THE TYRANNY OF CONFORMITY...

Well I`m nor sure whether John Stuart Mill had me in mind when he wrote that but he could well have done.   Let me explain.

Last night was supposed to be the last time when people went out from their houses and applauded for ten minutes in recognition of the `key workers` - especially those in the NHS - who are `working tirelessly` to see us through the current crisis.  It was noticeably quieter when I was out taking Dudley for his evening walkies last night although I suspect there were a few pockets of resistance who had got used to the Thursday evening ritual and couldn`t bring themselves to stop.   Fair enough.  Good for them.

Now let me be clear.   I have the utmost respect for our key workers and, like everyone else, I am seriously grateful for the contribution they all make to help `society` manage and keep going during this pandemic.  But - there`s always a but with me I`m afraid - when the clapping all started all those weeks ago it occurred to me then that it might become something of a futile gesture for the simple reason that the recipients of the applause would not be able to hear it and were too busy at work anyway;   and therefore probably the main reason for the massed clapping was to enable the clappers to feel better about themselves for doing it.   Fair enough.  Good for them.

But I declined as gracefully as I could to take part in it.   I didn`t feel the need to join in for I have always directly expressed my thanks to those to whom I have been grateful for helping me.   For example, over the last couple of years my ageing eyes have had a lot of attention - entropion followed by successive cataract operations, all of which constituted  life changing improvements to my quality of life.  On each occasion I personally thanked the NHS staff for the excellence of the service I had been fortunate to receive.  I didn`t feel the need to venture into other means of expressing my appreciation.

So, during the last few Thursday evenings, I suspect that I may have been looked upon with sceptical eyes as to why I was not taking part.  Some people may have interpreted it as arrogance, ignorance, being curmudgeonly, weird, anti-social or even eccentric.  It was, of course, none of those things - just another example of my penchant for resisting the tyranny of conformity - but if any of those criticisms might have been anywhere close to the truth, I will settle for eccentricity.   I have always fancied being a bit eccentric.  It rather suits me and I think John Stuart Mill got it right when he said what he did. 

TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE.....

.......that is the question.   A couple of days ago I attended the Day Eye Clinic at Maidstone Hospital for the removal of a cataract from my left eye and to have a prosthetic implant to take its place.   It all went very well and once again I have bem very impressed with our wonderful National Health service.   The caring attitude of staff and  the skill of the eye surgeon and support staff was exemplary and I am sincerely grateful for and pleased with the results.   

The difference in my eyesight - at least in that one eye (the other one will be done next month) - has been a revelation.  Things that I could barely see before are now sharp, bright and in focus.  I have to be careful what I do for probably the next few weeks while I adjust to a new way of seeing with one eye that`s working well and the other one not so good.  

 I`ve already discovered that it`s not a good idea to drive a large(ish) car into a small(ish) garage  and not expect to pick up the odd dent in the bodywork.  But, hey ho, a small problem set against the enormous benefit of being able to see properly once more.

There`s quite a business to go through - a check up to see that the operation was completely successful, I`ll need some new glasses of course and the prospect of going through the whole thing again with the other eye is something I just want to get done .  In the meantime until my eyes are fully adjusted and I have my new spectacles (which could be some weeks away) I might just struggle a bit with small print, so if my posts on here are not as regular as usual, that`s the reason for it.  But I`ll keep trying and hope each day brings the improvement I am looking forward to.

I suppose if you can read this and it makes a bit of sense then perhaps my latest venture into posting on here might have worked.    

THE ART OF SILENCE...

To Maidstone Hospital for an X-Ray on a dodgy knee which has been suffering from the wear and tear of decades of football, cricket, golf, coast path walking, dog walking and refereeing and now needs a bit of attention.  

Not for the first time I was impressed by Maidstone Hospital - it seems to be pretty efficient and the reception staff are all very helpful.  I was directed to the right bit, checked in and took a seat in the waiting area which was pretty crowded.   I was told I might have to wait for 45 minutes or so before being `seen to.` Fair enough, so I settled in.

Now there was a time when, in situations like that, people would start a conversation - about the weather, the news of the day, comparing ailments -  anything really to break the ice cold silence to help while away the waiting time.  But as I sat down I noticed that just about all the others there seemed to be glued to their mobile phones, tapping away, eyes down, looking in. 

And it occurred to me that rather than any attempt at ice breaking or, less still, polite conversation, silence itself seemed to have been raised to an art form.   Either that or I had been directed to the wrong department after all.   Oh, and those who were walking about seemed incapable of doing so without the comfort of holding on to a cardboard Costa coffee container or a bottle of water..   All very strange.  It will be interesting to see what the X-ray reveals.

To Maidstone Hospital yesterday for a long awaited `procedure` involving some surgery around one of my eyes - nothing too troublesome, just some local anaesthetic and 45 minutes in `theatre.`

All went well - I`m on the mend and already sensing that it was a job worth doing and that it was done very well.

And that really is the point of this post and Matt`s cartoon pretty much sums up yesterday`s experience for me.  Four of us patients for similar `procedures` were required to report at the hospital at 12.30pm.  We then had the preliminary administrative things which took but a few minutes and then we were invited to take our seats in the waiting area and wait our turn for the actual `procedure` to be carried out.

As we sat waiting, I wondered in what order we would be called.  It crossed my mind that it might be alphabetical but I realised it was too late to change my name by deed poll to Mr. Aardvark, so along with the others we just waited....and waited.   Eventually the first patient was called....then the next.....and the next....and I finally got called in for surgery about four and a half hours after I first arrived.   

That time made me suspect, as the pre-surgery anxiety levels continued to rise, that there must surely be a more efficient way of organising things like this - for example, calling two patients in at a time rather than all four - two could be called at 12.30. the other two at, say, 3.00pm?   I also noticed that there were several NHS staff who seemed to be hanging around the waiting area and I began to wonder whether they were all really necessary and what they were all supposed to be doing - I suspected that some of them had the same had the same feelings.

But I refuse to grumble about the NHS because the quality of surgery, care and attitude towards patients (now I know why patients have to be patient) was exemplary and I remain grateful for the attention I received.  I hesitate to enter a note of criticism but I was left with the feeling that a bit more organisation and perhaps a few less but perhaps more structured support staff might be called for?    Not for the first time it seems Matt`s cartoon has wider relevance than first imagined.

It sure was a bad week.   Bad enough losing Barney on Tuesday, since when we have been back to the veterinary hospital to collect Barney`s ashes and hand in yet another claim form on his insurance.   

That was the second claim in a matter of a few weeks and I had a bit of bother with the insurance company over the first claim we made following Barney`s illness which began in January.  Hopefully that might now be resolved but we wait to see.

It`s been a long winter with more than a few hiccups along the way - in just the last few weeks we had to buy a new fridge freezer, a new tap for the kitchen and a new vacuum cleaner - the old one conked out following a few years  hoovering up dog hairs (the new one doesn`t have that problem - yet.) 

I had a visit to the local hospital following damage caused to my hand as a result of yet another senior bungle on my part, which left me seriously impressed with our NHS service.  Seems to me you only hear about the bad things concerning the NHS - all the media are anxious to report alleged `failings`, targets missed, that kind of thing and we don`t hear enough about the good things, of which there are many and for which we should be more grateful than we are.

And to end on yet another troublesome note on my malum sabbati (the Queen had an annus horribilis but I`ll settle for just a bad week), the Saints have continued their downward spiral out of the Premier League - yesterday conspiring to lose 3-2 to Chelsea, having been 2-0 up after 70 minutes.   That constituted the fourth league game in a row where they have conceded three goals and survival hopes now seem dim.  Having won just one league game in the last 20, they are now expected to win at least three in the last five.   It ain`t gonna happen, to be fair, but at least the sun is shining today for a change.  But will it last?

PATIENT PATIENCE..

I think it was in the uproarious movie, "Airplane" that the following conversation took place between a passenger - the late Leslie Nielsen`s Dr. Rumack - and one of the stewardesses, Elaine Dickinson, played by Julie Hagerty:-

Rumack : You`d better tell the Captain we`ve got to land as soon as possible.   This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.

Elaine Dickinson : A hospital?  What is it?

Rumack : It`s a big building with patients, but that`s not important right now.

Well, in the last week or two I`ve paid a couple of visits to Pembury Hospital - a whizzo, sooper-dooper, hi-tech, state-of-the-art big building with patients.   Nothing too serious for me - just an outpatients thingy - but it gave me a mercifully rare insight into how these places operate.

Car parking was easy enough - automated, of course - and you report to reception and are advised to take a seat and when your name comes up on the screen, you`re to proceed to the outpatients reception.  Did that and reported to outpatients reception where I was advised to take a seat and when your name comes up on the screen, go to consulting room 09 where a very nice doctor will see to you.

So I kept watching the screen and felt almost transported to the set of `Airplane,` expecting at any moment to see `Baggage in hall` come up on the screen.   But all went well, the doctor was very nice and gave me a prescription for the hospital pharmacy.   Handed it in and was advised to take a seat and when your number comes up on the screen your prescription will be ready.  

It could have said `Delayed,` but I waited patiently and was eventually released back to the car park where a machine would only accept payment by debit card - another technological challenge to overcome - along with the realisation that all this waiting around had been a cunning plan to trip the time over into the next phase of parking charges.   But the whole experience proved the benefit of patience.   As the logo above says, "Keep calm and have patience."   Especially if you`re a patient.  In a big building.

MORE CELTIC FRINGE BENEFITS..

I was intrigued by the fuss being made about a number of NHS hospitals increasing their charges for car parking.   Not so much by the increases themselves but by the fact that they should be charging at all. 

I remember when my late mother spent her last few weeks in Basingstoke hospital and each time I visited, quite apart from the stress of the situation itself, I remember being stressed about the need to find enough cash to feed the parking machine and then to make sure I didn`t stay so long as to incur a punitive excess charge.

I confess to being one of those who claim that, having already paid for the NHS through our taxes, we should not then be asked to pay again to park.   It`s bad enough if you`re visiting a friend or relative in hospital, but it must be even worse if you`re unfortunate enough to actually be a patient.

But what really annoys me is the revelation that hospital parking in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is free and it is only if you are visiting a hospital in England that you have to pay for parking.   I`m not complaining about the fact that those in other parts of the UK don`t have to pay - good luck to them - but it really doesn`t help the cause of maintaining a United Kingdom all the time this kind of divisiveness goes on.   And with something as sensitive and important as this, surely a common policy throughout the UK would be welcome - preferably a free parking one!

"They did not listen, they did not know how.

Perhaps they`ll listen now."

So wrote the icomparable Don McLean in his homage to Vincent van Gogh.  But perhaps his message is relevant today more than ever before, for we have just witnessed yet another episode of `wide public consultation` being completely ignored by people who really should listen to what other people have to say.

Now it`s arguable that, being in my 70s and with Mrs. Snopper not far behind me, I ought not to concern myself with maternity services in this part of the world; but   for some years there has been an ongoing battle about transferring full maternity services from the General Hospital for Maidstone - the county town of Kent - to a brand new whizzo, state-of-the-art, super sized, all singing, all dancing hospital at Pembury near Tunbridge Wells, about 20 miles away down a long and winding road.

The Health Authorities (there are so many of them I forget which one) supposedly carried out `wide ranging public consultation` on this proposal with the result that virtually all the local GPs were `vehemently against it,` as was the local Member of Parliament and a 20,000 signature petition against the proposal was hand delivered to 10, Downing Street in an effort to ensure that the maternity services move didn`t go ahead.

But yesterday the Health Minister, Andrew Lansley, decided to ignore the results of the `public consultation` and agreed that the move should take place after all.   Conservative MP for Maidstone, Helen Grant, said she was "appalled by the puzzling and irrational decision" which failed to address the strong local opposition to the downgrading of maternity services at Maidstone.   Local campaigner, Peter Carroll, said he feared the extra distance from Maidstone to Pembury could result in the loss of babies' lives.  He described it as a "very bad day for all the mums and mums-to-be in Maidstone.  And most important of all it's a bad day for local democracy."

And his last comment is perhaps the most telling, especially as NHS managers have said that the changes, which will take effect next year, `are in the best interests of patients.`  It seems to me that we have yet another example of people in `authority` telling us what`s good for us, assuming that they know best, whilst all the time choosing, for whatever may be the real reason, to ignore the overwhelming wishes of local people.  If the real reason is to save money, then how can you put a price on the care and wellbeing of expectant mums and the babies on the threshold of life? 

In my simple naivete, I thought that people were appointed or elected to public office to reflect the needs, hopes and wishes of those who pay them to do so; but perhaps I should not be surprised at how often my assumptions are proved wrong.  One thing`s for sure - the last line of Don McLean`s homage to Vincent is particularly apt:-

"They did not listen, they`re not listening still.

Perhaps they never will." 

DOUBLE JEOPARDY.....

Here in the Garden of England, we are perhaps unprepared to suddenly becoming the focus of national - perhaps even international - scandal. But in the last couple of days, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

There`s probably no need for me to repeat all the unsavoury details here, but just to emphasise the fact that at least 90 people have died over the past couple of years as a result of contracting the `superbug` c. difficile whilst they were patients in Maidstone hospital. The number of patients who caught the bug but survived runs into hundreds.

The standards of hygeine in the hospital have been revealed as nothing short of deplorable - akin to those you might find in some backward third-world country. On second thoughts, that may be disrespectful to any backward third-world country that might be reading this and I mean no offence, but the UK is supposed to be a sophisticated, civilised, caring place....until, it seems, you get ill and get whisked away to hospital.

A couple of things really concern me as a resident living in the `catchment area` (how disarming is that description?) of Maidstone hospital. Now, I must proceed with caution, as there is likely to be a Police investigation as to whether criminal negligance might have accounted for the 90 victims. But it cannot be right for Government targets and financial management to take any sort of precedence over patient safety. As someone put it yesterday, "They`re supposed to be a hospital, not an accountancy firm."

And now we see that the Chief Executive, having no doubt been shown an advance copy of the damning report which revealed this tragic state of affairs, left a week ago by our old friend `mutual consent` and allegedly walked away with a large six-figure settlement. Smacks of a double whammy here - bad enough to be responsible for the seemingly avoidable deaths of 90 people, but the felony is compounded if the reports of the payout are correct.

This is no way to run a railroad and there is rightly a local and national clamour not just for more heads to roll, but also for the equitable safeguarding of taxpayers` money to be restored and - most pressing of all - for the hospital management to get their priorities right.