General Election, we must all scrutinise promises on the NHS made by all parties. We must ensure we look after it, as it looks after us. How on earth would we manage without it?
Cllr Prue Bray is a Lib Dem ward councillor for Winnersh
