Opinion: Let's value healthcare we have, rather than mourn what we don't

Editor Ilona Hanne says our health care system needs our help, not criticism.

The irony certainly doesn't escape me, that right at the time I was meant to be covering a meeting about the GP shortage in town, I was myself in an ambulance headed towards the hospital.

Even more ironically, the cluster of symptoms I was experiencing where the same symptoms that had led me to try to make a GP appointment a week before. A GP appointment where the first available slot was in 10 days' time. So the day this column prints, I would have finally seen a doctor.

Instead of writing a report on what happened at that meeting, I find myself in a position to instead report on the actual state of our health care system, as seen from the inside.

While it would seem to have started badly - a 10-day wait to see a doctor, with symptoms that have led to me spending a couple of days on a ward, and more to come, the truth is, it isn't that bad.

I wasn't in urgent pain when I made the GP appointment. If I had been, I would have been triaged and probably seen someone that day, or been advised to head to hospital. That is why GP surgeries are using triage systems to deal with the current shortage of GPs, along with highly qualified nurse practitioners who can also diagnose a range of problems and symptoms.

From the point I was in pain, our health care system didn't once fail me. The failure was before that pain, when I failed to prioritise my own health and didn't bother booking to see a GP weeks ago.

My husband called for an ambulance, and it came promptly. A skilled team of two paramedics then dealt with my pain and speedily transported me to hospital where I was seen within minutes by a nurse and a doctor.

Tests were ordered and done within the hour, and a surgical consult was organised, along with an admittance to a surgical ward. Within 24 hours of that ambulance being called, I had numerous tests, spoken to various doctors, surgeons and nurses and felt fully informed as well as well cared for.

By the time this is printed, the first of two procedures will be underway, with a second surgery booked just a few days later. I can hardly fault that can I?

Yes, there is a GP shortage, here and overseas. And it isn't going to improve for a while. We need as patients to learn how to manage our own health better.

My symptoms weren't new. I could have called for a GP appointment a few weeks before - I just hadn't got around to it. Also, like many people in our instant society, I wanted one that day, not in a week or two.

We need to learn to be better at planning and recognising our own symptoms. We live in our bodies, and therefore are in the perfect position to recognise when something isn't working well or right. At that point, we need to make our GP appointments, or talk to the pharmacist or nurse, not the moment we are in unmanageable pain.

And when we are frustrated, we need to remember it isn't their fault. It isn't the fault of the friendly receptionist you call at the doctor's practice when he or she says there is a two-week wait to see a GP, and it isn't the nurse's fault when you are booked in to see them not a doctor.

Our health care system is doubtless underfunded and yet the people working in it do so tirelessly and with a real passion for their work. They work long hours for little money and deserve our respect not criticism.

While in hospital I noticed a police presence, because some patients or family members get violent, they get angry with and threatening towards the very people entrusted with their care. Yet the nurses and doctors who came in my room were always smiling, always friendly and never gave away they might be having a bad time in the room or the ward next door.

From the orderlies to the St John volunteers making cups of tea and bringing blankets around in the emergency department, from the radiographers to the resident doctors, the nurses to the cleaners, everyone there was friendly, helpful and responsive to patient needs.

This may be a healthcare system in crisis, but it is one with dedicated, passionate people working in it. They are doing their very best to manage our health and keep us well and the least we can do is take better care of ourselves in the first instance.