Thought for the Day, 1 July 2008

Indarjit Singh

Last Sunday, the actor Richard Briars, speaking on Radio 4, made a moving plea for help for those who are both blind and deaf. The appeal was to help people, living in a fearsome existence of silence and darkness to purchase vibrating smoke alarms and similar devices to help them cope with the hazards of everyday life. Such appeals beg the question why can't we all pay a little more in taxes to meet such basic human need?

This week we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the start of the National Health Service that was created to do just this by the provision of health care that was equally available to all whatever their means. Sixty years on, significant increases in funding are being outpaced by expensive new treatments and the retirement from economic activity of those born in the post-war baby boom. New initiatives are clearly required to meet growing demand.

Yesterday's announcement of new proposals to improve standards of patient care and make clinically appropriate drugs equally available to all, are welcome steps to fairer and more effective provision, but these have to be complimented by additional savings. Improving efficiency can help, but there is concern among doctors that new initiatives like replacing traditional surgeries with larger polyclinics could endanger the 'family doctor' concept of knowing and helping the patient to better all round health, rather than impersonally treating isolated symptoms.

Sikh teachings, like those of other religions remind us of the need to extend this holistic approach to looking to the health of not only the individual but the family and society in general. Prevention is better than cure and it has been estimated for example, that every pound spent on a child's health could save eight pounds in later life.

The Gurus also reminded us that a healthy personal lifestyle and active concern for those around us are essential to personal and wider wellbeing We can't do much about the cost of health care but can significantly reduce need, by moving away from today's unhealthy obsession with pandering to self "because we're worth it", to looking to what Sikhs call 'seva', or active concern for those around us, particularly for the lonely and disadvantaged. Sikh teachings remind us that looking to the needs of others gives us a more balanced perspective on our own lives as well as benefiting society as a whole-and it's cost effective!