{"id":381,"date":"2019-08-02T20:14:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T19:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/?page_id=381"},"modified":"2024-09-05T19:00:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T18:00:34","slug":"the-nations-health","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/?page_id=381","title":{"rendered":"The Nations Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I\nqualified as a doctor in the 1970\u2019s there was a requirement to undertake two\nsix month periods of work in a hospital setting called house jobs. After that\nyou could work as a General Practitioner or go on to specialist training which\nwas the path I chose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the\ntime I qualified, quite quickly I got to see all the appalling short-comings of\nthe UK health service. During my time at St Bernard\u2019s Hospital I was asked to\nshow a writer round. He wanted to learn about the inner workings of the\nhospital. He came back a few times and I found his questions very interesting.\nHe was clearly surprised at what he saw. I thought nothing more of that for a\nwhile. Out of the blue a year or so later I got a phone call asking whether I\nwas interested in working on the TV series which had now got the go-ahead. Most\npeople I asked thought it was a bad idea and that it would have a damaging\neffect on my career.  The job as a\ntechnical advisor would last a few months. I had finished what was then called\ngeneral professional training and at the time I felt I could do with a short\nbreak. Over the years I had a number of different jobs and never regretted the\nexperiences so I said yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may seem\nsurprising now to imagine that in the UK until 1982, there were only three TV\nchannels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, nothing else. \nChannel Four was to be innovative and cutting edge. The TV series \u201cThe\nNations Health\u201d was commissioned to be just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time such\ndrama documentaries were becoming popular. This was to be a series of four\nlinked ninety minute episodes. My role was somewhat vague, but included liaison\nwith hospitals and staff to get things moving and make sure that it looked right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the most\npart in the health service we experience crisis management, long-term underfunding,\nan expectation of staggering on and things going wrong. So it was a real eye-opener\nfor me to see the way the TV series was organised and the work structured. Related\nto that was the fact that a reasonable budget had been set; it is surprising\nhow that helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the\nfilming took place in disused hospitals and part of my job was to assist the\nart department in making it look like the real thing. In addition, actors had\nto look and behave like proper staff and patients. It was important to capture\nthe mood and attitudes as much as anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Operation.

Here is a typical set-up with camera, sound and various technical people wondering whether the actors actually know what they are doing and can remember their lines.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Operation

All pretend.<\/em>
There were many interesting aspects to the job. Here, advising Pat, the make-up artist just how bad the patient should look…..<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr

For some of the filming days a theatre nurse came along to help. But we both look worried, will the scene look right? In the end it did. <\/em>
I do look quite a bit younger in this photo.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The catering\nmanager observed that the technicians setting up lights and doing the heavy\nlifting jobs liked roast and vegetables for lunch, the production team the fish\nor salad and the actors would go for the vegetarian options. He was quite\nright. I also learnt that catering keeps people happy. If it was a long day\nmore food was produced and the effect was dramatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Everybody is looking quite relaxed at lunchtime. I enjoyed meeting and working with non-medical people and hearing what made them tick.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Psychiatric

In some, ways making the psychiatric scenes look authentic was the most challenging.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The actual\nintensity of work was less than I was used to. There was a fair amount of\nhanging around at times. I also learnt a lot about filming and drama, skills\nwhich have come in use later in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought\nthat when series was shown it would have a beneficial impact on health-care in\nthe UK. Deference in society was fading as force and the 1970\u2019s were notable\nfor political upheavals. Although maybe these changes were not as much as I\nthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly Channel\nFour were hoping for a lot of controversy. In fact, the series was well\nregarded and I believe entertaining to watch. There were certainly some\npolemical moments. Many themes were addressed and the fundamentals of the\nwestern medical approach challenged. In the end though, there were few\nsurprises for anybody who worked in the health service. After the first airing\nof each episode there was a round table discussion by experts, the hope being to\noffer further challenges, but most medics seemed to agree with many of the\npoints being made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall\neffect of the series though to drive any change in health care was minimal or\nzero, which at the time I found very surprising and disappointing. However, it\nis a constantly repeated observation, and at first sight puzzling. It is\nsomething I\u2019ve thought about for 30 years or more, why is it that people want\nto deny what is obvious? The answer lies, I think, in understanding the\npsychology of the comfort blanket. We all want to believe that at times of\ncrisis we will be looked after and that everything will be OK. And we don\u2019t\nlike that to be challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public\nattitudes to other health-care systems elsewhere in the world are very\ndifferent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series\nis still worth watching and since then, fly on the wall TV which covers a lot\nof the same ground, has become commonplace. \nIn the end, I think working on the TV series had a beneficial effect on\nmy career. Nowadays the idea of rocking the boat or towing the party line that\nthe NHS is wonderful in every respect and the envy of the world is completely laughable.\nHow times change. Maybe the TV series did start something after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I qualified as a doctor in the 1970\u2019s there was a requirement to undertake two six month periods of work in a hospital setting called house jobs. After that you could work as a General Practitioner or go on to specialist training which was the path I chose. From the time I qualified, quite … Continue reading “The Nations Health”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":268,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-381","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381\/revisions\/395"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drandrewmacaulay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}