Tag Archives: british culture

Earlier this week I lost my grandmother, and while it’s been a deeply challenging week, especially for my mother and grandfather, I’ve been struck on numerous occasions with the way in which the British state came to our aid- and made the process go as perfectly as we could have asked for. 

The healthcare she received was beyond excellent and was done with a kindness and compassion that still surprises me in its depth. My sister heads off to medical school in about three weeks, and I very much hope that that is the kind of Doctor that she turns into. 

Having worked at a GP surgery for a year, I’m cognisant of the fact that the NHS is on its knees, and I suspect won’t survive for many more years bar reform of the highest order (which our new Prime Minister has neither the will nor the political capital to deliver). But I sincerely hope that we never lose the ethos of the system; that everyone matters, and that health doesn’t come with the tap of a credit card, but instead with a beaming smile. 

We knew from about 10.00 on Wednesday that she wasn’t going to make it through the day, and from that moment to her passing at almost 18.00 the staff in the ICU did not make a single mistake. The rest of my family remains quite religious, and at no point did they falter in aiding us in the religious acts that people wanted to undertake. They provided white string and cotton wool, tracked down a hijab for my sister. I will never forget the image of a female Chaplain with a Scottish accent delivering a booklet of Islamic prayers and asking if the Chaplaincy could help find an Imam. I said to my parents at the time; in how many other countries would we get this? Multiculturalism in all its glory, and human compassion shining through.