My grandmother (age 95 this coming May) had to go into hospital a couple of weeks ago to get checked out after a suspected stroke. She arrived at the hospital around 1pm, 1 and a half hours later she was seen by a nurse who asked a few questions and did a few cursory checks, 6 hours later (yes, I did say six hours) she was seen by a doctor. She was kept in overnight, sleeping on a hospital trolley because there were no beds available. That's the great British National Health service for you, at its worst. To present a somewhat balanced view however, that same National Health service has provided her with twice-daily homehelp, rails up the stairs and other adjustments to her home to enable her to continue to live there, all free of charge.
Last week in Massachusetts, Scott Brown got voted in as Senator, to replace the deceased Ted Kennedy. Scott Brown is a Republican, and is against a National Health Service (NHS) for America. I am undecided but I do know that if an NHS is going to be introduced, then it is vital that a few nay-sayers are around to cause the Obama machine to stop and think before rushing in. When the NHS is operating well it is excellent. But, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would say about the little girl with the curl, "When she was bad she was Horrid!" .
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