2012 has been an interesting year for the Thompson family, principally because it has brought us into contact with many areas of the public sector but, mainly and I have to say regrettably, the NHS and the police.
This involved my trip to the nurse early in the year, one major operation, a colonoscopy, an assault and a mugging – not bad for a family of four and this only covered three of us. One of us has clearly got a face you just want to punch it seems, not saying who!
During all these occasions we have meet a number of doctors, nurses and policemen working within Berkshire and Hampshire, some of whom we have been meeting in the very early hours of the morning. If the media is to be believed these services are creaking at the seams and are staffed by incompetent individuals who care little for the people involved. All I can say is that in all the people that we have come across and this year that has been quite a few, we have never, not once, encountered anyone who fits the images portrayed by the media.
Every single person that we have met has shown great compassion in what have been times of great stress for us. We have never felt rushed and in all cases, and this is what I find quite marvellous, we have been treated with great compassion as if you were the only person they were dealing with. How do these people do that day in, day out with the numbers coming thorough the doors of their hospitals, surgeries and police stations?
So how can our view be so very much different to the general perception? Could it be that we have just got lucky? I would say that we are lucky because we have a fantastic local hospital in the Royal Berks but again we have been to other hospitals this year and found the same thing. Ditto the police who have been equally as good in Thames Valley as in Hampshire.
So for me I will look back on 2012 as at times a stressful year but made so much easier by the people that we have had to turn to in those times of stress. Who can quibble with taxes when you get quality of service like we’ve had?