Wes Streeting’s desire for NHS reform is well-established (Image: PA)
Every time I fill in a friends and family survey after a GP appointment, I say that my visit could have been improved by dancing horses and a glass of prosecco on arrival. I opt for prosecco rather than champagne because I know the NHS faces significant financial pressures. But despite this, I’ve never got my wish, and I’ve been a patient at my surgery for almost six years. This is why I’m now taking the radical step of inviting Wes Streeting (by hoping he sees this column, rather than sending him an invite) to the grand opening of the extension at the back of Stovell House Surgery in Croydon, which is scheduled to open next month.
It may seem a bit of an odd move to invite the Health Secretary to a grand opening when I don’t know if there will be any event, and even if there is, I have no control over the guest list, and it isn’t my place to invite anyone. But he listened to me during the Daily Express’s Cancer Care campaign, so I’m hoping he’ll listen to me again. The reason why he should visit isn’t that it’s my best chance of getting a glass of prosecco at a GP surgery, especially now I don’t drink.
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But also because I worry Department of Health eyes won’t be on GP surgery standards, what with all the focus in the Department for Health seemingly on rolling out the new neighbourhood health service, where people will be able to have things like an ECG and an X-Ray done in « community diagnostics centres » rather than having to travel to a hospital.
As someone with incurable bowel cancer, it feels weird when I’m not in the hospital, and I’ve regularly taken a quick trip to the X-ray department while waiting for chemotherapy, or revealed my hairy ankles and chest to a healthcare assistant so they can put ECG stickers on me while I sit in a chair in the day unit and have cancer treatment.
I appreciate that, for people who don’t spend their entire lives in a hospital, not having to travel there for minor procedures will be a godsend.
But everyone’s « health journey » has to start somewhere and that’s why it’s important to not lose focus from GP surgeries.
I hear horror stories from friends about their GPs not liking the sight of blood, having to return several times to get any answer about why they are so ill, and finding out the results of life-changing tests on the app on their phone instead of a doctor breaking the news to them in person and explaining what can be done.
Then I tell them about my experiences in Croydon, and they are amazed at the difference. The South London borough is more likely to be in the news for knife crime rather than healthcare, apart from when Croydon University Hospital was one of the first places in the country to have the Covid vaccine.
But if the Health Secretary does come to the opening of the extension to Stovell House, he’ll see what GP surgeries should aspire to.
He won’t be a fan of how my appointments almost always overrun because I talk too much, except for one time when I went in about back pain and managed to be out again in just under seven minutes.
But hopefully, he will approve of how my GPs, Dr Perren and Dr Tavares, have saved my life many times since I moved to the borough during Covid.
Unlike my time at my so-called « world-leading » cancer hospital, where I always feel a bit on edge, I feel safe with my GPs and know that they’ll treat me like a person rather than a patient.
This kind of care is what Wes Streeting will witness if he ever comes to the surgery. He won’t see dancing horses, but he will see what the NHS should be doing across the country.
By replicating what they do in Stovell House in surgeries across the land, and making it the start of Labour’s « community healthcare service, » there is hope for the National Health Service.
This is vital not just for patients with long-term healthcare conditions like mine, but for people who rarely see their clinicians but need antibiotics for tonsillitis or want advice about a sprained ankle.
So, Wes, are you up for it?
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