Do you love our NHS ?

Well do you ?

Do you love our NHS ?

Taking a bit from the bible and twisting it slightly....

LOVE DIVORCED FROM DEED IS BARREN !

What are YOU doing to show love for our National Health Service ?

One week today voting closes in the election for a governor to join the board representing Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton at University Hospital Milton Keynes.  I am one of two candidates hoping to win that seat. I am not campaigning for election, now with most people eligible to vote having voted I would like to tell you why I love our NHS, to share some anecdotes and to encourage you to love our National Health Service and our amazing, incredible, fantastic hospital.

Win or lose the election it does not stop you showing your love.

I remember when Milton Keynes did not have a hospital. If you were lucky an ambulance could transport you to accident and emergency at Stoke Manderville Hospital in Aylesbury in twenty minutes but realistically the journey took more than half an hour. Where our fantastic hospital now stands there was an empty field and the slogan MILTON KEYNES IS DYING FOR A HOSPITAL.

It would have been in 1976 I think, I was helping to run a music event when a man collapsed to the floor.

He was a young man, early thirties, we all thought he was drunk but as attempts were made to sober him up it was clear something was wrong. An ambulance was called, he had a problem with his heart. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Stoke Manderville Hospital. Had there been a hospital in Milton Keynes he would have survived.

Sunday 14th September 1980, two mums to be were having problems in Walley Drive Maternity Clinic. Maureen was taken by ambulance to The Royal Buckingham Hospital in Aylesbury where our son Peter was born.

Another lady was having problems. It was found she had twins, nobody knew that.

What was called The Flying Squad was called out from Aylesbury where one baby was happily born, his brother died. I remember the father saying to me: When I look at my son I will always see two people. How, as he grows up, am I going to tell him his brother died ?  If we had Milton Keynes Hospital that child would have survived.

Now we have our hospital, University Hospital Milton Keynes, and it is the most amazing hospital in the country.  A senior doctor there once said to me: I do

not treat my patients, I CARE for them. That is the unwritten mission of the hospital.

So if I win the seat on the board what am I going to do ?

I will have duties as a board member but beyond that I want to inspire love within the area I represent for our hospital. I will be looking to the elected members of the parish councils within my area to help me do this.

Have you voted for me ?  I wonder how many people are now saying How do I vote ?  I did not anything about this election ?

To be eligible to vote you have to be a MEMBER of the hospital.  It costs nothing to be a member and it is the first step in showing love for our hospital.  I am going to send the link to this page to every elected council member of each parish council within the area I am standing for. How many are members of our hospital ? The answer should be every single one of

them.

If elected I want to significantly increase the membership within my area. There is no reason why every single resident over the age of 18 years in Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton should be a member of the hospital.

I then want to work in my area to recruit new volunteers to give time in our hospital.  A few days ago I was speaking to the receptionists in the A & E department, asking them what help they needed from volunteers.

How many pints of blood are used each day in University Hospital Milton Keynes  ?  I don't have a

clue but I intend to find out. I will be looking to my area to double its contribution to the National Blood Donor Service.

In a couple of weeks time it is my next donor session. I am told I will receive an award, an award for donating 25 pints. You know, I am ashamed of that !  As a young man at college the matron was giving blood and received an award for donating FIFTY pints of blood. She tried to persuade we undergraduates to donate. NO WAY !  I

was not having a needle stuck in me and a pint of blood taken out of my body. Why ?  Because I was a sad, pathetic, miserable, sniveling coward ! If I had not been so pathetic I would not be getting an award for 25 pints but for 175 pints. 

Do you know when my daughter Rebekah was receiving life-saving transfusions I still was not donating !  Are you a blood donor or are you, like I was, a coward ?

Do you recognise this lady ?  This is Elizabeth Ward whose son Tim - Timbo died from kidney failure.

In a small way when my Rebekah was in and out of hospital I worked with Elizabeth. She founded the kidney donor card which became our present organ donor system. Elizabeth said to me that the day would come when people did not carry a donor card, it would be natural to donate. We are not quite there yet but not far off.

Beck died young, age 34, but she would not have survived childhood without her kidney transplant.  I want to encourage organ donation right across my area.

Don't take your organs to heaven, leave them on earth where they can save lives.

Every week on my Monday radio programme I have a

little feature MONDAY MORNING MEDICAL MOMENT. This will, of course, continue and be used as a foundation to inspire more and more love for our NHS and hospital.

When I published my book about the adolescent new city of Milton Keynes the hospital had only just opened but it features heavily in the book.

This is not some new fad or idea on my part, I have loved Milton Keynes Hospital since the day it opened.

Voting closes one week today ?  Are you eligible to vote ?  Have you voted ?  Become a MEMBER now so you can vote in future elections. Results for this election will be known in early September. I do much hope that I win.  

If I will I am not going to make a big song and dance about things. I want to quietly engage the parish councils, the community organisations, shops and schools within Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton to help me spread love for our NHS and support for our hospital. Can I count on you ?