"Bevan is a mighty working-class hero. Probably no other minister, even in that 1945 government of heroes, would have had the vision, the muscle or the sheer energy to make a national health service happen at all in those bleak postwar years, let alone in a way that no incoming government could unpick. The NHS sits at the heart of politics and for most of my career in journalism, and charting the crises, the numbers, the arguments, the possibilities and the costs was"
"You can write all that, you can read about all that, but it can feel very different when events dictate that you cross the line from commentator to patient; when, like me, you pitch up as someone who arrives as an emergency, with a condition that might require major surgery and at least a week of post-operative hospital care or might just go away of its own accord."
Bevan drove the creation of a national health service with vision, energy and political resilience. The NHS provides security beyond cost-free care, delivering warmth, competence and shared purpose in acute situations. An unexpected emergency admission transforms abstract knowledge of healthcare into direct experience, exposing the ward’s collective focus and camaraderie. Extended time observing hospital life reveals an alchemy rooted in a common destination: everyone seriously and unexpectedly ill shares the same space, producing mutual recognition and reassurance despite overcrowding and limited resources.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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