I have some temp work at a private medical centre (remaining nameless for contract reasons). Now, before I am shot down for selling out my socialist credentials, a) I didn’t know what it was til I got there at 9am, and b) I’m working on the transfer of NHS cases to the private sector so as to reduce waiting list times.

For the first part of the day I had to cross-reference names from one list to the mastercopy of the waiting list, and then delete them. I passed the time by pretending I was Stalin, purging the Glorious Soviet Republic of counter-revolutionary scum (complete with cries of “die, Trotskyite!” when nobody was within earshot). Because that’s how I envisage a true Socialist State.

However, I had a mild revelation: the NHS really is fucked. 18 month waiting lists, 1800 people just for orthopaedic operations in the Merseyside area. But to make things worse, we appear to only have about half the files (the rest, hopefully, will turn up tomorrow) for the patients on the list. This isn’t the private company’s fault, incidentally – it’s all down to an NHS that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. (Although if you want the truth as to why the NHS is under *so* much strain, the answer is the elderly; I’d guesstimate that 98% of people on the waiting list are over 65, and certainly over 60. Make of that what you will).

But I do question the wisdom of paying some kid £6 an hour to sort out the waiting list. Luckily I’m reasonably conscientious, and make big efforts not to make mistakes, and to correct the ones I do make - but somebody less committed might not have cared if a few names went off the list when they should have stayed. And that would mean an old person somewhere, probably already poor and in pain, waiting even longer for their operation – and maybe not getting it at all. Scary stuff.

 (For covering-my-arse disclaimer reasons, on the outside chance anyone from the press reads this, I do not authorise you to reproduce what I have said, and will not talk to you. My temp boss is a nice guy (for a pure capitalist who leeches the surplus of my labour value), and i don’t want to land him in the proverbial poop).

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