So tonight and a few times this week I have been asked if I am watching the new series about the workings of the NHS. I of course use this term in its loosest possible sense.

It aroused a simmering frustration  I obviously harbour with my NHS experience. This is not the anger associated with catastrophic treatment and management of my condition which is far too long winded to get into but just the general NHS day to day experience; the everyday management of a chronic condition. 

The only way this can be described is exactly like our national lottery system. Generally your not likely to win, you accept your loses and take it on the chin. This is just a normal state of affairs for us. We don’t expect to win. Sometimes you might win £10, quite rare but not unheard of. A nice experience, leaves us feeling satisfied and more importantly keeps us paying into the system. Then once in a lifetime you might hit the jackpot. You find that gold standard of treatment and you are on top of the world. Unfortunately though just like a lottery win it’s not infinite so one still has to keep buying a ticket and so it continues.

This is the reply to a friend who asked tonight if I had watched the programme

“I don’t want to watch it. People keep telling me about it and I just get really frustrated as I have had these experiences i.e. Bed management etc and I sometimes just feel like no one has listened to me 🙈 sorry rant over, it’s a very raw thing “.

I really can say I have experienced the NHS at its very best and it was brilliant, I have experienced it when it was just about acceptable and have suffered when it’s been at its very worst unfortunately on more than one occasion; and the only conclusion I make is that every time you step in there it’s a lottery. But as they say, “you have got to be in it to win it!”