"Premium Patients" and the septuagenarian NHS: a rant by Julia Jones
My partner Francis has just emerged from a brief stay in hospital to have a hip replacement. It’s one of those blessed operations, like cataract surgery, that have become almost a rite of passage for us over-sixties. “Oh I’ve had three of those,” people say and one looks for the extra bulge that has turned them into a tripod. A successful hip replacement wipes out months of debilitating pain, sleeplessness, inability to walk up or down stairs without howling agony. Living in a country where such a major operation is relatively freely available is an absolute blessing. So thank you, fellow citizens, for continuing to fund our NHS, 70 this year ... and with aging problems of its own. As we baby-boomers move through the system that is almost our coeval, we block beds, stretch resources and look likely to show our appreciation of our lifelong free-at-the-time-of-need health care by continuing to live longer and longer. ( Sorry, everyone.) Francis was among the increasing numbe...