dr wendy harrison 3×2
Friend, countryman lend me your ear,
I come to mourn general practice, not to praise it.
Failures are proclaimed in the Daily Mail, Successes oft interred in distorted statistics.
Thus it is with GPs. The noble Jeremy
Hath told you GPs are lazy,
The hospital crisis is their grievous fault, And Jeremy is a knowledgeable man.
I work 7-9 and treat my patients from cradle to grave, I care for, cry with, and am a constant in shattered lives.
Does this appear lazy?
Yet Jeremy says work longer, and Jeremy is a knowledgeable man.
I use my insight of their yesterday and today To inform decisions of life and of death.
Trust and relationships built up over decades and generations Enable me to comfort and calm where others cannot.
Laziness should care far less than this, Yet Jeremy says away with continuity of care And Jeremy is a knowledgeable man.
We have run our business and run it well, A small band of fighters against illness and inequality, Champions of the neglected, the fragile and disenfranchised An integral part of the community we serve, Surely laziness would have abandoned ship Yet Jeremy says bigger is better And verily Jeremy is a knowledgeable man.
I speak not to disprove what Jeremy spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know, Primary Care is the foundation of the NHS It groans and faints burdened by underfunding A dwindling few carrying more and more Afraid to slip lest all tumbles down.
You did love the NHS once, not without cause.
What cause withholds you then to save it?
O judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts And men have lost their reason. Bear with me My heart is in the coffin their with my beloved vocation And I must pause till it come back to me
(With apologies to William Shakespeare)
Dr Wendy Harrison is a GP in Cambridgeshire
