Dr Phil’s Health Revolution – A Review
Posted on 3rd July 2017Phil Hammond was quick to embrace the brilliance of universal healthcare, but also admit to its shortcomings, in his frank and candid talk on the NHS, how he came to work within it, and the cruel realities of working within a budget.
Presenting both his Edinburgh shows back to back was a bold move, and really shouldn’t have worked. After all, thumbing through the family album in the first half would appear to have little in common with a proselytizing health campaign centred on the Klangers. Actually, his touching family revelations and subsequent whistle-blowing as a junior doctor made his anger and fiery commitment to save the NHS so much easier to understand. He may have tiptoed gingerly around the audience’s perceived politics, but he still hammered home, with a winning charm, the importance of a good health, effective treatment and simple kindness.
Hammond had his audience howling with laughter, but they did so more in empathy than because of the sharpness of his wit. Ultimately, his indignation at the dismantling of something as precious as healthcare felt so heartfelt, and so well-reasoned, that to disagree seemed like flying in the face of logic and humanity.
By David Vass