My song today is ‘One Call Away’. This song by American singer Charlie Puth was released in August 2015. ‘One Call Away’ reached Number 12 on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’, making it Puth's third top 40 single in the US, and his third highest-charting single as a lead artist to date.
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I was born in 1942 and during my early upbringing, one of the aspects of which Great Britain used to be rightfully proud of was that all emergency services were only ‘one call away’. Have a poorly child in the middle of the night and a call to the local GP would guarantee that a home visit would be made within the hour. Today, home visits went out the window the very same day the doctors received a 20 percent wage rise, taking every GP in the country to over £100,000 annual salary. Since that huge pay rise many years ago, the local doctor has been able to work only three days a week or retire ten years earlier than they had initially planned if they so choose. As for attempting to even see a local doctor at the surgery any day since March 2020. and the presence of Covid-19 has been a futile exercise. The most anyone can hope for today is a telephone call consultation during which the doctor is now able to diagnose blindly; and only then if you can get through on the telephone line. I don’t know about you, but I bet most of the receptionists today simply put the ‘line in use’ sound on whenever she wants a cup of tea, have a fag on the side, or to put on her makeup?
In my youth, the country was properly policed, and every crime was investigated and had a much greater detection rate. Indeed, the clue to the strength of the police presence could be seen in its original title of the ‘Police Force’ and not the ‘Police Constabulary’. Whereas the term ‘Force’ related to its power, the term ‘Constabulary’ applies to its designated area. Ever since capital punishment was abolished for the murder of a police officer during the mid-1960s, police officers have been murdered in increasing numbers. The police no longer have sufficient officers to patrol our streets, and burglaries are no longer investigated. In fact, police numbers are so insufficient to combat the current crime rate that it is simply pointless to contact them if one expects to see someone that same day. The only reason to contact the police today is to obtain an insurance reference for a claim after your house has been burgled.
In my youth, if an ambulance was called out to a home in the event of a medical emergency, it would usually be there within ten minutes. Today, it can take hours, and even when it eventually arrives, there is no guarantee that there will be some operative on the ambulance who has both the equipment in the ambulance and the knowledge to use it, in order to save a life, like heart attacks. During the annual winter crisis, it is now usual to see our hospitals overcrowded with more patients than there are beds (or corridors) to accommodate them. Our hospitals are operated by overworked, underpaid, and under-resourced staff, while ambulances stand in long queues outside, unable to offload their ill passengers.
I will not itemise the full range of services that any member of the public could once call upon in time of need or emergency but sadly, no longer can. During the current pandemic virus that has pervaded the globe, mental health (the Cinderella of the NHS) has been greatly overlooked and too many people have taken their own lives during a state of acute depression and moments of desperation.
During my lifetime I have personally known of the lifeline that the ‘Samaritans’ have provided to so many people. The more modern pioneering founder, Dame Esther Rantzen, D.B.E. has established telephone lifelines for children (Childline) and older lonely citizens (The Silver line) to counter parental abuse and loneliness in old age.
There have always been the lifelines that a good friend has been able to provide. By being there for you, they are rarely more than ‘one call away’.
Love and peace Bill xxx