#guch

"Lake Jump" Jackass Season 2, Episode 7

2001

Found on Internetarchive.org

I know it comes in for a lot of stick, and people think we should do something about it (by which they generally mean privatise it or sell it off or some shit like that) but they are wrong. 

I live in the North West of England, and go to London every year to visit the Grown Up Congenital Heart Clinic, because I am a man with a congenital heart defect. 

(Side note - how cute is that name? Not the congenital heart defect, but the fact that the name of the clinic is “Grown Up Congenital Heart Clinic” - can’t you just tell that is the name of a clinic designed by people who deal with children most of the time? Who else calls adults “grown ups”? But I digress).

While I am down there, I generally have a few tests an a review with my doctor. And I try to have them all on the same day because train travel is not cheap (I like in the UK - of course it isn’t cheap) and neither are hotels in London. 

Generally the hospital is good at arranging this - they know about my travel situation and they try to arrange all the tests on the same day.

Which in and of itself is fucking amazing - they go out of their way to arrange a schedule around me. This is a world class hospital in the busiest city in the country and they still arrange things around me!! How fantastic is that??

But sometimes things get lost in the paperwork, and the appointments come on different days. This year they came a week apart - a test and an appointment on one day, and another test a week before. 

I understand that this happens sometimes - maybe a note was missed on the file, or something like that. I was vaguely annoyed, but not screaming angry because it’s happened before and it always gets sorted out.

And it is not like I am some entitled prick who wants everything my way - if this is the way it has to be, I will gladly travel down one week, then travel down the next. I fully understand that the NHS is woefully understaffed, under budget and EXCEEDINGLY overworked. All I want to do is see if they can move my appointment to the week after - just see. If they can, woot. If they can’t, I am not going to scream at them and swear at them and cuss up a fuss - it’s hardly their fault. 

So I phoned up and a very nice lady answered the phone. I explained the problem, and she had a look and within five minutes my appointment is moved to the following week and all three are now on the same day. 

That’s literally all it took. She was very polite, and even seemed to smile down the phone when I thanked her four times in a row for being so helpful and making my life so much easier. 

This - right here - is our NHS. This is what we have to fight for - to campaign for, to work for and what we have to save. 

Polite staff, friendly staff. People who - if you ask them - will go out of their way to help you and make your life that little bit easier. 

And - if I could ask you one more thing :-

The next time you are on the phone to your GP, to your doctor, to someone at a hospital, remember this story. 

Because if you approach them with politeness, with kindness and with courtesy, you will get INFINITELY further than if you go in being a total shit.

They are overworked, underpaid and in one of the highest stress jobs imaginable. They deal with shit you can’t imagine and people who would make you sit in a corner and cry for the rest of your life. 

They are at the sharp end of every day, and they deserve your politeness and your kindness. 

I have had some truly shitty experiences in hospital - forty odd years of having heart problems will do that to a person - but never once have I ever thought to blame the people around me for that. They have done nothing but care for me, look after me and do their best to make me better. 

They are the best amongst us, and when things go wrong they are generally the first in line to make things right.

So the next time you are talking to them - whether it is a receptionist or a doctor or a nurse or anyone - remember that, and remember this story and remember all of this.

We have to fight to save the NHS, because if we don’t, who will?

Wholecars action / Moscow2017.

Avon.