HEALTH
I remember lying in my mum‘s bed feeling awful - I would have been about seven years old.
Suddenly there was the reassuring sound of the doorbell and Dr Sutherland would come up the stairs and into my room with a warm smile. “Hello Jeremy, how are you young chappy?”
He and my mum would chat about all sorts of things as he calmly went through his process of checks on me, letting my sister have a go on the stethoscope. Then he would reassure us all that it wasn’t fatal and that he would pop back in a day or so to see how I was. With his comforting farewell, I would slide into sleep feeling all was well.
Today when my children feel unwell, I know it will be virtually impossible to get an appointment at the doctor within a fortnight or I will sit with them in a bleak waiting room for ages, surrounded by alarming posters offering chilling advice on drugs or depression before getting a hurried appointment with a doctor who only vaguely remembers us from the notes she is scanning in front of her.
This is nobody‘s fault but have we invested so heavily in advancements in tech and pharma that we have actually neglected the core of what helps people recover – genuine care.
During the pandemic I read Florence Nightingale‘s biography - supposedly she is the founder of modern medicine. It's an incredible book for its simplicity and forthrightness. In essence, she advocates three things that every hospital/clinic must have. Firstly - fresh air, open windows regardless of the cold. Secondly - clean corners in the wards, the belief that bad things lurked in the darkest areas of the ward. And thirdly zero stress on the patient - the nurses making every effort to keep the patient in a state of complete rest.
Have you been in hospital recently?
I was in the emergency medical unit at Blackburn Royal infirmary in early ‘23 with my mother, who had sepsis. The corners of the hospital may well have been clean but there was certainly no fresh air breezing in through the windows and the noise and disturbance was relentless. Machines buzzing and beeping and people constantly coming in who didn’t seem to know who my mum was - thrusting endless questions at her - usually in foreign accents which made it an exta strain for hear to discern. As soon as you’re medically sound, you’re out like a shot - when did you last hear the word ‘convalescence’ mentioned?
So we may have moved forward in great strides with technology and medicine but it seems along the way we have forfeited two of the great pillars of human recovery - fresh air and rest.
