the doctor will see you now

I have an appointment with a doctor.  Face to face.  Whoo-hoo.

We’ve spoken on the phone a couple of times, but this is the first time we’ve met since we moved here 3 years ago.  He’s struggling to get to grips with my medical history.  I fill him in on the bits he doesn’t know and tell him that I’ve had my money’s worth from the NHS. He smiles.

I’ve been trying to work it out over the past few weeks.  But the sums are hard. Cancer surgery three times, plus other surgery and procedures resulting from cancer treatment, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and daily medication.  And that's just the recent stuff.  I'm older than the NHS itself.  I've had a life-time of benefit.

There’s a book by Lionel Schriver - ‘So much for that’  - in which the protagonist watches his life savings of $700,000, gradually dwindle in order to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment.  Needless to say, it’s set in a country where health care is not universal nor free at point of use.  Despite my frustration from time to time, I can’t complain.