An NHS Patriot
And now in honor of the close of the London Olympics, my
tribute to the NHS...
"We're always trying to give the NHS as much
publicity as possible in a positive light." -- Sarah Parish
I first became familiar with actress Sarah Parrish when I
watched the miniseries Pillars of the Earth. Loved her
performance as the evil Lady Hamleigh! More recently she gave
an outstanding performance as Levicy Hatfield opposite Kevin Costner in
the Emmy-nominated miniseries, Hatfields and McCoys. Sarah
lives with her real life actor husband, James Murray, in Southampton, England. I met them in Vancouver last year where James was working on a TV series
with my husband.
As a proud supporter of the National Health Service (NHS) in the
UK, Sarah was enthusiastic about sharing her viewpoint on the British health care system with me. So we met up one day for tea and a chat about the NHS.
"Our first daughter was born with a severe congenital
cardiac condition," Sarah began. "She would have died immediately had
it not been for the outstanding care from the pediatric cardiology department
at Southampton General Hospital." She continued, "The NHS had
everything we needed."
"So, you don't have private health insurance?" I
asked. "I don't want to buy into it," she responded. "You
have to invest in the NHS for it to work-- That's the way I'm politically
inclined," Sarah said firmly.
I took a sip of tea while I let that sink in.
"Do most high earners have private health care benefits?" I
asked. Sarah thought they probably did. She attributed that to the
tendency for people to believe if they pay more money they're going to receive
superior care. But in her opinion, "You might get it quicker but
you're not going to get any better care."
Sarah stated that you see the same doctors whether you
have NHS coverage or private insurance. "The pride doctors take in
working for the NHS is what makes it so special."
A little research on my part confirmed
strong resistance on the part of British doctors' to the recently
passed Health and Social Care law, which moves toward expanded privatization
and disparities in care based on ability to pay. The British
Medical Association, in fact, said that the relationship between family doctors
and patients will suffer irreparable damage and that the reforms will be "irreversibly damaging to the NHS". Health care
professionals have actually created a political party, the National Health
Action Party, to fight the changes to the National Health Service. The voting
was mainly along party lines with Labour voting against it and Conservatives
and many Liberal Democrats voting for it. According to Sarah, right-wing
and coalition governments are always a bum deal for the NHS, "Things get
privatized, funds cut."
Any experience with those waiting lists we hear about so
much in the US? Sarah told me about her father's bout with colon cancer. Yes, he had to wait. In fact, his surgery was postponed at one point
because someone with a more urgent condition took his place. From
diagnosis to operation ended up being about two months. It caused the
family some anxiety but everything ended up fine.
The system prioritizes the urgency of surgeries. Usually the system works. But of course, on occasion, Sarah said,
"Mistakes are going to be made."
Getting back to health care cuts, Sarah and James have a
particular concern about the threat to eliminate the pediatric cardiology
departments in some of England's public hospitals. The program at the
Southampton hospital where their daughter received such good treatment may be
going under the knife. They have embarked on a public campaign to fight
it.
Sarah said they like to be public about their use of the
NHS, saying that when people learn that high profile actors are using the
public system, "They figure if it's good enough for them [Sarah and
James], it's good enough for us."
Outside the windows of the marina-side restaurant, a
beautiful afternoon beaconed and we gathered our belongings to leave. "That's really quite something that you would forgo the convenience
of the private system to support the NHS," I said admiringly. Sarah
flashed me a confident smile and said, "You have to support your
country."
