Archive for the 'A bit of a rant' Category

Smoke without Fire?

Posted by on September 12th 2018 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof
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As I reported last week, I took the NHS online "What's your heart age?" test and came away with a respectable score of 55.

One of the questions there was "Do you smoke?", to which I answered "I quit", that being the honest answer. It's been over 2.5 years since I had my last ciggie, I've been vaping instead but there was no "No, but I vape"option in the drop-down menu:

 

 

As we all know, stopping smoking is a good thing. Vaping is an excellent alternative, even the NHS thinks it's 95% safer than smoking - these posters have been displayed prominently at all three Leicester hospitals for several years:

 

 

... or do they?

When I attended my annual Vascular Review test yesterday at my G.P.'s surgery the clinician said that she had me down in her records as having quit smoking and therefore I was classed as a non-smoker. I confirmed that, and added that, as I told them last year and the year before, I have been vaping since giving up the fags. Incredibly, she declared that "vaping is still smoking" and she updated and backdated my status to "Smoker"!

Now, there's no smoke in vapour, there's no tar in vapour, and quite often there's no nicotine in vapour, so how the fecking bejeezus did she reach that barmy conclusion?

Someone somewhere will look at her lies in my results and may well make an ill-informed clinical decision based on them. That won't go down well with me, there's a more-than-slim chance that I'll have something venomous to say about it.

FFS, NHS, can you please tell these people that vaping is not smoking? If you are going to condone vaping, the least that you could do is circulate the same hymn-sheet throughout your empire, even unto the far-flung corners.

Imperative

Posted by on August 23rd 2018 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof
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It's been a while since I had a rant about the NHS appointment system. That's unforgivable but I'll make amends right away!

Way back in the dark days I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I must attend all LRI appointments as they were scheduled for justifiable medical reasons and based on individual recovery progress. I remember a senior nurse threatening to take me off the monitoring course when I had better and more important things to do on one monitoring day, despite her not having the authority or grounds for issuing such a threat.

But now it's becoming clear that it's only imperative when it's important to them... when it's important to me they don't give a shit, they just change the schedule without giving any medical justification whatsoever. It seems that their accountability to me has been dispensed with as unimportant.

The post-discharge appointment system is simple - turn up for a blood-test, wait for the results (usually 90 minutes), sit in the waiting-room until called, see the Consultant Haematologist, show him/her which bits are still working and which bits are falling off, and be given a date for the next appointment based on the available evidence. For me it started with appointments every two weeks, if all was going well then it went up to every four weeks, then every six weeks, then every eight... You get the idea.

Then they started buggering about with it...

The last regular consultation was on February 8th 2018, and after that I was due back 12 weeks later on May 3rd, but they bumped that two weeks to May 17th at short notice. There was no justification at the time, but I was told later that it was nothing to do with my progress, it was to accommodate staff holidays. Nobody asked if we had any holiday plans that might be upset by their buggering-about.

At that May 17th consultation they said I would be moved to a 16-week cycle despite me having some worrying "late effects" which they encourage us to record and to report. That made the next consultation date September 6th, and I was bounced to my GP to get advice about those "late effects". Later, I saw my GP and was told that despite appropriate tests they couldn't determine the cause(s) of the "late effects" and that it was the job of the LRI consultants to investigate them during the September 6th consultation.

And now I'm sitting here looking at a letter telling me that the September 6th consultation has been bumped FIVE WEEKS to October 11th. The letter starts with the standard "Unfortunately it has become necessary to change..." and goes on to include "We apologise for any inconvenience caused", but contains no justification whatsoever. And I know that my GP's surgery has told them that my "late effects" should be investigated by the LRI team, because I had to authorise the GP to send my Care Record to them.

Accountability? Pah! All they have to do to make this more palatable is to explain why, but that's not a part of their process. Or they could have kept to the plan, which was designed so they can find and address minor problems in good time before they become major issues.

One other thing about today's letter - it provides a phone number for me to arrange for an interpreter to accompany me to the consultation. I wonder if they can provide one who is fluent in Coprolalia.

And while we’re on the subject…

Posted by on July 8th 2018 in A bit of a rant
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... there's this, about which I'd forgotten to post until earlier today:

It's an ASD 28" Steel-Tipped Archery Arrow For Recurve and Compound Bows. It's not a kid's toy arrow.

I was close by when I heard the thud as it landed in our garden, it had penetrated the ground roughly an inch and a half and was at an angle of about 60-70 degrees.

Now I shoot a .22 air rifle, and I know that if just one of my pellets was to cross the boundary of where I am allowed to shoot, I would be breaking the Firearms Laws, facing a huge fine plus confiscation of the rifle and ammunition, and probably a custodial sentence as well. Not to mention a visit from an Armed Response Unit in full tactical gear. That's why I have a more-than-adequate back-stop behind my target and never shoot above the horizontal.

I called my Dad because he knows about arrows (he's one of the Bowmen of Bosworth, makes his own arrows, and can shoot them nearly 200 yards on a good day of shooting clout). His thoughts were that it was potentially lethal, capable of killing or severely injuring a person, and that it must have been shot high, at a steep angle, from quite a distance - way more than the size of the gardens around here. An indiscriminate, unsafe and illegal shot. He advised calling the police ASAP.

Shortly afterwards, I also showed the arrow to a friend. His reactions were "What clown fired that?" and "Tell the police, it could have hit someone".

So I called Leicester Police HQ and told them about it. They were very concerned. They wanted me to surrender said arrow so that they could, if need be, match it to any subsequent similar reports in the area. They were concerned about what sort of injuries could have been caused and were concerned that it might happen again - nobody buys a bow and just one arrow! They gave me an incident number, told me that the local team might well call on me to discuss the incident and to view the scene, and I was told to surrender the arrow to Hinckley police station. They would call ahead so that the Hinckley police would know the situation and that they were to keep the arrow as evidence. Top marks to Leicester Police HQ for their understanding, their concern and their good advice.

I went directly to the Hinckley police station and, you guessed it, it was closed.

The next day I tried again. They were open. The desk sergeant on duty wasn't really interested in the incident and said that Leicester HQ had not mentioned anything about it. It took me 10 minutes to convince him that it was a valid incident with a proper police incident number. Eventually he found the incident on the Police Computer Network, read it, and took a good look at the arrow. He declared it to be a toy, retained possession of it...

and put it in "Lost Property" so that whoever lost it can claim it back!!!

And that's the last I heard of the matter. The local team never got in touch about discussing the incident or viewing the scene, I have no doubt that nobody ever told them.

But they wonder why confidence in their service keeps falling. Hmm...

Missing person

Posted by on July 7th 2018 in A bit of a rant

Half an hour we waited. Nobody there. Not even a "Sorry, we're on a shout and will be back later" note pinned to the door.

Are Police numbers so low that even a once-a-month two-hour surgery can't be manned?

Leicestershire Police.

Protecting our communities.

in absentia.

Agency Provocateur

Posted by on May 29th 2018 in A bit of a rant, Lost in translation

You know how it works... you tell them your details, your qualifications, your employment record, your preferences for travel distance/duration etc. and they use that info to match you to jobs which fit your criteria.

At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

Yesterday saw another list arrive via email, and I'm told that I am a perfect match for everything on it.

Here's an extract:

 

 

I like the notion that there are docks within 25 miles (or 30 minutes) of the (disputed) centre of England.

And it seems that there's not much to choose pro rata between being a Dog Walker and an Armed Security Guard.

That said, I remember when the same preferences led to me being presented with details for what I thought would be the perfect job... quality management... satellite launch hardware systems... company car... travel expenses... Yep, it really was rocket-science!

That agency told me that I was a perfect match for the position.

Only after pressing the agency for more details was I was told that the job was a little further away than 25 miles (or 30 minutes).

It was in Winnipeg.

Stupid o’clock #4

Posted by on February 20th 2018 in A bit of a rant, Driveway-blocking feckwits and piss-poor parkers

He's back yet again, and, like I said, he keeps moving it closer. Stern words have been had:
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