Immigration and the Welsh NHS

A hospital post

Yes, another one.

For those who know me or follow me on social media you will know that I have not been a stranger to the inner workings of the Welsh NHS and more specifically the Princess of Wales hospital in Penybont ar Ogwr (Bridgend to my English friends).

For those of a squimish nature you may want to avoid the following two paragraphs.

So here’s a quick recap. Admitted as an emergency, screaming like a baby, twisted bowel 10 inches of intestine removed, sewn up, recovered sent home. 12 months later hernia repair fails, booked in for hernia op. Have op, go home, happy days. Two days later wake in a pool of blood and a fever. Wound infected. Back in, massive op, home, recover. About a week later back in A&E with blood coming from the wound. Have around a litre of blood and massive blood clot removed. I now have a huge hole to the left of my belly button. Took almost a year of wound packing and vac pumps to close up, left with pinhole wound that leaked exudate for months. Over a year ago, another hernia failure. Surgeon repairs hernia and cuts out the pinhole. I am now without a bellybutton. Early October referred to hospital for scan by GP following pains and a fever. Have scan following day, four days later and I’m having my gallbladder out. Home, all is well….

This takes us up to today. I came in on Monday with a fever and swollen abdomen, by the end of the day following a scan, a drain is placed into my abdomen to release the contents of an abdominal abscess. Four days later, today, I’m going home with my drain and bag of ooze to continue my recovery, back next week for a scan and hopefully have the drain removed.

So six plus operations later and numerous short stays I can say with some confidence that I’m aware of the goings on in a hospital.

Immigration 

Something I have focused on in my previous writings is immigration within the health service. At a time where immigration is being continually framed as a problem my experiences this time round are particularly relevant.

On all my previous visits to the Princess of Wales I have been on wards exclusively occupied by, mainly, older white Welsh gentlemen. Whilst the only immigrants I have encountered are the amazing medical staff recruited from across the globe who have treated and cared for me for the umpteenth time.

During the past 12 months incidents of racial abuse towards hospital staff have increased by almost 50%. Ironically that’s around the same percentage of people who believe that the majority of immigrants coming to the UK are doing so by crossing the channel in not so small boats.

It’s insane that in an age of constant access to news and information how ill informed we are as a society.

The reality is the vast majority of immigrants, 90%+, come here to study or work, contributing in their own different ways to the UK economy. The higher estimate for people arriving by small boat to seek asylum is 5%, it’s more likely to be around 3%.

I can say with quite a high level of confidence that the creaking health service and the “on the verge of collapse” social care sector would fail completely without those people we invited here to help us.

This week, Wednesday at 4 in the morning to be precise, a new patient joined our ward, and guess what he wasn’t white.

Following his gallbladder operation, virtually identical to mine, I finally got to chat to the gentleman, Dr Khan. Yes that’s right, I finally come across someone that isn’t white British and it turns out he’s a retired GP who served his local community of Abercynffig for 49 and a half years.

His story is wonderful, studied medicine at university in Kolkata, then spent a few years working as a ship’s doctor, treating the Ill and delivering babies at sea. Popped of a ship in England to take up a position in a hospital, and decided he wanted to help a wider community and ended up outside Bridgend as a GP who also covered the small local hospitals of which only Maesteg still stands.

His contribution to the community he served goes way beyond the hundreds if not thousands of patients he treated.

What started as a brief chat comparing notes on gallbladder ops became an hour long discussion on community cohesion, racial abuse, social care and preventive health.

Dr Khan is one of the many thousands from across the commonwealth who answered our post war call to help rebuild and build a new better Britain. He stayed, made his home here and raised a family of new Welsh citizens, but most of all he has left a lasting positive imprint on the fabric of South Wales.

Diolch Dr Khan

The framing of immigration as a “problem” has to stop, and it’s the duty of public interest news services like Talking Wales to look at immigration through an impartial lens and to inform the public of our findings. If you agree please become a member,