Accident and emergency
James Gubb, 11 July 2008
‘Until last month’, writes Jenni Russell in The Guardian, ‘it had been years since I’d been inside [A&E]. In the intervening time I assumed that the money poured into the NHS would have made a visible difference to A&E too.’ In her view, it hasn’t; ‘barbaric’, ‘no-one to help’, ‘inhuman’ are powerful words. Yet sadly, it’s an all too familiar tale.
The NHS might be seeing some five million more in A&E now than in 2000 and rushing the majority through in under four hours, but the experience of patients all too often remains unchanged. ‘At a time when the government is increasingly concerned about how people interact with one another in public places’, Russell continues, ‘it seems perverse that institutions run by the state should abdicate their responsibility for setting more civilized norms.’ Perhaps true, but has the state ever been particularly good at this? By extending its regulatory capture ever further, is it not becoming part of the problem?
I was forced to go to A&E this week, also for the first time in many years – after an embarrassing but painful episode where some All-Bran ended up going down my windpipe.
The events were exactly as described here. We arrived to find police taking a bottle off a snarling red-eyed man, separated by a cordon from another who clearly wished to kill him; a distraut and intoxicated woman shrieked the question “will he die” to anyone that would listen including God himself. Inside, several solemn men held bandaged fists. The odd drunk circled people, with precarious sanity, asking for a light. One woman had burned arms as her son asked her questions about daddy.
I seriously contemplated the relative risk of leaving, despite the advice of NHS Direct. My wife and I huddled in the corner, hoping not to be spotted. A man stared at us for a time, but then wandered away.
There were, at many points, more police there than doctors. It took about 3 hours to get seen and out. Not withstanding my minor issue with the Al-Bran, the feeling of brooding anger and bitterness, admidst the injuries, was palpable.