Many are keen to show their appreciation of the heroic efforts of our National Health Service. In tumultuous times we look to such professionals, for they are the one-eyed in the kingdom of the blind. However, a nurse who’s one of those working on the front line, told me that in her opinion it’s too early to give them all a round of applause.
‘Yes I work for the NHS, but it’s my job, I get paid to do it. I certainly don’t want everyone standing on their doorstep clapping for us all. Not yet anyway. I don’t want to seem ungrateful and would love a clap, but when we’re at the other end.’
When people came out of their homes to applaud at 8pm last night, was this a genuine show of appreciation or are we feeling so useless that we’re reduced to making hollow gestures? Hopefully there’s more to most of us than that, and 400,000 volunteers would seem to be living proof of this.
But we also have to hope that senior managers do a better job of organising these volunteers than the mess they made of getting protective gear to the front line.
