A former nurse who was born on the same day as the health service has spoken of her love of the NHS after it saved her life.
Madeline Brockett was born on July 5, 1948 as the Health Service was brought into being and spent her whole career in nursing before retiring in 2007. After a lifetime of service the NHS saved Madeline’s life when she had a near-fatal heart attack three years ago.
Now as she celebrates her own birthday and the 75th anniversary of the NHS today, Madeline has called on politicians of all parties to unite to save her beloved service.
She told the Daily Record: “They have got to increase the numbers of doctors and nurses. There are not enough to cope, we definitely need more people.
“Junior doctors are working really hard on call with hardly any sleep and then in the morning they are still there for consultants to do their ward rounds and get their orders. It is a hard job.”
When Madeline’s parents Nancy and Peter Harris welcomed their baby daughter into the world they were among the first to do so under a free health service. Madeline was the Harris’s first born child but, unlike other babies born in Scotland before that date, there was no charge for mum and dad.
Madeline said: “It was quite hard for them before the NHS because they had to pay to see a doctor. My grandmother was very good at trying her own remedies before going to the doctor and she was quite well known for her remedies and stories.” And her granny thought the NHS was “fantastic”.
Whether it was because of the advent of the NHS or Granny Madeline McCartney’s own remedies, she lived well into her 90s. Given her family’s caring history, it was no surprise when young Madeline herself went into nursing.
Madeline was first an auxiliary nurse and then after 13 years became a nurse clerkess until she retired in 2007. She worked in both the medical and stroke units at Glasgow Royal Infirmary – less than four miles from Robroyston Hospital where she was born.
She married her husband David and kept good health until she was in her 50s. But things took a turn for the worse on the health front and Madeline is in no doubt it was the NHS which saved her life.
The granny, from Uddingston, said: “In my 50s my health started to deteriorate. I suffer from asthma and get unwell with it. Three years ago I had a heart attack and I was at the resuscitation stage but the doctors were absolutely fantastic.
“I could have died quite easily. It was only with them working on me and keeping going that I am still here. I am not as healthy as I used to be but I am still pretty fit for my age.
“I have a lot to thank the NHS for. I knew a lot of the senior doctors from when they were junior doctors.”
One of Madeline’s younger sisters, Betty Marshall, lives in the United States with her husband Roger and her experience of health care is far different. Madeline appreciates the free NHS even more since Betty moved to the US.
She explained: “My sister was a nurse too and met Roger, who is American, when they both worked in Saudi. They married in Singapore a few years later and then returned to America to live. When they landed in Oklahoma there was a bit of a fuss in the airport involving a man with a knife.”
Roger, a former soldier, went to assist and was stabbed through a kidney and rushed to hospital. But instead of being treated like the hero he was, Betty had to get a bank order before they would even begin to treat him because they hadn’t sorted out medical insurance as they had just arrived in the country.
Madeline said: “They had to pay for everything in hospital, right down to paper towels. Because she was a nurse she was able to take him home and look after him at home.
“They had to pay thousands of dollars but it would have been much worse if she had not been able to look after him. The whole situation was very frightening for her. When you know things like that it makes you appreciate our health service.”
She is full of praise for the staff in our hospitals: “They work extremely hard and they have a lot to put up with.”
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