OPINION: It’s tiring to hear the rising noise of those who benefit from our society but have so little understanding of how good they have it.
I spent a fair chunk of the festive season at the bedside of a loved one in Royal Perth Hospital: not my preference during the holidays, but most of us will end up with a vigil of this nature, probably more than once.
Aside from the obvious stresses that come with such events, the experience allowed me to see the inner workings of an important part of our healthcare sector.
The buildings might be tired, and the staff probably overstretched at times, but it is hard to fault the standard of care.
The unceasing noise, the endless needs of patients, and the frequency of complicated decision-making that comes with healthcare, is exhausting but I could always leave, knowing that by and large things will be handled by people who are doing their best.
One visitor said to me quietly that the staff seemed “competent”.
I know it was a comment meant in good faith, but it just seemed like yet another understatement borne of ignorance.
Where would rather your loved one be under such circumstances?
Barring a handful of places where Hollywood stars or billionaires or Politburo leaders get treatment that is more polished and, potentially, more expert in certain circumstances, we all know there are few places that are better to be ill or injured than here in Western Australia.
That is the outcome of both good luck and good management. Sure, this state has benefited from great wealth, but it has been put to good use.
It is not perfect but it’s better than most other places. I was once hospitalised myself in a regional part of Denmark, in northern Europe, not our southern coast.
The building was beyond five-star, and I received near royal-grade treatment, thanks to my ‘luck’ in having malaria, an illness that the Danish medical staff were very keen to treat as they had a peacekeeping force in Cambodia at the time with expectations of receiving many cases like mine.
As medical experiences went, I have no doubt how lucky I was.
I could have exhibited the symptoms of that disease or been hospitalised in myriad other ways during nearly a year of travel in the early 1990s that took me through some of the poorest countries in Asia and the busted remnants of the former Soviet Union.
I would not have liked to have ended up in the medical system of any of those places. And I also lived in the UK for a few years.
Despite their celebration of their National Health Service as a national icon, every Brit deep down fears being part of that system as a patient.
That is not to say our system can’t be criticised either, but it is tiring to hear rising noise of those who benefit from the society we have but have so little understanding of how good they have it.
They are at the edges of the left and the right, both as bad as each other but, regrettably, not cancelling themselves out.
An example of the worst of it at the extreme edge of society are the so-called ‘sovereign citizens’, those who only want to obey laws that suit themselves.
They will declare they don’t recognise our legal system to avoid a speeding fine which, by and large, is a consequence of society’s view that moderating driving behaviour saves lives.
Back in the health system, there is a lot of carry on about vaccinations, one of the 20th century’s great innovations.
Clearly, a good conspiracy theory goes a long way in the world of social media-driven politics. Aided and abetted by a borderless internet that has no restrictions in the West – but plenty in totalitarian states such as China and Russia – the community we have built is being assaulted by the wilfully ignorant.
These are people who complain far more than they contribute.
The notion that we live in a community where rights come with responsibilities seems to be fading in favour of a patchwork of self-interested minorities.
To me that too closely resembles the way many European countries have been governed for decades.
Blundering along and achieving very little, unable to respond to crises when they occur.
Even more reason, I believe, to have two strong political parties. Let’s hope this year’s state and federal elections deliver us more balance in that respect.
