The NHS

Once again I reluctantly sampled the NHS and once again they saved my life. The NHS has many detractors but there are very many dedicated people who turn up regularly at all times of day and night to ensure that people like me live to fight another day.

At the frontline they cope with people who can barely be categorised as 'human'. The NHS staff should not have to deal with people who quite deliberately set out to cause harm to themselves and to others. When I was wheeled into the Royal at Leicester on a 'normal' Thursday evening we were confronted with women screaming and swearing following drug problems.

There should certainly be a section labelled 'scumbags'. They should only be given minimum levels of treatment and the place should only be staffed by volunteers being paid vast sums of money for their inconvenience. Nobody should have to deal with the dregs of humanity. There should be a minimum level of behaviour and when it drops below that level then they should be referred to 'The Scumbag Unit.'

The NHS has, in the past twenty years, changed beyond all recognition. It is now staffed by a league of nations to such an extent that, at doctor level, I rarely see a doctor from an indigenous background. I have no reason at all to suspect that any of them are nothing other than highly trained professionals but despite that I find it daunting to be faced with a sea of faces none of which relates to mine.

At one point as I lay on my bed watching the activity all around me I was surrounded by beards, headscarves and turbans. I often had to ask the medical staff to repeat themselves as accents hindered comprehension. I have travelled far and wide, I have made friends of people from many nationalities but I feel sorry for those that haven't as they struggle to comprehend what has happened to their country. I don't think that any other country in the world has had to face the extraordinary change that we have had to embrace.

One thing I utterly fail to understand as I watched the activity around my bed last Thusrday evening is the reason why any intelligent young person want to come to this country and deal with the dregs that successive of our governments have produced? How do they square it all away? I tell you what things must be bad in other countries to prefer life on the night shift at the Royal in Leicester!