Cogitated & Digested

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has made a policy speech on funding for elderly care in Britain. He describes it:

"a stain on the moral conscience of this country"

Clegg vow on elderly care funding
Elderly care 'a stain on country'

He proposes a "Care Guarantee... to fund the great majority of long term social care needed". The estimated cost is approximately £2 billion. The current annual budget for NHS is about £70 billion, it's a bit more difficult to work out the social care budget as it is deveolved to the remit of local authorities. One thing that is for certain is that the much vaunted increase in NHS budget over the last ten years has not been met by an increase in local government funding.

I know a little bit about funding through work but I'm by know means an expert. From personal experience, some of the bed pressures in hospital are due to admissions or delay in discharging elderly or infirm patients to an appropriate place of care, or with a "care package" in place.

We can argue the toss about who should pay for what, out of which budget and how it should be funded. What I am unsure about is whether the general public will really believe it is worth it.

My general experience is that people genuinely do not know what life is like for some of our older people unless they fall into a situation where their parent or other relative needs personal care. Most people want to do their bit but the nature of society today is more fragmented than before, with smaller and less extended families close by.

Fundraising for hospitals, although very welcome and well intentioned, is often directed to cancer, heart or children's facilities. Now some of that is due to personal experience but if people decide to hold an event to often goes to one of the above areas.

The NHS is such a politically important area that priorities for governments do come from focus groups of the electorate.

I think what I'm trying to say is that, sometimes, we get the society that we deserve.

So next time you want to fundraise, or donate, think about the elderly or mental health. Choose your local care of the elderly ward rather than Coronary Care.

Believe me your donation will have more impact there, no matter how small.

And come up with a nice name for a Children In Need style night for people at the other end of the spectrum!

A little quote I found on NHS Blog Doctor

The NHS Institute has found that ward nurses in acute settings spend an average of just 40% of their time on direct patient care. Recent research by Nursing Times also shows that nearly three in four ward nurses say that is not enough and 90% of those polled say that patient care suffers as a result. The Productive Ward is an innovative and practical programme of work which aims to help turn around this situation by releasing time to care. More than that it's a systematic and inclusive approach to improving the reliability, safety and efficiency of the care that you deliver. By creating a really strong focus on the processes of care within your ward setting the Productive Ward will significantly increase the proportion of time you spend providing direct care to patients, improve the experience of both staff and patients and organise your ward so that space works for you rather than against you – saving you time, effort and money.

 Management speak. How frustrating. This is what gets on people's wicks!

A spade for a spade and the world gets food.

Well, it's late and I'm feeling so tired; having trouble sleeping. Not really, just started that line and this particular song came into my head (see the end).

End of an era. My housemate moved out on Friday. Perfect arrangement: paid the rent but was hardly here and when he was, great to get along with. The little star even bought me a bottle of Cointreau and the game Operation as a thank you present!

And tomorrow a new chapter as a new lodger moves in, she'll be arround more than my previous one so shall see how things transpire. Actually really enjoyed selecting the new tenant, though the final decision was a bit difficult as a late entrant had a good case. But he could only manage nine weeks and I didn't fancy having to do it all again near the exams.

I've been up late cleaning the house and trying to get everything ready. Still a lot of junk everywhere though. Need a trip to the tip to take the recycling, boxes etc.

Off to bed with this beautiful song in my head.

noun plural caesuras or caesurae 1. A break or pause in a line of verse, usually occurring in the middle of a line, and indicated in scanning by a double vertical line; for example, "The proper study || of mankind is man" [Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man]. 2. Any break, pause, or interruption. Caesura comes from Latin caesura, "a cutting off, a division, a stop," from the past participle of caedere, "to cut."

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A bit of a new one on me. Cutting myself off from work for a bit (two whole days), I have been on a nineteen day stretch so looking forward to the rest. Nice events planned for this weekend. Cooking a roast for my good friend R and his fiancée. Catching up with Gig Buddy, seeing Sand sing in the choir. Said he wanted to ring me the other day, but didn't in case I was busy with work . I put him right. I don't know about other people but the good thing about mobile phones is they have an off button which you can use at any point. If you do not want to be contacted you can use it. It fails me when people are disturbed by them and annoyed by it. No-one to blame but yourself. And a couple of people coming to see the house about the spare room. Some stories to be told there for next time ...

adjective: 
1. Feeling or expressing remorse for one's misdeeds or sins.

noun:  

1. One who is penitent.

2. A person performing penance under the direction of a confessor.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin penitens, penitent-, from Latin paenitens, present participle of paenitere, to repent.]

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Bit of a while since my last blog - busy times! Last two weeks of my job after my holiday were horrendously busy. Now I've moved on to A&E. Initially with quite a bit of trepidation but I'm quite enjoying it at the moment.

The first quarter of the year has come to an end so a good time to take stock. To see what has gone well and what I can do better. In days of yore this would have probably entailed me going to the local priest and seeking absolution.

Work
1. I passed the first part of my postgraduate qualification. Part two this July, hopefully will be able to pass this and get the whole shebang sorted by July next year.
2. Achieved enough in my assessments to move on to the next training post.
3. Got the next post I wanted - Oncology, Palliative Medicine and Respiratory. Which will hopefully merge seamlessly into my career destination of palliative medicine.

Life
1. Making some friends in the new area, a couple of successful dinners with them.
2. Not made any fatal errors with Sand, still in the periphery for when the time is right, hopefully. Aiming to be strong so he realises what a fantastic stable person I am to build things on

Things To Build On
1. Need to get back into the fitness regime following the knee problems - and as I'm staying here for a further 16 months I am going to join the gym.
2. Revision for aforementioned exams.
3. Still feel shy round the new gang of people,  need to try and show my light a bit better. I think that is just a matter of time rather than anything else.

Onwards and upwards!