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‘But the article is full of praise for your concern for your patients… It even contrasts the treatment your cancer patient received and her recovery with the experiences of other women locally. And it calls for lists to be made available to patients comparing operational success-rates—something you’ve always said they have the right to see. Has David said anything more to you about wanting you to retire…?’
‘Not directly, but there have been hints. It’s virtually common knowledge now that the Northern is the favourite to get the Accident Unit.’
Elizabeth watched him sympathetically.
‘When David sees this it will probably just confirm what he’s already decided—that I’m no longer fit to be in charge of a surgical unit!’
* * *
‘Brian, have you seen this article in the Gazette? What…?’
‘Yes, I have,’ Brian confirmed, adding enthusiastically, ‘It’s excellent publicity for us, David, and not just for us but for the Health Service as a whole. It shows just how innovative and forward-thinking we can be, and how open to exploring new ideas and acting on them…’
‘New ideas… deciding when to operate by the time of the month…?’
‘The story’s been picked up by a couple of the nationals already,’ Brian continued. ‘The Telegraph were particularly keen to run an article on it…’
‘What? That means the Minister’s bound to see it. Have you any idea what fools it’s going to make us look?’
‘Fools?’ Brian protested. ‘Some of the teaching hospitals are already considering running serious trials based on the premises that Richard used… That’s how seriously they’re taking it…’
‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the country,’ David continued, overriding Brian’s protest. ‘I warned you months ago, Brian, that Humphries was a liability, and I’m afraid I shall have to tell the Minister so. She’s
bound to raise the matter next week when she comes down.
‘If you want my advice, your wisest course would be to dissociate yourself as much as you possibly can from what’s happened. You’ll have to accept some responsibility, of course… It’s a pity you spoke to the Press without consulting me first. Still, it does mean that at least we’ve got a perfect excuse for getting rid of Humphries now. We could hardly do anything else. It’s bound to affect his credibility, people’s faith in him as a surgeon, and indirectly, through him, their faith in the General as a hospital.
‘The Northern have cut their staff down quite dramatically along with shortening their waiting lists by weeding out what turned out to be a good many unnecessary operations,’ David told him smoothly. ‘Christopher Jeffries agrees with me that patients who refuse to take proper care of their health and who in fact prejudice their own chances of recovery and therefore waste both the Authority’s time and money must be made to realise that they really cannot expect the Health Service to put right what amounts to self-inflicted damage.’
‘You can’t legislate against people like that,’ Brian protested. ‘It goes against the whole ethos of the Health Service…’
‘It’s for their own good,’ David contradicted him smoothly. ‘Smokers, drinkers—they need to realise that they are responsible for their own health problems. Now that is what I call forward-thinking… not some idiotic belief that the position of the moon affects a patient’s chances of recovery from an operation.’
Smokers… drinkers… what next? Brian wondered tiredly as he replaced the receiver. Drug addicts, suicide attempts… the elderly… would they be considered to be responsible for their own ill health and treatment refused them accordingly?
He sat back in his chair, appalled by the knowledge of what might potentially happen when human beings took it upon themselves to play God.
One rule for the rich, another for the poor. He had thought the Health Service had come into being to put an end to that.
Suddenly he felt very tired and very old.
* * *
‘I hope you didn’t mind… about my giving that interview to the Gazette, Hannah Jacobs told Richard hesitantly as he finished examining her. ‘Only it was Mr Hamilton who suggested it. He said that since I obviously felt so strongly about what you had done, the trouble you had taken, I should share it with other women… give them the opportunity to benefit as I had done; and then when the Gazette approached me I remembered what he’d said and gave them the interview…’
Richard frowned. Blake Hamilton had said nothing to him about giving her any such advice, although they had discussed the case.
‘I don’t mind at all,’ Richard assured her only semi-truthfully. Both the Mail and the Telegraph had run stories on the article. Ian had rung him up to tease him about his publicity and so, of course, had a variety of other medical colleagues.
What exactly was Blake Hamilton trying to do? He had not struck Richard as a particularly manipulative type of man; they had got on well together and had seemed to share corresponding views, and yet there was no doubt in Richard’s mind after listening to his patient that Hamilton had manipulated her… For what purpose: to discredit him further with David? But how could that possibly benefit Blake Hamilton, who had seemed to share his own contempt for David?
‘I don’t understand why he should have involved himself,’ Richard told Elizabeth later. ‘What is he trying to do…?’
‘Why don’t you ask him?’ Elizabeth suggested reasonably.
‘It isn’t as simple or as straightforward as that,’ Richard told her. ‘We’ve got the Minister visiting us tomorrow. Brian’s in a real flap about it. It looks as if the Northern is going to get the new Accident Unit,’ he added quietly. ‘Nothing official has been said yet, but…’
Elizabeth watched him unhappily. No matter what she said to him or how much she tried to comfort him, to help him adopt a positive attitude towards the prospect of his retirement, it would achieve nothing unless Richard himself changed.
