Seven-day National Health Service debated by columnist Hugh Rogers
At one time the medical profession was regarded as part of the establishment. The great and good. Up there with the church, bank managers and the BBC Well, the bank managers have disappeared off the list. In many circles the word "banker" is now a term of abuse. And I don't think anyone would seriously suggest that organised religion - Christian religion anyway - still exerts as much influence upon our society as it did a generation ago. When the Pope resigns, you know you've got problems.
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As for the BBC, well it's probably better to talk in hushed voices and gather round its bedside.
That leaves the medical profession. Or rather it did until Dr Paul Flynn, chairman of the consultants' committee of the doctors' trade union, the British Medical Association, wrote an article in the British Medical Journal. I am reproducing the relevant extract from it here, so that other people can take a view. Commenting upon a proposal to offer a seven day a week NHS, Dr Flynn reportedly penned the following passage:
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"I fear that an entirely seven-day NHS is catering for the convenience of the middle class and not for the needs of those who are the greatest users of the NHS"
In what way would "the middle class" particularly benefit from a seven-day NHS ? If anything I should have thought workers would benefit more from the availability of weekend clinics than their middle-class bosses who can take time off more easily. The concept of "greatest user of the NHS" surely crosses class barriers anyway, so I'm afraid I don't understand Dr Flynn's logic here. Should you enjoy Sunday appointments with doctors because you are poor, because you are middle class, or because you have high blood pressure or diabetes ? Perm any one from four.
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