My dog walks with my friend Rosemary have been getting shorter and shorter. She can barely make it to the nearest bench, where she slumps down, breathless and exhausted. She knows what it might be. Her heart failing. She suspected this in April, so naturally she went to the doctor. The doctor contacted the hospital.
Nothing happened. Weeks passed, Rosemary puffed her way around, doctor sent a reminder to the hospital marked “urgent”. Nothing. More weeks crawled by. Doctor asked again. Rosemary was still on the waiting list. So in the meantime, she has been stopping and leaning all over the place.
“It’s a chronic whatsit pulmonary disease exercise,” says she. “Lean on a table and bend over, and that helps.”
Then she staggered across town to visit her grandchildren, foolishly carrying two bags of fruit and vegetables, but had to stop and lean over some railings.
“So many people passed by,” said Rosemary. Then a street sweeper just finishing his shift spotted her. Did she need any help? Could he carry her bags? “Yes, please,” said Rosemary. “How kind. If you could just carry them to those traffic lights.” So he did. “He was eastern European,” said Rosemary. “Please don’t let’s send them away.”
Meanwhile, no news from the heart department. By last weekend, our walkie was hardly a walk at all. Rosemary crept from bench to bench and couldn’t quite make it to the car, so she clung to a parking machine and leaned over that, until I drove along and picked her up. “They’re understaffed, poor things,” says she. “It’s the cuts.” Correct. Earlier this year the “frontline in England” was possibly “as many as 50,000 staff short”. And that was pre-Brexit and a possible exodus of European staff.
Then at last Rosemary got an appointment. For last Wednesday. What a relief. She has been tremendously stoical. Not that it’s done her much good, but what choice did she have? Off she went, full of hope, to the community cardiac centre. Staff were excellent and did some routine tests. But bad luck, it was only an appointment to see if she still needed an proper appointment.
Aaaarrggghhh.
