Sort yourself out, sort out your NHS
Phil Hammond – NHS doctor, BBC broadcaster, Private Eye journalist, activist and whistle-blowing comic – presents his 2017 UK national tour with two thoughtful and topical comedies rolled into one show, covering subjects he is passionate about; living well, staying sane, dying with dignity and saving the NHS.
In the first half, Phil ponders what we can do to sort ourselves out. He looks back on his 54 years and considers how he has apparently managed to remain sane in a family with a strong history of depression and suicide. Is he lucky, ignorant or just yet to be diagnosed? Can you prevent at least some mental illness by being kind to your mind? Phil considers deaths in his doctoring and his family – some too soon, others too drawn out – and ponders the case for both resisting and assisting suicide. Is it possible not to kill yourself before your time, yet die gently when your time comes? Laugh, think about sanity and plan your exit.
In the second half, Phil sets about saving the NHS. Our most prized asset is being ideologically and incompetently destroyed. The continuous political disruptions of the last 30 years are themselves a leading cause of death, as a public service for the sick is being reduced to a business opportunity to trap the elderly and worried well. The NHS was built on love but is now run on fear, and the stressed-out staff are often sicker than the patients. Services are being starved of funds, run down and sold off. Waiting times for the mentally ill are sadistically long. The government has placed a Do Not Resuscitate order on our NHS without telling us. But it’s not too late to remove it.
Dr Phil has had enough of top down deforms of the NHS. It’s time for a bidet revolution. From the bottom up. Life is for living, not medicalising. Live well, with a minimum of medical interference. Treat illness, don’t create it. Put evidence and empathy before politics. Ditch the market, cherish the carers, support the junior doctors, fund the frontline, avoid the harm, stop the waste, kill the fear, tell the truth, inspire, collaborate, recover, laugh, love, shout and reclaim our NHS. Are you in?
Phil Hammond was an NHS GP for twenty years, has worked in sexual health and now works in a specialist NHS team for young people with chronic fatigue. As a Private Eye journalist, he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, gave evidence to the public inquiry and was shortlisted for the Martha Gelhorn prize for investigative journalism for his Private Eye special report on the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers – Shoot the Messenger (2012) He first appeared at the Fringe in 1990 as half of the junior doctor double-act Struck Off and Die, with Tony Gardner. Phil has been an outspoken supporter of junior doctors in their current dispute with the English government, and has supported a High Court challenge to determine the legality of Jeremy Hunt’s power to impose a contract against their wishes. Phil is author of ‘Staying Alive, How to Get the Best from the NHS’ and ‘Sex, Sleep or Scrabble?’. He has appeared on Have I Got News for You, The News Quiz, The Now Show and Question Time
The show will be on 21st June at Swindon Arts Centre. Visit www.swindontheatres.co.uk or call 01793 524481 for more information.
