Brits take our health service for granted and right-wing politicians and media obsess on horror stories, says Brian Reade, but the hit medical TV series starring Noah Wyle shows why it’s still our greatest asset
“It cost me nothing and made me realise how much us Brits take our health service for granted.”(Image: Getty)
This is probably not the time to tell you to count your blessings, but hear me out. A new American drama series has hit our screens, called The Pitt, about an overstretched hospital emergency room in Pittsburgh which you should watch (if you can access HBO Max) for three reasons.
It is painstakingly researched, brilliantly scripted and acted, and it exposes the callous, profit-driven nature of the US healthcare system which should make you think that Britain may be going down the pan but at least we have the NHS. Like our A&Es, the Pitt has a packed waiting room (although sometimes patients go unattended for days) but it’s what happens when they are seen that is disturbing. All American ERs have a legal duty to save lives. After that the patient pays for ongoing treatment, making many without insurance refuse to seek initial help, or when they do they walk away without follow-up treatment.
In The Pitt we see patients asking doctors if they really need an X-ray or CT scan because they can’t afford it. We see medics, stressed to breaking point, being harassed by management to up their speed of work and cut corners. An injured construction worker needs longer-term care costing $100,000 but he and his wife have jobs that don’t offer health insurance and they don’t earn enough to buy it. They also earn “too much” to qualify for Medicaid.
OPINION
Brian Reade
I had some insight into the brutality of this system a few years ago when my son, whom I’d given a kidney to on the NHS at a cost of nothing, suffered muscle issues linked to his kidneys after a flight to Florida. Despite having travel insurance the hospital refused to offer assistance until he paid the full cost upfront, which he didn’t have. He rang me in a panic and I transferred the money. They then treated him with drugs, observed him overnight and discharged him. At a cost of thousands of pounds.
Contrast that with my own A&E experience last year after I’d had a fall. Yes, there was a four-hour wait to be seen at the Royal Liverpool Hospital as it was a busy weekend. But then a doctor assessed me, and medics gave my chest an ECG test and my brain a CT scan before more tests and a follow-up appointment being arranged.
Which cost me nothing and made me realise how much us Brits take our health service for granted. How right-wing politicians and media, who want to privatise the NHS, obsess on horror stories while ignoring the glorious ones, such as its basic obligation to give everyone free treatment at the point of delivery.
The Pitt’s star, Noah Wyle, spoke this week of his envy: “The US is laden with insurance companies being the intermediary between the doctor and the patient and care is being predicated by what an insurance company dictates, not the physician. It’s a profit driven, quality-of-care-diminishing system. We need universal coverage for everybody,” he said.
Our NHS has many failings, despite this government investing heavily to try to undo past damage, but it is still Britain’s greatest asset. Think of that when you next walk into a polling booth. Be in no doubt that putting an X next to a Reform or Tory candidate is a vote to make our NHS the pits.
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