These are just a few observations from having been a patient in a NHS hospital twice for a week on each occasion in the past 5 years. It is now called Croydon University Hospital, but still remains known to us as Mayday.
1. I think that "Hospital Food" has been given a bad name, and whatever they do, the public will continue to consider it poor, no matter how much individual hospitals improve it. We have become a nation of food snobs. On these two occasions I have enjoyed the food. The trouble is, if you say it is good, people raise their eyebrows and imagine that you don't eat very well at home. In fact, I do, having a good cook for a husband. And, luckily, one advantage of advanced age is that you don't care what people think.
2. There are enormous difficulties, one being that, with short stays, you are likely to get the food ordered by the previous occupant of the bed. I don't see how this can be avoided.
3. If old people are asleep, someone tends to fill in the form for them, and, afraid of ordering too little, order too much. I noticed in Mayday staff waking them and encouraging them to eat, but it's almost impossible for a hospital to provide carers with the time to coax them. They waste so much. Also, the servings are too big and discourage them.
4. If you are ill you are likely to have a poor appetite. If you don't feel like eating when you get the menu sheet and order little, you are encouraged to order more in case your appetite returns.
5. Many ethnic minorities so much prefer their own home-cooked food that families bring it in for them. I don't know if they also order from the menu. Possibly some do and that gets wasted.
6. On my latest stay in Mayday a researcher came round and asked me if my meal times were ever interrupted by nurses or doctors. I said no, but if they were wouldn't mind, considering myself there to be cured and their time more important than one meal for me.
7. Does it really make sense, even, in the long run, financially, to have a branch of Burger King as part of the restaurant service? The sight of a very overweight patient in his pyjamas eating there was a very disturbing one.
I wonder if it would be possible to have a trolley on each floor and patients could ask for what they want from it according to how they were feeling at that moment?
This blog is a plea for common sense in public policy. Our leaders don't seem to have any. They just make daft rules for us to follow. We need to assert our right to use our own good sense instead of ticking boxes which can only say 'yes' or 'no'.
Thursday 29 December 2011
Monday 26 December 2011
I am old, but NOT a grumpy old woman
I was disappointed to have this blog referred to as that of a Grumpy Old Woman. I am very conscious of the danger of becoming one of those, but try, about each development I complain of, to offer an alternative way of behaving. It seems to me that negativity is the curse of Britain at the moment and we shouldn't complain without offering something different, otherwise we should just shut up.
Friday 23 December 2011
David Cameron and morality
Of course David Cameron is right - in our search for money we have lost sight of morality. But why does he call them "Christian morals"? Primitive societies had their moral codes long before Christ appeared on the scene. Small societies depended on acting as one and had to be able to totally rely on each other's dedication to the common good. We have moved far, far away from that and in fact seem to be prone to even more outrageous crimes as the years go by, such as the super-rich refusing to pay the taxes which provide them with the amenities which even they need from the state (water, roads, sewage,etc.) and those who don't mind incapacitating hospitals or railways by removing the copper wiring that keeps them going.
We are in dire straits now, but all we see is politicians allocating blame to each other. It's too late for that, what is done is done. But it seems even the Coalition can't stick together. It is so ugly and useless to see the party leaders insulting each other. Let them recognise that the situation requires a combined effort of them and us to redress it and start by giving the lead with a bit of co-operation. Party politics was forgotten about in WWII. Why not now, when the danger is equally great? I don't suppose the French, cross as they are at the moment, are about to invade us, but we are in danger of our own society disintegrating around us. Of course we are all to blame in allowing the situation to get so bad, and we shall all have to pull together to reverse it. But who will lead us?
The ants manage to act as one in a crisis. Are we really the "lords of creation"?
We are in dire straits now, but all we see is politicians allocating blame to each other. It's too late for that, what is done is done. But it seems even the Coalition can't stick together. It is so ugly and useless to see the party leaders insulting each other. Let them recognise that the situation requires a combined effort of them and us to redress it and start by giving the lead with a bit of co-operation. Party politics was forgotten about in WWII. Why not now, when the danger is equally great? I don't suppose the French, cross as they are at the moment, are about to invade us, but we are in danger of our own society disintegrating around us. Of course we are all to blame in allowing the situation to get so bad, and we shall all have to pull together to reverse it. But who will lead us?
The ants manage to act as one in a crisis. Are we really the "lords of creation"?
Tuesday 13 December 2011
A Remedy for Cramp
Cramp is very, very painful and tends to wake you up at night, the more so as you get older. Years ago, reading The Oldie in a dentist's waiting room, I came across this remedy and my husband and I have used it ever since. You just put a real (not plastic) cork in the bed. It doesn't sound in any way scientific, but it works. Since real corks are disappearing fast in favour of plastic or screw-tops, perhaps it's a good idea to start collecting a few?
One night we both had cramp and discovered that, having changed the sheets, we had forgotten to put the cork back. This was something we only found out in the morning - no question of it being psycho-somatic cramp!
I am most grateful to The Oldie for this
Thursday 8 December 2011
My friend and I have been meeting regularly for lunch, every few months, for a great many years at a comfortable Victorian hotel. This time there was a gap of almost a year. Too long! The shell is still there, the inside is transformed into something much more up-market, colder, sharper, smarter. We had our lunch there, but for the last time. Our tradition is broken. No doubt they won't mind.
We had the habit of meeting in the foyer, but gone are the welcoming arm-chairs, and I was faced instead with standing beside a huge placard announcing the imminent opening of a Champagne Bar until my friend arrived - luckily straight away - we are the punctual generation! We set off towards "our" restaurant, but immediately noted that it's no longer for us. Glossy, expensive, it's not where we want to be. We repaired to the Brasserie, but that, too had a chichi look. Obviously the sort of place where you "wait to be seated" but nobody came forward for a while, and then without apology for the delay. The menu was full of pretentious phrases describing the food - the calves liver was said to be "seared", sounding an inappropriate way of dealing with it! The service was rather slow, but we didn't really notice staffthat, until afterwards when somebody approached us and asked about it. Not wanting to get the waiter in trouble we said it was acceptable, but I missed the opportunity to say that service is the essence of a pretentious restaurant, and it is no good spending lots of money on decor if you are going to stint on staff.
This was even more evident when, wanting to have coffee in the lounge, we discovered it was unaccountably closing at 4 p.m., though an important-looking man did summon a scarce waiter to bring us some in the corridor.
Of course, as everywhere, the toilets are superb. But they were perfectly adequate before.
Money seems available for everything except what matters most, people! It is the way you are treated that makes you want to come back. But I suppose I haven't got it right. All those marketing managers can't be wrong, can they?
We had the habit of meeting in the foyer, but gone are the welcoming arm-chairs, and I was faced instead with standing beside a huge placard announcing the imminent opening of a Champagne Bar until my friend arrived - luckily straight away - we are the punctual generation! We set off towards "our" restaurant, but immediately noted that it's no longer for us. Glossy, expensive, it's not where we want to be. We repaired to the Brasserie, but that, too had a chichi look. Obviously the sort of place where you "wait to be seated" but nobody came forward for a while, and then without apology for the delay. The menu was full of pretentious phrases describing the food - the calves liver was said to be "seared", sounding an inappropriate way of dealing with it! The service was rather slow, but we didn't really notice staffthat, until afterwards when somebody approached us and asked about it. Not wanting to get the waiter in trouble we said it was acceptable, but I missed the opportunity to say that service is the essence of a pretentious restaurant, and it is no good spending lots of money on decor if you are going to stint on staff.
This was even more evident when, wanting to have coffee in the lounge, we discovered it was unaccountably closing at 4 p.m., though an important-looking man did summon a scarce waiter to bring us some in the corridor.
Of course, as everywhere, the toilets are superb. But they were perfectly adequate before.
Money seems available for everything except what matters most, people! It is the way you are treated that makes you want to come back. But I suppose I haven't got it right. All those marketing managers can't be wrong, can they?
Tuesday 6 December 2011
What is it that all parents learn to do but no governments seem to think of?
In spite of the belief of the grumpy British at the moment, we are a very advanced and successful society.
We do all sorts of clever things, staff some of the world's best universities, build nuclear weapons and harness nuclear power, perform heart and liver transplants, run high-tech factories, have drinking water come out of our taps, transport millions of people every day on public transport, maintain a sewage system, provide electricity nation-wide and do lots more besides which we take for granted. But there is one enterprise that is considered too difficult for us.
Most parents, when faced with a child saying "I'm bored" find a task for them to do. According to age it can be help mash the potatoes, clean the bathroom, sweep the front path, tidy the toy cupboard and find something that can be taken to the charity shop for a younger child. Sometimes it even enjoys the task, even learns a new skill and wants to do it again. At the very least, the devil didn't get a chance to employ those idle hands.
But Governments, faced with a million unemployed youth and a country crying out for a general tidying-up, seem unable to harness those forces. The advantages would be manifold:
1. Not letting young school and college leavers get in the habit of not having to get up in the morning.
2. Giving them a feeling that they are needed.
3. Our neighbourhoods looking more cheerful.
4. Even if cleaning and cutting back greenery and painting aren't considered skills, they really are useful.
5. Learning to work in groups to do a task together.
6. Improving relationships between different ages in society. The public, seeing a group of youngsters, would not immediately assume they were "up to no good" , and even be afraid of them (Heaven help us!)- might even thank them for the work they are doing!
This should NOT put street cleaners out of a job. To my mind they are some of the most useful public servants and I am grateful every Tuesday when ours comes round to tidy us up. But there are plenty of corners they can't, even aren't allowed to reach. One is just round the corner - some garages set back from the road where rubbish regularly accumulates, to the despair of the owners. The youngsters could, even, with permission, tidy up the front gardens of those who are too old or too feckless or don't know how to do it themselves.
We do all sorts of clever things, staff some of the world's best universities, build nuclear weapons and harness nuclear power, perform heart and liver transplants, run high-tech factories, have drinking water come out of our taps, transport millions of people every day on public transport, maintain a sewage system, provide electricity nation-wide and do lots more besides which we take for granted. But there is one enterprise that is considered too difficult for us.
Most parents, when faced with a child saying "I'm bored" find a task for them to do. According to age it can be help mash the potatoes, clean the bathroom, sweep the front path, tidy the toy cupboard and find something that can be taken to the charity shop for a younger child. Sometimes it even enjoys the task, even learns a new skill and wants to do it again. At the very least, the devil didn't get a chance to employ those idle hands.
But Governments, faced with a million unemployed youth and a country crying out for a general tidying-up, seem unable to harness those forces. The advantages would be manifold:
1. Not letting young school and college leavers get in the habit of not having to get up in the morning.
2. Giving them a feeling that they are needed.
3. Our neighbourhoods looking more cheerful.
4. Even if cleaning and cutting back greenery and painting aren't considered skills, they really are useful.
5. Learning to work in groups to do a task together.
6. Improving relationships between different ages in society. The public, seeing a group of youngsters, would not immediately assume they were "up to no good" , and even be afraid of them (Heaven help us!)- might even thank them for the work they are doing!
This should NOT put street cleaners out of a job. To my mind they are some of the most useful public servants and I am grateful every Tuesday when ours comes round to tidy us up. But there are plenty of corners they can't, even aren't allowed to reach. One is just round the corner - some garages set back from the road where rubbish regularly accumulates, to the despair of the owners. The youngsters could, even, with permission, tidy up the front gardens of those who are too old or too feckless or don't know how to do it themselves.
Monday 5 December 2011
Is saving the planet more important than the financial crisis?
Lord Prescott sounded unexpectedly statesmanlike when, speaking from the meeting about global warming which is taking place in South Africa, with scant media attention, he said that if we do not take the health of the planet more seriously we shall, in a few years' time, think of the euro crisis as a pin-prick - or words to that effect, I only heard him on the radio and have not seen what he said in print. But it is what I have been thinking.
No need to go on about wastefulness - we all know its extent - and the government wants us to go out at Christmas and buy more stuff for the sake of "growth" instead of, sensibly, saving for the rainy days which are on the way when the cuts bite more deeply. (By the way, literal rainy days are to be wished for. Is it global warming that is causing us to have a DROUGHT? In England? In winter?)
Well, one little example of daftness has just come home with my husband. He is 79, all male, and not into glamorous underwear, but his last 2 pairs of underpants (£5, "Mega Value") come in a most beautiful box! I am a collector of lovely boxes for re-use, and am grateful for this one. It is made of strong cardboard and has an inner drawer which slides out as smoothly as one in an expensive bit of furniture. But can we really justify cutting down trees to provide this bit of nonsense? We are meant to be the rational beings on the planet, but we aren't thinking.
No need to go on about wastefulness - we all know its extent - and the government wants us to go out at Christmas and buy more stuff for the sake of "growth" instead of, sensibly, saving for the rainy days which are on the way when the cuts bite more deeply. (By the way, literal rainy days are to be wished for. Is it global warming that is causing us to have a DROUGHT? In England? In winter?)
Well, one little example of daftness has just come home with my husband. He is 79, all male, and not into glamorous underwear, but his last 2 pairs of underpants (£5, "Mega Value") come in a most beautiful box! I am a collector of lovely boxes for re-use, and am grateful for this one. It is made of strong cardboard and has an inner drawer which slides out as smoothly as one in an expensive bit of furniture. But can we really justify cutting down trees to provide this bit of nonsense? We are meant to be the rational beings on the planet, but we aren't thinking.
Sunday 4 December 2011
Is this one reason the NHS is in the red?
Yesterday I visited an ex-nurse, now in her 90s and in a private nursing home, not able to walk much but very clear in her mind.
She told me of 3 instances where she couldn't imagine why NHS services had been used to look after her, while the Home, in order to comply with its registration requirements, has to have a trained nurse on the staff all the time.
The first was when she was sent to Hospital by ambulance for an enema!
The second was when she had a fall in the night, cutting her head. She refused to go to hospital that night, but they sent her off anyway in the morning, where the cut was treated and she was brought back.
When the cut was healed the Home insisted that because the dressing had been put on in hospital a district nurse had to come to remove the plaster, which she did in 1 minute, having driven how far to get there?
The third was on Friday, when, her ears needing syringing, she had been putting olive oil in them for a few days. The district nurse came and just looked at them and said he' d return next week, but would syringe them one at a time on different days.
She is paying for care in this Home. Why should the NHS be involved with these minor matters? The Home insists that these procedures are demanded by the NHS. This is daftness. Why should anybody beyond the Home ever even know about them?
We both wonder if this is happening on a grand scale. Does anybody know?
She told me of 3 instances where she couldn't imagine why NHS services had been used to look after her, while the Home, in order to comply with its registration requirements, has to have a trained nurse on the staff all the time.
The first was when she was sent to Hospital by ambulance for an enema!
The second was when she had a fall in the night, cutting her head. She refused to go to hospital that night, but they sent her off anyway in the morning, where the cut was treated and she was brought back.
When the cut was healed the Home insisted that because the dressing had been put on in hospital a district nurse had to come to remove the plaster, which she did in 1 minute, having driven how far to get there?
The third was on Friday, when, her ears needing syringing, she had been putting olive oil in them for a few days. The district nurse came and just looked at them and said he' d return next week, but would syringe them one at a time on different days.
She is paying for care in this Home. Why should the NHS be involved with these minor matters? The Home insists that these procedures are demanded by the NHS. This is daftness. Why should anybody beyond the Home ever even know about them?
We both wonder if this is happening on a grand scale. Does anybody know?
Saturday 3 December 2011
Homeless in Watford
I have just been listening to the Mayor of Watford saying there is a huge increased problem of homelessness in her area and that they are being forced to once again put people into bed and breakfast accommodation.
In most areas there are a large number of empty rooms in houses where a single pensioner is living. We are pensioners and rent out a room to a lodger. It is more daunting to do this if you are just one person, but, with the backing of the Council, perhaps some of these people would be willing to take in lodgers. There would be benefits for them, for they would have the reassurance of not being alone at night, and, in exchange for keeping the rent low, (after all, any rent at all would be a useful improvement to their present situation) they could expect some specified help in, for example, shopping or gardening or also just odd things like replacing a light-bulb in a high-up spot. I know that a large proportions would, at first at any rate, shy away from the idea of having someone else in their home, but I do believe that this idea could grow and it could even become the norm and contribute to well-being in the society. We have no car, and our lodger collects heavy things for us or takes things to the dump, very willingly.
This venture could be put into effect quite quickly as long as there was no nonsense about people having a "right" to en suite bathrooms etc. I think it could be assumed that, if the accommodation is safe enough for the pensioner to live it it could provide space, without any modifications, for a lodger.
Councils already have Housing Departments. This could add a rather pleasant, positive aspect to their workload.
In most areas there are a large number of empty rooms in houses where a single pensioner is living. We are pensioners and rent out a room to a lodger. It is more daunting to do this if you are just one person, but, with the backing of the Council, perhaps some of these people would be willing to take in lodgers. There would be benefits for them, for they would have the reassurance of not being alone at night, and, in exchange for keeping the rent low, (after all, any rent at all would be a useful improvement to their present situation) they could expect some specified help in, for example, shopping or gardening or also just odd things like replacing a light-bulb in a high-up spot. I know that a large proportions would, at first at any rate, shy away from the idea of having someone else in their home, but I do believe that this idea could grow and it could even become the norm and contribute to well-being in the society. We have no car, and our lodger collects heavy things for us or takes things to the dump, very willingly.
This venture could be put into effect quite quickly as long as there was no nonsense about people having a "right" to en suite bathrooms etc. I think it could be assumed that, if the accommodation is safe enough for the pensioner to live it it could provide space, without any modifications, for a lodger.
Councils already have Housing Departments. This could add a rather pleasant, positive aspect to their workload.
Friday 2 December 2011
What is education for?
We are overwhelmed with information from all quarters. Two items, evidence of very different attitudes to knowledge struck me forcibly in recent days.
The first was that certain students are paying high fees to private tutors to help them write their essays. This is what their teachers within their educational institutions are there for. If they write a poor essay their teacher can see they have a problem and address it. If they get outside help, the problem will not be addressed and the piece of paper they receive at the end of their course will not represent the information they have actually acquired and therefore will be less real use to them in later life. Even if you cannot get a job in your field, at least you should have furnished your mind sufficiently to enjoy life in a broader way. It isn't a question of letters after your name.
The second was the television programme "How to Build a Satellite". This showed a work-force, not all of them by any means University educated, totally dedicated to producing an absolutely perfect piece of machinery. They were building the casing of a communications satellite. This was destined to be launched into space and had to last 15 years. No question of the recipient keeping the packaging in case it didn't work and had to be returned! This has to work first time. Each of the thousands of components has to be tested many times over. A lot of the activities are in an extremely sterile environment, involving very careful attention to the rules. Total cooperation is essential. The work-force are mostly long-standing employees and their pride in their work is palpable and obviously makes them feel worthwhile and important and contented. Then, when it is completed, equal care has to be exercised in the packing and shipping to Portsmouth for the electronics to be inserted. Never, at any stage, can anything be falsified or the work skimped. What those people have learnt has become part of them and brought them satisfaction.
Because most of our daily activities have become so immeasurably easier over recent years we tend to give the young the impression that everything is easy. That is a real disservice to them. Overcoming difficulties is one form of fun.
The first was that certain students are paying high fees to private tutors to help them write their essays. This is what their teachers within their educational institutions are there for. If they write a poor essay their teacher can see they have a problem and address it. If they get outside help, the problem will not be addressed and the piece of paper they receive at the end of their course will not represent the information they have actually acquired and therefore will be less real use to them in later life. Even if you cannot get a job in your field, at least you should have furnished your mind sufficiently to enjoy life in a broader way. It isn't a question of letters after your name.
The second was the television programme "How to Build a Satellite". This showed a work-force, not all of them by any means University educated, totally dedicated to producing an absolutely perfect piece of machinery. They were building the casing of a communications satellite. This was destined to be launched into space and had to last 15 years. No question of the recipient keeping the packaging in case it didn't work and had to be returned! This has to work first time. Each of the thousands of components has to be tested many times over. A lot of the activities are in an extremely sterile environment, involving very careful attention to the rules. Total cooperation is essential. The work-force are mostly long-standing employees and their pride in their work is palpable and obviously makes them feel worthwhile and important and contented. Then, when it is completed, equal care has to be exercised in the packing and shipping to Portsmouth for the electronics to be inserted. Never, at any stage, can anything be falsified or the work skimped. What those people have learnt has become part of them and brought them satisfaction.
Because most of our daily activities have become so immeasurably easier over recent years we tend to give the young the impression that everything is easy. That is a real disservice to them. Overcoming difficulties is one form of fun.
Thursday 1 December 2011
Public Transport on Christmas Day
I have just booked my taxi for Christmas Day.
We used, until quite recently, to have public transport on Christmas Day, but now it doesn't happen. I wonder whether there might be sufficient demand to have it again? There must be plenty of bus and train drivers for whom Christmas is not a festival, allowing those for whom it is important to have the day off.
I wonder if it might be considered for 2012? It looks from here that times might be even leaner then than now and being able to have a big family party is a good way to have fun, especially for those who are otherwise condemned to a lonely Christmas. Most festivities include drinking so it isn't always possible to pick people up by car, even if one is available, still less to take them home.
Speaking for myself, I'd gladly leave my bus pass at home on that day and pay to travel, if that would make a difference. I'm pretty sure many pensioners would feel the same.
We used, until quite recently, to have public transport on Christmas Day, but now it doesn't happen. I wonder whether there might be sufficient demand to have it again? There must be plenty of bus and train drivers for whom Christmas is not a festival, allowing those for whom it is important to have the day off.
I wonder if it might be considered for 2012? It looks from here that times might be even leaner then than now and being able to have a big family party is a good way to have fun, especially for those who are otherwise condemned to a lonely Christmas. Most festivities include drinking so it isn't always possible to pick people up by car, even if one is available, still less to take them home.
Speaking for myself, I'd gladly leave my bus pass at home on that day and pay to travel, if that would make a difference. I'm pretty sure many pensioners would feel the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)