So, here we are in 2014. How modern! We live in an age of internet, wireless communications, state of the art video gaming systems. We use programs such as Skype to not only speak to each other on the opposite side of the world, but to be able to see each other at the same time. We can use our mobile phones to program our Sky+ systems back at home! Amazing!
These things are only possible due to our thirst for knowledge, - our ever expanding developments in science and technology and, above all, our ability as a species to develop and adapt.
Why, then should it be that the merest suggestion of a cough or cold, an episode of vomiting or diarrhoea has us heading for the nearest A&E department or, in many cases running for the phone to call an ambulance?
When I was growing up in Dundee, being ill mostly involved staying in bed for a day or so. If you were still not well after a few days then either a trip to the Doctor's surgery or, a home visit would have you on the road to recovery. Hospitals were seen as a place for the seriously ill. Today they seem to have become an alternative family day out when the local theme park is closed, or "Jeremy Kyle" is off air!
Watch any commercial break on television and you're bound to subjected to an insurance company advert. Modern times have taught us that nothing happens by accident - that someone MUST be held accountable!
So who can we blame for our inability to deal with our runny nose, our diarrhoea and vomiting, or that pain that won't go away - even after three weeks of not taking any pain relief?
The answer is a very simple one! Take a look around you at your i-phone, macbook, ipad, tablet, laptop, bluetooth television, wireless stereo system - and then have a very quick glance in the nearest mirror! It need only be the quickest of glances - nobody likes to look embarrassed when confronted with the truth!
Our need to live in a technology filled, state of the art, everything-ready-the-day-before-yesterday society has slowly eradicated our ability to think for ourselves, to apply common sense to situations that 10 or 15 years ago we would deal with without a second thought.
Technology may have advanced our knowledge, but it has also deprived us of our respect for ourselves and each other.
A bit harsh? Not really! Consider the cost implications of a visit to hospital - the ambulance, the equipment within the vehicle, the linen on your hospital trolley, the receivers for you to vomit in, the commode liners for your diarrhoea, the aprons and gloves worn by the nurses caring for you (which, by the way, will only lessen our chances of contracting your bug, it won't prevent us catching it), the equipment used to record your temperature and blood pressure, the stationery used to record all aspects of your "visit", the curtains which have to be replaced after your discharge.
Now consider the health implications. Each person you come into contact with is at risk of contracting your bug. The ambulance crew, the nursing staff, anyone walking near you whilst you wait to be triaged, if you've attended using your own transport then you'll have walked into reception and will stand at the desk to book in - so you've increased the risk of everyone in the waiting area becoming infected!
So yes, I think it's fair to say we have lost respect for each other!
When the NHS was launched in 1948 it gave us the right to access a free healthcare system - it did not give us the right to abuse that system!
No comments:
Post a Comment