A TIRING week working on-call in a busy hospital might not be the ideal time to reflect on what the NHS means to doctors, writes Professor Derek Bell.
But then again, perhaps the most honest reflections come when one is immersed in the realities of the NHS as it stands on its 70th birthday.
As I think about my week dealing with the range of patients that each day presents, I keep coming back to the fact that, despite its problems, irritations and frustrations, it remains a privilege to practice medicine in a system that focuses solely on the need of the patient.
Read more NHS 70: Will home births ever become the norm again?
And that is why doctors and all of the other professions put in such hard work to make it work.
Ahead of the 70th birthday, we at the College asked our Fellows and Members for their own take on their experiences of working and training in the NHS.
Their collective response was great, and I was fascinated by accounts dating all the way back to when the NHS was first established in 1948.
Patients gained free access to contemporary medical care for the first time when the NHS began. This was an incredibly significant moment, especially given the major war that had gone before.
Doctors found pleasure working in a system where financial status or patient poverty was not a barrier to the best available treatment. They could sit on the beds of paupers and Lords, and treat each to the best of their ability.
One of our Fellows remarked that having seen first-hand treatment abroad being based on ability to pay, they truly appreciated a system that was based on “from each according to their means, to each according to their need, free at the point of contact”. This comment perfectly captures the sentiment of the time among my colleagues.
The NHS has been at the heart of many wonderful medical innovations.
One of our Fellows described how when he entered the NHS in 1975, he saw people dying from lung and heart disease for want of an effective treatment.
Over the subsequent years the service has evolved to be able to treat and manage many such diseases of the heart and lungs. The NHS has been a wonderful force for medical innovation.
Training is of course a vital aspect of a doctor’s career. Doctors I speak to have more often than not found training very challenging, but highly rewarding. And many more have cited the team spirit that junior doctors exhibit as having made the challenges worthwhile.
For doctors, working in the NHS means working with committed clinical staff in all disciplines - from nurses, physiotherapists, porters, cleaners – to create an inclusive work environment that all staff and patients can be proud of.
So, teamwork and loyalty to colleagues is one of the most important characteristics of the NHS. And ultimately, dedication to patients is what binds us all together.
I’m always heartened when I reflect on the commitment of NHS doctors to serve their patients. It is perhaps best summed-up by one College member: “I have met amazing people who do amazing things, yet regard it as all in a day's work”.
Professor Derek Bell OBE is President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here