The blog with no name

In case someone wonders about the brand new look I would like to point out that as I have no artistic abilities whatsoever this is not my work. I've tried not to touch the look before as I did not want to create a visual eyesore. I had to rely on the kindness of someone with talent. I think it looks good, thank you!

In the past few days I've started to read blogs of people that work for the NHS. I've started with the famous Random Acts of Reality which I've known for a long time but never sat down to read properly. If there is someone who still does not know this blog, given the recent media coverage it is the online diary of a London ambulance man. The other blog I'm trying to read is that quite famous NHS Doctor blog then I will move on and read the point of views of some nurses (that blog has lots of good links to other blogs by healthcare professionals).

I'm interested to know about the increasingly evident disintegration of the NHS and that's why I'm reading these blogs.
For instance I've not seen anything that makes me believe that subcontracting services to private companies saves money and makes the process more efficient. I'm still waiting for someone to convince me and these blogs don't help.

The other thing is what New Labour is good at is introducing targets and checklists which only look good on paper but in reality do little to help those that need help.

A good example from Dr Crippen:

Dorothy is on her knees. Eric needs full-tim care. He cannot be left. He should be in a nursing home. I have told social services that he needs residential care. They responded by saying that they would send “someone” round to “assess” him. I said I had already “assessed” him, but that will not do. I am not “someone”. When “someone” arrived, she had a clip board and a tick-sheet. Can Eric dress himself? Yes. Tick. (Well, sort of. Sometimes his shirt is back to front and he puts both legs down one hole in his old fashioned commodious underpants). Eric can also undress himself, and frequently does, but not in appropriate places nor at appropriate times. “Someone” asked Eric lots of questions. He was on best behaviour. He accrued enough “ticks” not to qualify for residential care. My opinion is irrelevant. The only option is the private sector. “Rich” though Eric and Dorothy are, they could not sustain that for more than a few months. Well, they will have to sell the house. Dorothy will do that if necessary, but where does she live? And even then, the money will soon run out.

So Doris should sell her house, make herself homeless and send her husband to a lovely little private place like this:

10:38 Set to a Bupa nursing home for a little old lady with a grotty chest infection. Quite seriously ill, and as is common in nursing homes 'it happened suddenly'.

After taking the patient away they asked for the oxygen mask back as it was the only one they had...

...why aren't we winning the fight against MRSA?

(For those that don't know, oxygen masks are one use items, otherwise illness, for example a CHEST INFECTION may be spread between two people).

Full post here

This is not just the issue of the free market model being applied to health and social care which I don't believe it works, but also the way elderly people are treated. A society should also be judged on how it treats its more vulnerable citizens, the ones that no longer produce and consume very little. You mention veiled women and lots of people go up in arms, the matter is discussed for weeks, headline news, but I don't see the same level of interest in discussing these issues yet most of us will become weak and frail one day.