The NHS big conversation: sioned
Last month, Just Treatment launched our “Big conversations” campaign where we began speaking to someone in every constituency in the UK about their experience of Coronavirus and the NHS. These conversations will directly feed into the creation of a New Deal for the NHS. This is a people powered campaign and collectively, we can ensure we learn the lessons from Coronavirus, and work together to build a better, stronger future for the NHS and for patients.
One person we spoke to is Sioned, who was interviewed by one of our activists. Read about her experience with COVID-19, her thoughts on the future of the NHS and why we need a New Deal for the NHS .
What has your experience of Coronavirus been?
I experienced symptoms of Covid-19 at the beginning of March - I suffered with a bad headache, a high temperature (but not a fever), a persistent cough and extreme fatigue. I followed the guidelines, called 111 who informed me that the local surgery had already run out of tests, therefore I would need to self-isolate for 7 days and another 7 days if I didn’t feel any better.Throughout my experience of having the virus, I felt extremely anxious and panicked.
I found the information and guidelines provided by the government vague, confusing and patronising. I felt that Boris Johsnon wasn’t at all prepared for tackling the pandemic and in fact I found his lack of readiness extremely worrying. I fully supported the lockdown, and in fact felt that it should have come sooner than it did, however, the handling of the lockdown was poor, without any consideration of the extreme stress that it would put people under- particularly staff working for the nhs and care services. Within 24 hours, my mum, who works as a community nurse in Wales was expected to change her ways of working and be ready to work on ‘the front line’ to ‘battle the pandemic’ - this was without any proper guidance, equipment, PPE or mental health support. In order to get additional PPE for her team, she used her own twitter to appeal to local businesses who could spare them plastic car seat covers, gloves and plastic hairnets. In fact, four months in and there is still very little guidance for community nurses and mental health support for the frontline workers.
What long term changes for the NHS do you believe are required?
Communication about how the NHS functions and transparency on how taxpayers money is allocated - how much tax is paid into the NHS? How does this get distributed?
Fair distribution of funding and resources to rural areas of the country, who are currently facing closures of essential services.
Investing in staff, paying NHS workers a decent salary and investing in their mental health and wellbeing, especially post-pandemic.
Linking health care with social care - working together to recognise that both services can support each other to build healthier communities.
Why do you think building a New Deal for the NHS is so important?
The NHS has suffered a great loss of funding and support over the last ten years as well as the ongoing threat of privatisation by this government. A New Deal for the NHS would offer a positive change to the health service and would lead it in a new direction. I would like the New Deal to make people aware of the importance of the NHS and to recognise the value of having a free national health service in the UK.
