Tuesday 20 August 2013

Our Future Aspirations for the UK's NHS.

Dear Mr. Cameron,

I endorse your views and hopes as well support your vision for a renowned NHS within the UK. The NHS like every other reputable service is about maintaining high standards of professionalism with a professional, caring and empathetic nature to improve people's health and wellbeing. These qualities of care and support are the vital key ingredients to a successful and well run healthcare service.

We need to inspire our health care workers and professionals that it is not just about meeting targets and clocking numbers of patients seen-Whilst the British NHS is about serving the UK public, it is also about ensuring and taking pride in providing the highest standards of care and support to all patients and visitors.

The fundamental requirements of a successful NHS have always been about quality training, regular reviews & inspections along with a culture of compassion and care towards patients' needs and wellbeing. It is with great pride that I can consider myself a son of a Doctor who spent most of his active working life's time working across England & Wales serving in the NHS as a practitioner of people care and cure.

My father who was a professional medical doctor & surgeon, was one of the best examples of a professional who believed in getting the diagnosis for cure, right first time round which would require checking the patient's medical records, seeing to the patient, noting symptoms, observing the patient's response to a health check up, clarification and consultation with the patient about the patient's needs and to review the progress of the patient with other professionals-this is what I have always known as being the best way forward for treatment, care and productive results in improving people’s health and wellbeing.

I look back at my own childhood when I used to go to the Royal Free Hospital in NW London for eye check-ups and other care needs-The care and service was always very good there. Britain has always had a great history of care for those who weren’t well and were in need of medical attention.

The renowned Nurse Florence Nightingale has always been an inspirational beacon of light and a prominent role model for those in the NHS. I got to know more about the works of Florence Nightingale from my English lessons whilst studying abroad during my junior primary school years in India 

We need more sisters of care like Florence who was 'The Lady with the Lamp'. Nurse Nightingale was also known to have been a well known social reformer and her works also took her to nursing the sick and wounded during the Crimean War where she brought many changes in response to difficult practices that she witnessed, so that she could serve those who needed her care.


Before I close, I would like to mention in a short passage about Health & Wellbeing in general which is about maintaining both one's physical health and one's mental health. The human mind can be a powerful and key player in our very own existence but it is also a fragile instrument and can hurt and suffer too especially if the proper uplifting circumstances in an individual's life don't come through to nourish the mind with positive and uplifted thinking.  We as a nation of people need to work more on the human level of consciousness in all our professions.  

Finally, whilst I acknowledge the benefits of the DNA genome database, the medical profession is much more than finding ways to cure people based on working on an individual’s hereditary genes in the hope that we can design healthy offsprings. It's about focusing on the compassion and care that is provided and about having empathetic responses to peoples' concerns for the pain and for the losses they may endure.

It is most definitely about the connections that are made with people on a human level.

Thank you Mr Prime Minister.

With Kind Regards,

N Mukherjee Esq.