Guest Blog from Amari Blaize in response to my NHS blog:

Amari Blaize

Thanks to Amari for this Guest Blog today - written in response to my blog Theatre while you work at The NHS: Blog 48

I love the NHS. I think we Brits are very fortunate to live in a society that provides a health service free at the point of delivery. It must be protected at all costs. AND THERE IS A HUGE ‘BUT’.

Just as governments pander to the rich and powerful lobbies – food, tobacco, drink, arms, so the health service panders to the pharmaceutical companies. I have no wish to take a political stance, although it is about politics…the politics of health. Having had to confront a critical illness over the last five years, I have first hand experience of a health service whose whole raison d’etre is the ‘management of symptoms’ through allopathic drugs, and know little to nothing about healing. And certainly have no consideration for the ‘wholeness’ of the person.

And having participated in the past with the kind of formulaic approach to forum theatre that does that ‘wash and go’ thing, I do hope the NHS has the good sense to commission ARC Theatre for Change to do a piece on, in that doctor’s words: “culture shift…that promotes putting patients at the heart of the decisions that doctors make about patient’s healthcare…’No Decision About Me Without Me’.”

An indication of their good intention would be to ensure that an Arc piece runs the length and breadth of the British Isles, engage a cross section of those who ‘care for patients’ from the cleaners and caters to the nurses and consultants. And there is real monitoring of progress and a follow up in a year, then five years, and constantly taking the temperature through patient feedback over time. But that aint gonna happen is it? We can only do the best we can with what we get.

So here is a challenge for you Madam Director: How to weave a Web of Transformation (back to Cinders) in a fossilised structure or Matrix of collective thought that is the NHS!