Whatever happened to the NHS?

Recently I received an email from my old friend and I was very sorry (and angry) to read about his mother’s ear problems. She has been in a lot of pain. Bloody National Health Service! What a flipping disgrace! You work hard and pay your taxes all your life and then what? When you really need the NHS, it isn’t there! Well, maybe it might be there, after you have waited three weeks to see your GP and then waited another year for an operation.

Here in Bulgaria, the hospital in Veliko Tarnovo is not exactly ultra-modern. In fact, it is a bit tatty and could do with several coats of paint. However, Irena and I have always had fairly prompt treatment. Even if we turn up to our GP without an appointment, as we usually do, we do not have to wait more than an hour and sometimes we hardly have to wait.

Just about every hospital in the UK charges about five quid an hour to park your car in the hospital carpark. In VT, I have never paid a penny to park my car near the hospital.

I suppose, like most teachers in private schools, I have voted for the Conservatives in the past. Although I don’t think that I have ever voted for Labour or the Lib Dems, the total mess that used to be the NHS would probably make me think twice about voting Conservative. I do not really know much about politics here in Bulgaria and maybe that is a blessing in disguise.

My friend also wrote that he took his mother out for lunch at a posh restaurant. Eighty-four pounds for almost no food at all. That is awful. The worst thing, in my opinion, is to go to a restaurant, spend a lot of money and then come out feeling hungry. Irena does not like eating out here in Bulgaria because she says it is too expensive and a waste of money. Somehow I do not think that I will ever take her out for a meal in the UK. She’d go mad. Now I think that I am beginning to understand why some Brits are so keen on eating out when he comes to Bulgaria!

Here are a few photos of our latest expedition with the VT Walkers.