Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he was hospitalised just hours after publishing a column criticising the NHS.
The Clarkson’s Farm star hit out at the National Health Service over the years, and most recently suggested it was ‘just not financially viable anymore’ and describing the institution as a ‘creaking old monster’.
Nine hours after publishing that column, the former Top Gear presenter was rushed to hospital after falling ill.
The 65-year-old star did not reveal why he needed treatment (‘that’s none of your business’, he added), but the irony of the timing was not last on him as he noted the timeline.
‘Nine hours after that piece appeared on the nation’s kitchen tables, I needed to go to hospital in something of a hurry,’ he wrote in the Sunday Times on October 12.
‘I was poorly and I needed urgent hospital treatment and the NHS was my only option.’
He described his treatment as ‘Defcon 1 painful’, joking that staff needed to ‘chisel me off the ceiling with a spatula afterwards’.
Clarkson’s health scare required an overnight stay, while he admitted he was nervous having been so critical.
‘Mercifully, though, there was no indication they either knew, or cared, who I was when I arrived,’ he added.
The Grand Tour star ‘genuinely couldn’t find anything to moan about’ when it came to his time in hospital, as he praised the ‘kind’ staff described the place itself as ‘spotless’.
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‘They even made me better — for which I shall be eternally grateful,’ he wrote.
However, he insisted he still hasn’t ‘changed [his] mind about the NHS’, concluding: ‘Yes, it’s an excellent organisation and the frontline staff are superb. But in its current state, we as a nation cannot afford it.’
Clarkson has been open about his health struggles in recent years, and in October 2024 he opened up about being ‘days from death’ after a terrifying scare.
Writing for the Sunday Times, he recalled sudden and severe symptoms during a holiday, admitting he initially brushed them off needing surgery and a life-saving stent.
He returned home from his holiday and woke up feeling ‘clammy’ with a tight chest, but it was only after pins and needles in his left arm that he decided to call for an ambulance.
He was told at hospital how one artery was completely blocked with another nearly closed, which led to an angioplasty, which involved inserting a wire through his wrist to explore the damage in his arteries.
Surgeons avoided a full heart bypass as they instead fitted a stent to keep the artery open.
Clarkson described the two-hour operation as ‘not especially painful, just odd.’
However, he made it clear how close he was to catastrophe as he recalled the doctor telling him: ‘Days away? “Maybe.”‘
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