The Duke's House and the NHS

We had a great English weekend last weekend, enjoying the beautiful grounds of Chatsworth House, a current residence of a Duke and Duchess, and subsequently a visit to the hospital and a first hand exposure to the National Health Service (NHS). The two pictures here showing the grounds and the inside of Chatsworth House speak for themselves. The acres of grounds were incredible, the manor immense, and the insides stunningly ornate.



While wrapping up our walk across the many gardens, my dad, who was visiting, slipped on a stone step and put a gash on his forehead. Socialized medicine to the recue - would it be a good or bad experience? First, one of the tour guides of Chatsworth House, and a former medical assistant, met us at the place of injury and did a thorough examination and completely dressed the wound. He didn't think a visit to the hospital was required, but also thought a second opinion would be proper.



After driving back to Sheffield (we bought a 1998 Peugeot and we drive it to visit the countryside) I took my dad to the local hospital. We walked into the "Minor Injury" unit (doesn't that make sense!) at about 6pm, walked right up to the reception desk, gave my dad's name and my local address and phone number, then we had a seat in the waiting room. Being socialized medicine, we should have had to wait for hours if not days, but within 10 minutes, we were called to a room by a nurse to be seen. My dad sat down and immediately was evaluated, original diagnosis confirmed, and new dressing applied. Instructions were given for proper caring of the injury as well as what to look out for if things turned unexpectedly worse. Ten minutes later we were done with the nurse, we waved good bye to the receptionist, and we went home.

There was only one thing missing from this whole thing. There was never any discussion about money, insurance, ability to pay, or anything. There was an injury and it was cared for. That was it. How anyone can be against a system like this is beyond me.