“Always busy and always full.” And often with staffing difficulties. A nurse gave me her view of life at Raigmore in advance of a 12-hour festive season shift at the hospital the following day.
This was at a small party event from which she would depart early with no drink involved. She was suitably cheerful, even though she would be on prolonged duty while most other people were enjoying themselves.
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Her remarks were not made with a sense of complaint, far less despair, although not everyone at Raigmore may be so sanguine. But she’s been doing the job for a long time now and has learned to accept each day as it comes. When she outlined the staff to patient ratio the numbers did not seem particularly thin to me, but she was in no doubt. “So often short-staffed,” she repeated with a roll of her eyes.
This veteran nurse is a few years younger than me but other people I met over the festive season were of roughly the same vintage.
It is difficult to overstate how much health has become a topic of conversation among older people, no matter how many corks are popping or turkeys are being stuffed. In the same way it’s difficult to understate how preoccupied newspapers and the media in general are with perennial talk of a “health crisis”, with the flu epidemic being the latest affliction driving hospitals “to the brink”.
There’s an obvious connection between these health conversations and the perpetual backdrop of “crisis”. It is worrisome and it makes people uneasy, even if they are in relatively good health. How much more painful and gruelling is it if you’re on an extended waiting list for an operation?
Three of us at one gathering roughly tallied up what we’d cost the NHS in 2024. Around £50,000-£60,000? Or maybe more. That involved a knee replacement, a heart procedure, and for two of us hospitalisation, in one case for a considerable length of time. We all wished that we wouldn’t cost the health service a penny in 2025 – doesn’t everyone? – but that’s not going to happen.
One of our number from outwith the Highlands recently received a letter with an appointment for a heart scan. It included the cost – giving a figure of £1000. He obviously won’t have to pay that. But it’s an indicator that some NHS boards, battered by direct or indirect criticism about treatment delays and waiting lists, are trying to send out a message along the lines of: “Everything – absolutely everything – costs money, and we are struggling to afford it.”
The opinion was ventured that folk are too pre-occupied with health talk nowadays and that previous generations were more resilient, hardier and a lot less anxious about their aches and pains and varied afflictions. Maybe they were, or maybe as younger people we weren’t listening to or were excluded from their health-related discussions.
What is undeniable however is it was a lot easier to get a fast appointment with a doctor and an early operation if needed back then. What is also undeniable is that more and more people are living longer now, the range of treatments has greatly expanded and the sheer numbers involved put greater pressure on the health service than ever before. In the Highlands, just under 25 per cent of the population is of pension age. Given that utterly daunting statistic, well may we yearn for our lost youth.
I decided to have my first totally “dry” Christmas and New Year. It was enjoyable but less so than when it was wet. I wasn’t surprised by that. The ongoing absence of booze of any kind will hopefully be beneficial in the year ahead, but who knows.
As I said a couple of days ago to those I met, Happy New Year and good health in 2025. And in terms of health in the coming year, what more can anyone wish for than good luck, and plenty of it in uncertain but hopeful times ahead.