During the 2010 general election, two grand politicians came to visit the teaching hospital where a doctor friend of mine worked. He had finished a 13 hour night shift, and, at a loose end, decided to track those two grand politicians’ journey around the hospital. They visited the impressively equipped cardiology wards, stopped by at a premature baby unit (if you can’t have a photo of you kissing a baby, you can at least get one next to an expensive incubator with an even tinier baby inside it), and moved on to the oncology wards to talk to patients battling cancer.
My friend went home feeling rather disconsolate. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with those wards that the grand politicians visited: it was just that between one well-funded specialty and the next, they missed out an entire floor in the hospital. That floor, unsurprisingly, was geriatrics. The doctor didn’t blame the person in charge of the itinerary for missing it out: it was just that he thought the visitors should see what one of the least loved specialties looked like.
Over Christmas, the newspapers have been packed with headlines about that least-loved specialty, but today, the focus turns elsewhere.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in