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Topics: Celebrity News, Health, Jeremy Clarkson, NHS, Celebrity
Joshua Nair
Topics: Celebrity News, Health, Jeremy Clarkson, NHS, Celebrity
Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that he was hospitalised after he'd written a column which called out the NHS.
The former Top Gear presenter has long been a critic of the National Health Service, claiming it is a 'creaking old monster' as it simply costs too much.
After his Sunday Times column was published on 4 October, the TV personality was rushed to hospital after feeling unwell, though he didn't share his condition, noting 'that's none of your business'.
But he did admit that the timing was ironic, despite the treatment being 'Defcon 1 painful' as Clarkson was required to stay overnight in a situation which left him feeling nervous.
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Earlier this year, the 65-year-old recalled that he felt the effects of having 'blocked arteries' while on holiday, leaving him with a tight chest, feeling breathless and pins and needles in his left arm which resulted in him calling an ambulance.
He then underwent surgery and was fitted with a life-saving stent.
In the more recent event, Clarkson wrote for The Sunday Times on 12 October: "Nine hours after that piece appeared on the nation’s kitchen tables, I needed to go to hospital in something of a hurry.
"I was poorly and I needed urgent hospital treatment and the NHS was my only option."
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He said his private care doctor was in London, almost two hours away.
The presenter joked that the staff had to 'chisel me off the ceiling with a spatula' when he got to the NHS hospital in Oxford.
Luckily, nobody knew or cared who he was when he walked through the doors, though when a man finally asked if he was the real Clarkson, he admitted: "I told him I wasn’t, partly because of that morning’s column, but mostly because I didn’t fancy doing an a**e-out selfie."
Recalling his overnight stay, the Clarkson's Farm star said there were 'worse hotels' he'd stayed in from his days travelling.
While Clarkson did mention that he was left in the corridor for a few minutes before a scan, he admitted that 'you’d have to be pretty churlish to moan about that'.
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"I genuinely couldn’t find anything to moan about at all," he said, before claiming: "The doctors, the nurses and everyone I met were kind. It was all spotless. Lunch was kids’ food-brilliant, and they even made me better - for which I shall be eternally grateful."
Clarkson did say that while many would be expecting him to change his tune, this still isn't the case, even after his latest health scare.
"Yes, it’s an excellent organisation and the frontline staff are superb. But in its current state, we as a nation cannot afford it," the former Grand Tour presenter claimed.