Tucker Talks

HealthThe National Health Service is the same age as me: 60. Yes, 1948 was an interesting year. There was a car called the Tucker that year as well, but it didn’t catch on. Now the NHS is a massive and endlessly complex organisation, or rather hundreds of organizations, many of them called Trusts. They spend vast sums of money and affect the lives of all of us one way or another. Going into a hospital has always struck me as like entering a different world, where time runs at a different rate and the normal businesses of life are suspended. A lot of health care is delivered outside hospitals, in surgeries and in our homes. Now the North Yorkshire and York NHS Primary Care Trust (or NY&Y-NHS-PCT for short) is reviewing what it does. I went along to a session at Thirsk Racecourse. The team was keen to assure me that this was not a consultation, which is as well. After the car parking charges debacle and the Post Office closures, Major Consultation is now accompanied on the field of battle by General Disbelief, and consultation is a naughty word that means that things are going to get worse. Not so with the NHS: they want to be clear on local health care needs. OK, they have had since 1948 to get that sorted, but as the population grows, and medical opportunities and needs change, it is sensible to take stock before planning change. I talked to some very interesting and informative members of the Trust, each with a clear specialism. I discovered a part of the Service for those patients who suffer from long term conditions, with a fast response team to respond to the crisis and an intermediate care team to take over. Co-ordination of the work of different people and agencies is a key theme here and in other parts of the network of care. A separate group works on end of life care, dedicated to co-ordinating the care for those who have a year or less of expected life, to ensure so far as possible that the patient receives “gold service” during that period .I met the people from PALS, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, not a complaints service, but there to provide information and sort out problems where possible. I mentioned during the afternoon that in a service that enjoys world renown, it is dentistry, the humble business of gums, teeth, fillings and root canals, that is a failure. The latest closure of NHS practices shows that something is very wrong. Patients in Thirsk who ask to be put on a NHS list may find themselves allocated to a practice in, say, Richmond. That is ridiculous. Perhaps dentistry should be absorbed into GP practices. That is the suggestion I have made.  If you are happy or unhappy with any aspect of the Trust’s work, they want to know before they plan the next stage. You can tell them you value a local community  hospital like the Lambert, and an A&E and maternity service no further than Northallerton. If we don’t say it, they won’t know. OpeningIt was a short trip to Mount Grace Priory for the preview of the latest exhibition of the paintings, drawings, photography and silk painting of local artist Diane Miller. Diane has been a regular visitor to this, the best preserved priory of the Carthusian Order in Britain, since she came to live in Yorkshire. It is certainly a peaceful place, and the Friday evening sunset was glorious - the patterns from nature weren’t only in Diane’s art! This is the sort of exhibition that makes you ask: what is art, even though it is a dreadful question to ask, and people have written books trying to give an answer It’s like someone with a midlife crisis muttering “who am!?”  until he realises he doesn’t need to ask the unanswerable.A simple piece of wood bark, the rooves of old buildings carefully drawn or painted, these can take your attention and focus you on the endless shapes and colours of nature, to things that you often may not notice and appreciate. In her photographs, Diane clearly likes the effect of reflection in rippling water, breaking up normal shapes and making you look and see something new.Food funI missed out on the chocolate cake available as refreshments at the NHS afternoon at the Racecourse, but made up for it later with a wonderful treacle tart; it was one day past its “best by” date, in which case it must have tasted pretty good the day before. “Best by” means that you may not enjoy something at its most delicious if you go past the date a little bit. “Use by” although it sounds similar, means you shouldn’t be eating or using the product once the date has passed. With the onset of the autumn and those chill evenings, I have just made a lamb stew, with pieces of neck of lamb. So not only a cooking practice, but a lesson in veterinary anatomy too.  It was also a low-price cut, and this is part of a trend now that prices feel to be on the up. If you have the time, and the old-fashioned skill (or in my case recklessness) and even a few fresh herbs, a bit of comfort food is just the ticket!Old problemsOne of my favourite authors is the American E B White. As parents will know, he wrote “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little“, but he also produced many articles and letters. I was reading one in which he listed current problems, including unemployment, nuclear power plants, the plight of the small hospital, pollution, supertankers, the price of petrol and the price of food, the power of central government, burglary, drug abuse, centralization, the disappearance of haddock. Quite an impressive list, and one that surprised me, because it was written in February 1975, 33 years ago. Have we really been grappling with the same problems for all that time, and still 


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