New Lockdown, Day 15?, Friday
I thought of entitling this piece ‘Selfish Disaster’ because we have been told in Catalonia that the closure of bars, restaurants, gyms, theatres, opera houses and SWIMMING POOLS etc is to be extended for at least another ten days. Another ten days without my early morning swim!
And then I thought that, in the scheme of things, going without a swim for a couple of weeks more is hardly to be compared with the ravages of Covid 19 and the people who are in hospital or are recovering from so-called ‘long Covid’.
And then I thought again and realized that another ten days could well be the tipping point in the survival of some businesses and, as businesses fail so they set off a sort of chain reaction, dragging in both direct suppliers and those suppliers who are indirectly connected with the enterprises. In an inter-connected world when one suffers, we all suffer – though I do of course recognize that not taking part in a particular activity (swimming, eating out, watching opera, shopping) is not the same as not keeping your business going. I don’t swim, I am repaid my monthly membership fee or fraction thereof – the club has something like 2,000 members: it’s a lot of money to pay out and get nothing back, while keeping the buildings and installations in good condition. The Club is well run and seems to be financially stable, even with the financial blows that Covid gives, but for how long can this continue? And what is happening to the employees? And the suppliers?
Just as Covid respects no boundaries, the financial, social, educational, structural damage being done is not discrete: everything joins to everything else. My missed swim is inconvenience to me, is a livelihood threatened to others.
On the other hand, avoiding death is worth a little inconvenience, indeed it is worth a great deal of inconvenience – and one only hopes that we have governments considerate enough to understand that interdependence means generous finance.
My greatest worry (after the destructive effects of Covid) is about the condition of the Heath Service.
In Catalonia, as I can personally attest from hospitalized personal experience, our Health Service is excellent. I was lucky enough to have my condition diagnosed and my superb treatment given at a time when the health services were not being overstretched by a pandemic. I am sure that if I went through what I did a couple of years ago, now – would I be treated in the same way?
I was taken to hospital in an ambulance that arrived before my consultation with the doctor had actually ended. I was seen immediately in hospital. I was treated and given a place on a ward where my treatment continued. I spent eight days (and longer nights) in hospital. My aftercare has been exemplary. Even then I spent some time on a bed in what was a corridor in emergency before I got a bed in a ward.
Since the Covid pandemic has been in Catalonia, I have had a scheduled appointment for blood extraction and a consultation with the doctor that I have seen throughout my treatment – and my next one is in six months’ time. I have no complaints.
But my extraction and consultation were over in minutes, there were no complications, no expensive treatments that needed medical intervention. What, I ask myself, is happening to those who need more intrusive medical assistance? For those who need minor operations or who need continuing cancer treatment?
The answer is perhaps illustrated on television, by the number of adverts that we are now subjected to which urge us to take out private medical insurance. Even the threat of delay is enough to frighten some into paying now in the hope that they will be able to queue jump some time in the future.
In the UK the Conservative ‘government’ has underfunded the NHS and privatized those parts of the organization that it thinks it can get away with. The Tories disgraceful outsourcing of the Test and Trace shows their dedication to the private sector and their hope that Brexit will merely accelerate the transition from the lie of “The NHS is safe in our hands” to “The NHS is mostly there for those who can’t pay” - and they will get what they do not pay for. Covid has a fair chance of destroying a meaningful health service free at the point of need with the bunch of self-seeking incompetents that we have in charge.
What Covid has shown is how weak our public services are after years of Conservative ‘austerity’ and the post-Covid new-normal must be one where those public services are brought up to pre-Covid levels and more autonomy must return to local councils, so people can live.
There is, of course, an element of hypocrisy in all this: my swimming pool is private, a private club run for profit. The municipal pool is at the other end of town and up a steep hill which, even with an electric bike, I am not enthusiastic to climb. I made a choice because I can afford to make that choice and I have gone for the pool nearest my home (leaving aside for the moment the sea which is at the end of the road) and the most convenient. I have disposable income that I choose to spend on a well-appointed pool and in a cheerful café, I can even say that it is good value: I go there every day to swim and I end up paying about 50p for the privilege. Money well spent I say!
The US of A shows us that private medical health care is a nightmare and where a broken leg could be ruinous.
I am a fit and well chronically ill person! I enjoy life but have to take pills every day and periodically go for consultations to check my progress. It is no hardship; more mild inconvenience, and I know that I am being looked after well and I have no worries about the quality of my care.
The New Normal is going to be different. We have a duty to remind the government where its priorities should lie.
