A Hard Year For Us All

A HARD YEAR FOR US ALL

Oh, where have you been, my GP team?
Oh, where have you been, whilst you I’ve not seen?
We’ve worked every day of this dreadful pandemic
We’ve managed all kinds of conditions systemic
We’ve delivered shots at the Covid vaxs clinic
We’ve tended the folk whose hearts are ischaemic
We’ve been close at hand to those emphysemic
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s been a hard year, for us all

Oh, what did you see, my GP team?
Oh, what did you see, whilst you I’ve not seen?
We’ve seen face to face those we needed to
We’ve seen desperation in not just a few
We’ve seen the dyspnoeic as they became blue
We’ve seen all the poorly requiring review
And palliative people their dying all through
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s been a hard year, for us all

Oh, what did you hear, my GP team?
Oh, what did you hear, whilst you I’ve not seen?
We’ve heard news reports that caused us to bridle
We’ve heard people saying that GPs were idle
We’ve heard some denying the pandemic viral
We’ve heard people crying – fighting for survival
We’ve heard those describing their thoughts suicidal
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s been a hard year, for us all

Oh, who did you meet, my GP team?
Oh, who did you meet, whilst you I’ve not seen?
We’ve met with so many their mood melancholic
We’ve met young and old with a too high systolic
We’ve met those in pain from their biliary colic
We’ve met breathless people from causes embolic
We’ve met those depressed by hardship economic
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s been a hard year, for us all

Oh, what’ll you do now, my GP team?
Oh, what’ll you do now, you who I’ve not seen?
We’ll watch as the problems towards us they throng
And lean on each other to somehow stay strong
And wonder how long all of this may go on
And whether or not we still want to belong
In a job where some things they seem sometimes so wrong
Cos it’s a hard, and it’s hard, it’s a hard, and it’s hard
It’s been a hard year, for us all.

After Bob Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ – in the week of his 80th birthday.

And if you want to make this year a little harder still for you to bear, a rendition of this song is available here

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For more song adaptations and woeful attempts at poetry, all with a GP flavour, please follow the links below:

To read ‘Baggy White Coats’, click here

To read ‘What a wonderful job this can be’, click here

To read ‘I am the very model of a General Practitioner’, click here

To read ‘I’ve got a little list’, click here

To read ‘On Call Days and Mondays’, click here

To read ‘My Least Favourite Things’, click here

To read ‘My Most Favourite Things’, click here

To read ‘The Wild GP’, click here

To read ‘Yesteryear’, click here

To read ‘GPs – Do You Remember?’, click here

To read ‘If’, click here

To read ‘Spare me a doctor’, click here

To read ‘I knew a Man’, click here

To read ‘Room Enough’, click here

To read ‘Old Hands’, click here

To read ‘Summertime’, click here

To read ‘GP Kicks’, click here

To read ‘How the grinch and Covid-19 stole General Practice’s Christmas’, click here

To read ‘’Twas the week bedore Christmas – 2020’, click here

To read ‘If’, click here

To read ‘I knew a man’, click here

To read ‘Reintroducing GPs Anonymous’, click here

To read ‘On not remotely caring’, click here