Wednesday 15 September 2010

No age on the back of this, I'd guess at me, aged 9'ish.
Got this great input from my long time friend Sue, she works within the NHS, very much from the heart and a picture extremely well painted.   

Hello Daniel,

OMG, don't get me started! All of us that work in the NHS (in whatever role) know that there are huge holes in the patient journey. Most of us desperately want to plug those gaps, and are often appalled at the quality of service offered by our individual Trusts. Believe me, everyone who works within the system IS trying; but the NHS has always relied heavily on staff going that extra mile (without time or pay being provided) in order to maintain standards. The government provide targets, insist on certain protocols, but don't back that up with hard cash. MRSA screening for instance has cost every hospital a fortune....and there's no evidence that it is reducing hospital acquired infections, it's just removing resources from elsewhere because of some PR exercise. The PCT's are in charge of most of the money, which follows the patient according to the decision of the GP and is capped by national tariff and 'capped' figures for the number of patients a hospital is expected to see in any given year (how DO we guess how many will fall sick at one time?). New treatments come along, but the same story, no money, and certainly not now; and with increasing patient awareness, the demand for cutting edge care is growing exponentially. 
Many NHS staff feel entirely doomed, running on the spot and hoping that the patients won't notice and don't suffer. This blog could help. Have a look at the CQC website, get on the board of your local hospital, join a patient focus group, ask questions, go to the PALS website, shout loudly....give yourself a laugh and follow the link below, there'll be another 'vision' for better care coming along any minute.
You've got the ear of your community, and the attention of a wider audience; start scratching and the void under the NHS will open before you.


I love the end bit, "....the void under the NHS will open up before you". Thanks for that Sue xx.

It's my first day back at Uni on Monday, a year ahead which will only be interrupted by surgery, I hope! The blogs may get shorter as the work piles up, but the timetable for the first week seems comfortable. A 'day out in the Lake District', a 'day at a bird sanctuary' and lots of advice on sex, drugs and .....referencing!

STOP PRESS! Just had a phone call from my doctor. That in itself is great because it shows that someone in the system knows that I am still here. She has been told, that only a consultant can refer me to Addenbrookes, but because I have cancelled the Consultants appointment at Newcastle, thinking I was going to Addenbrookes, they now need me to make another appointment for me at Newcastle, which they have promised to 'fast-track'. 
If the Consultant at Newcastle thinks that I am suitable for surgery at Addenbrookes, he will refer me and the funding will be no problem. The only reason that he would not refer me, is if he thought I would not suit, or benefit from the De Vinci Machine process. Not sure what that means, because I am a fairly normal body size and my prostate gland is a standard plum shape. 

So now, I wait for the appointment at Newcastle, then go see the consultant there, he writes to Addenbrookes, they send me an appointment to see their consultant, I go to see him, then he then sends me an appointment for surgery, then I go back down for surgery....blimey, I'm glad it's not Cancer.........!

I've bought stuff on E Bay but never sold anything that way. I've set everything up so that I can do that today. What will I sell? Must pick something easy as a trial run I think; maybe just a book. I need to buy an external hard drive, at least 1tb, so if anyone out there has one, please get in touch. What I would give to have a memory capacity like that. I haven't even got 'instant access' to the one I've got!  




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