We call it our-NHS and it is. It's paid for by the people who live and work here, its workforce is us and it's designed and focussed on looking after all of us.
The NHS is an act of social solidarity. A commitment to community.
An acknowledgement that we can achieve more when we are together, in-step.
‘Us’ it is. But what is ‘us’? Who are ‘us’.
Curiously we don’t know. There are 1.35m people working in the NHS, but where they are actually from, their nationality, is self reported and may not be accurate.
‘Us’ is 1,118,116 colleagues who are UK/British. The rest come from my starting point; two hundred and twelve countries.
The NHS is the united nations of care.
Of the two hundred and twelve nations, there are some I’d invite you to give a special thought to;
As far as I can tell, there are 192 from Ukraine.
Ten and a half thousand are from Poland,
nearly a thousand from Slovakia.
Just under 800 are Czech
and over five thousand from Romania.
About 14,000 come from Hungary and
666 from Latvia.
Four hundred are from Finland…
… and from Russia, there are 196.
For reasons you only have to have a passing interest in the news and current affairs to understand...
...there are about 33,000 people working in the NHS, working with you, alongside you, at the bedside, pushing a trolley, planning and for all I know sitting at the desk next to you… reading this, perhaps...
...who will need you.
I'm sure I can write with confidence, international events are not in the name of any of us in and around the NHS.
Thirty three thousand who will need a moment of friendship, reassurance and family understanding. A pause. A look, a hand, a word that says, I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you, but I'm here for a chat, a coffee, a moment.
Thirty three thousand people with thirty three thousand families, many of whom will be living with the reality of war and the threat of conflict.
For most of us, home is here, with our neighbours, family and friends.
For the thirty three thousand home is here, where their friends are, the school is, the neighbours. But, home is also where their mum and dad might be. Almost certainly gran and grandad are. Perhaps a brother, sister, cousin… who knows.
What we do know...
... we are consigned to the role of spectator, as evil, once again, unrolls itself across Europe. How fast, where it will stop, what it will have wrecked in its path, is impossible to know.
What we do know is...
...what ever our response, it will have been factored into the Kremlin’s plans months ago. In December 2021 Russia's foreign exchange reserves stood at $630,627m.
‘Russia has been living under financial and economic sanctions since 2014 when the West attempted to punish it for annexing Crimea and for its role in the military conflict in Ukraine.
Restrictions prompted banks and companies to reduce dependence on global debt markets, while Russia focused on replenishing reserves and developing its own financial systems as alternative to SWIFT or Visa and MasterCard.’
If I were a betting man, I’d say we are in for a long haul and a brutality that I thought was part of history..
Today, we have a new role. A special role for NHS leaders, responsible for our multi-coloured, rainbow of talent, united under a blue light…
Circle our people, with arms wide open. Friendship, understanding, patience and love. We cannot know what it must be like for them.
For many of their families it will be the end of a normal life.
There's a new role for us all. Finding a back that needs patting. To ask; how are things, anything I can do? Tell me about your family, how are you feeling? You must be anxious?
I began my days, born in the dark shadow of war. Brought up in its austerity but encouraged, by the open minded, working people, who were my Mum and Dad, to see Europe as part of my nationality, an opportunity and a place where people were just like me...
... wanted what I wanted; a job, a safe place to live and to be with the one I loved.
Brexit has eroded part of that and as I look towards the end of my days, a dark shadow is creeping back.
Life is a circle. Our task is to widen the circle.
>> I'm hearing - Ian Dilks former NHS Resolution chair, new chair of the hopeless CQC... another middle-aged white bloke. Reminding us the NHS doesn't really do diversity.
>> I'm hearing - Dame Alwen Williams will leave the Barts Health Trust group of hospitals after nearly seven years as chief executive. She has been a top-drawer leader. Her serene approach to management and problems (and there have been plenty) has been elegant and a joy. The NHS will miss her.
>> I'm hearing - anyone who wants to take a test from 1 April, to confirm that their symptoms are covid, will have to pay between £2 and £5 per individual LFT or around £20 for a pack of seven.
>> I'm hearing - the six Trusts in Liverpool are going to merge.
>> I'm hearing - the High Court has dismissed a case that had challenged the takeover of 37 London GP practices by Operose Health, US corporation's UK arm, Centene.
>> I'm hearing - PCN vaccination sites are ‘not expected’ to be the ‘primary delivery model’ for the spring Covid booster jab programme.
>> I'm hearing - HMG has recommended a 3% pay uplift for NHS nurses and other health workers in England for 2022-23
