I spent a lot of time at MK hospital this week. Long story short. My mum. Ambulance. Operation. Nice enough ward. Nice enough surgeons. Nurses and support staff incredibly patient, Physios awesome.

My parents explained how very grateful and thankful to the NHS they are. They explained tonight, that pre NHS, a childhood illness meant a trip to the home of a gp. Those who could pay sat in comfy seats in the sitting room . Those on the ‘panel’ which, I’m guessing, meant  on benefits, sat in the cheap seats in a shabbier room.
Such was the austerity of the post war years, a broken arm was ‘fixed’ by a neighbour. To this day my mum has a wonky wrist! My Dad, an orphan, tells of an untreated broken ankle.
These are the stories we need to understand how far we’ve come.
That said I have composed a letter to the CEO of MK Hospital . I will not send it! .

Dear Joe. I used to write to you alot when you were CEO of Bedford hospital . In fact you might even recall my letters once you moved to MK. 
My mother has been well looked after. I just wanted to make a few observations. Your electronic system is OK. Certainly the Pavlovian instincts kick in the moment an IT trolley trundles onto the ward. wordlessly each patient proffers an arm for chip and pin identification. The dystopian performance continues .. pain? score? nausea? temp? blood pressure? bowels? Without even lifting their gaze from screen the nurses record responses.. In fact mum reports she was told to breathe more deeply… So she did, came over dizzy but nurse just moved onto the next patients as the oxygen number had improved.
Drugs are also dispensed via the IT system. But the developer only thought binary. PARACETOMAL IV YES OR NO. but forgot the Or. So, after blocked cannulas reported by.. Yes me… Cannulas removed… Iv not possible…. Took 36 hours and a tweet to get paracetamol oral. 
Oh and the discharge lounge… Is actually cardiology. Obvs. I found it and parked in the no entry as instructed.
Oh and if the patient is elderly, please check they have actually reached their lunch, water, and just check if there are hidden meds in the tissue box. YES !
OH One more thing if the patient says her daughter is collecting her, don’t book an ambulance too, then ‘lose’ the patient and ring the next of kin… Ie daughter…
Oh and patients born pre War are too polite to say they never have paracetamol at home. So just tell the daughter carer to get some. #saves a late night panic. 
Meanwhile…

In JacqLand… Bunging in every antibiotic… Trying to keep OK ish… Saw pain consultant… Spent 15 minutes watching him read his notes. I’ve learnt over years not to intervene! 2 minutes agreeing the injections are short term solutions. 1 minute agreeing we better meet in January. He explained that he could do a burn of the nerves? But it could cause issues with the Nevro Stimulator. Argh. Hang on… He did the Nevro implant Arghhh. 
As for Dipstick I lost the plot with his crap letters about the bladder stim which is battery dead. He even rang me to try to get a letter right FFS. 
Then in a weird deja vue from. 10 years or so ago I was back at a Bedford hospital at 7am this morning. Taking an awesome neighbour. Hers is her story not mine. But in an extraordinary quirk of fate I am able to get the kind of help for her >I wish I’d been able to get 10 years ago. Mmmm Shit. Thank sincerely NHS we actually don’t realise how lucky we are.