Our NHS is a wonderful thing

Last Wednesday night I suffered a sudden change in my heart rhythm, known as atrial fibrillation. I immediately recognised the symptoms because other members of my family have experienced the condition. Because I was not in pain, and because I knew it was not life threatening I left it till the following morning to walk over to The Docs and seek help. The wonderful team over there had me seen measured and dispatched off to the Manchester Royal Infirmary A&E department very swiftly, having already warned the hospital I was on the way. At A&E, after a bit of processing and paperwork I was in a ward being examined and treated, and by around three in the afternoon I walked out of the hospital with a normal heart rhythm. The staff in the hospital were very impressive in their efficient and effective professionalism combined with a friendliness and humanity that utterly contradicts all the NHS horror stories that have been in the news recently.



Thanks to these people I will be back on my bicycle pedalling to work on Monday morning as normal. I will be taking the ride gently for some time, and I will be trying to avoid stressful situations for even longer. Sadly it is probably the stress that I have been subjected to whilst I put together the GMCC newsletter that landed me in hospital, but that is a long story and best left to another post.