On January 2Nd. at 7.30 pm I was taken in to hospital and kept for 5 days to have tests done and some remedial treatment carried out, I am now back home of course and feeling fine which is a bit confusing because despite feeling OK I am under strict medical orders to do nothing, my physical activity is to consist of a 5 minute walk each day for a week rising to 10 minutes and all the way up to 20 minutes after 3 weeks, my wife and daughters have said "so what's changed"
I was therefore inadvertently given a ring side seat at the NHS show which was very informative, had I been asked prior to my being admitted "do you know the NHS" I would have unhesitatingly said yes and; to an extent that is true if we are talking about its history and what it does as well as it's fame and achievements. I thought I knew what it was actually like at the sharp end where the patients are treated, in this case in the Acute Medical Unit where I was taken and it turns out I knew very little indeed.
The A.M.U. Is where you go when you arrive in an ambulance so there are people in various states of distress and some are very seriously ill, I was not in pain and was aware of my surroundings and quite lucid (unusual I hear some of you say even when I'm well) so there I was sitting up in bed watching a real live "Casualty episode" The atmosphere and tension in this place is highly charged and raw, it requires strong nerves just to sit up in bed and observe let alone work there. I found myself wrung out and exhausted just watching sometimes. On one occasion a guy 6 Feet across from me took a real bad turn and was set upon by 3 doctors plus nurses and auxiliaries for about an hour before they moved him to the Intensive Care Unit, I have no idea how he got on and I don't feel like asking just yet.
The people who work here are heroic I am 63 years old and I am an old cynic so I don't say such things lightly. They are mostly women and many of them look impossibly young to survive such a regime day after day, I was in that unit for 3 days and it rarely let up, day and night. My impression was one of admiration for what they do and sympathy for what they have to put up with to do their jobs, put quite simply even for a layman like me it's obvious they are understaffed and run off their feet, this applies to nurses, doctors, auxiliaries and porters etc. those I witnessed working in the A.M.U. are a formidable team and they pull for each other and support each other, I doubt they would survive otherwise.
During my stay I witnessed just how great an institution the NHS is, my time there coincided with the worst storms this country has seen for many years and my bed was next to the window on the ground floor. I was shaken from sleep one day by the unmistakeable sound of a very large Helicopter landing about 50 feet from me. I opened the curtain to realize I had a front row seat at a real life drama as the chopper swayed and dipped in the ferocious gales before it agonisingly touched down. It was immediately swarmed over by medics and porters with stretchers as they brought in the "incoming" from the accident which happened in Dunoon when caravans were swept away with people in them. Several choppers landed over the next few days as roads were closed and other hospitals were full. It was clearly a dangerous operation which was handled with courage and skill by all concerned and here is the best part, those people rescued were not charged a penny, if that is not an institution worth supporting then Mrs. Thatcher was right and "there is no such thing as Society" I moved eventually to the Coronary Care Ward although I was redirected there on my way to the Cardiac Ward which became full before I could reach my waiting bed, a busy, busy place. The Coronary care ward was very peaceful compared to the A.M.U. and the staff were great, it's almost worth being ill to witness the Auxiliary staff double act of Peter and Tony who look after and entertain the patients they are a hoot. The regime is a little less frantic here albeit while doing a very sensitive stressful job, being the youngest man of 6 in the ward was a rare novelty for me.
We need to cherish the NHS not cut its resources or sell it off; it is the jewel in the crown of the welfare state and we should all be proud of it and protect it.
And lastly, any of my political enemies who write to this blog offering me any sympathy will have their comments deleted.
36 comments:
I will take more than a heart attack to keep a glenburn boy down. Get well soon Terry lad
Stockholm Syndrome
"I moved eventually to the Coronary Care Ward although I was redirected there on my way to the Cardiac Ward which became full before I could reach my waiting bed, a busy, busy place."
Now that worries me, all the tax money paid into the NHS and no room for a critically ill patient, I hear the same from my Canadian neighbors. Then you go writing this gushing piece, more worries from me.
Check this out for size:
The first step towards making someone really dependent on you is to somehow become the sole provider (or at least appear to be the sole provider) of their needs. If you control their need for a sense of safety, attention and so on, and they can, or perceive they can, only get these vital needs from you, then you force an inevitable sense of intimacy and dependency with them. We see the same thing when a love-struck person declares: 'But how can I live without them?'
It may be that Stockholm Syndrome is little more than a regression back to the total dependency role we have as very young children when we rely on parents for everything.Arthur Kelly Chgo./Craigneuk
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... on 10/01/12
“Now that worries me, all the tax money paid into the NHS and no room for a critically ill patient”
The money for the NHS is being cut by the Tories and the service is underfunded, it’s a constant political battle they want to sell it and make it like America – The patient was not critical and the lack of room was caused by the worst storms we have seen in many many years making other closer hospitals inaccessible.
“this gushing piece”
I do not gush, Life has made me far too cynical for that I haven’t gushed at least Since Larrson left. I was in a position to observe and that is exactly what I did. The majority of people here have what I could only describe as a reverence for the NHS. It’s the reverence that I was taught by my parents, aunts and uncles and I’ll wager that that includes all of my relatives who went to America (well nearly all) those of our parent’s generation James. Arthur, Tarry, Hughie, Francie, Patrick Etc. would have fought on the barricades to defend it. A tramp, a beggar or a convict is entitled to health care free, that’s civilisation, that’s humanity at its best, that’s municipal Socialism, am I gushing?
I could not help but thank my lucky stars as I watched those choppers come in that I was not in pre Obama America and one of those 40 Million Americans without health insurance. Neither Stockholm’s Syndrome nor my Rosary beads would have been any good to me then.
I will take more than a heart attack to keep a glenburn boy down. Get well soon Terry lad
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... on 09/01/12
In a few short months Glenburn will shed her winter coat and become the wonderland where I grew up, rivers hills and trees everywhere and every creature in Britain which can walk fly or crawl to be searched for and observed including Tories though not many.
I will concede now at last that I will not be appearing again on a Sunday afternoon at the big park for a game of 20 a side fitba (battleship or cruiser if ye turn up late) those days are gone but I’m not.
“To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service “
There’s work to be done.
Keep the heid, my bit was just an observation not a guided missile. Your Uncle Arthur and Aunt Paula were not fans of NHS after seeing something different I know them well Horatio. The 40 million without health benefits, what about the 280 million with insurance? Had you wandered to the States I know you would be like your kin one of the 280 million. Anyone who walks in the door of an Emergency Room must be treated insured or uninsured, it's the law. Anyone over 65 gets Medicare, free health care and medications. I agree everyone should be taken care of, not as a charity but a right. This money grab that the Obama administration pushed on us is nothing but that. Our Social Security pensions are in jeopardy because Obama and previous administrations have stolen from the fund to bail out their buddies (Crony Capitalism) and the same will happen with Obamacare. I trust no government, I believe in collective bargaining and the right to form a union and be in charge of my own destiny……no sole providers…..power corrupts, all that glitters, nutting for nutting etc. Did you take your walk today? Arthur Kelly Chgo./Craigneuk
Just read the PDE today and it seems there is trouble afoot within the Renfrewshire Labour Party.
It seems that a certain Labour councillor has reported his own leader to the Standards Commission.
Can you believe it?
It would seem that as we have started the run up to the election there is a coup afoot.
Mind you the Councillor in question seems to run to the Standards Commission every week and has probably lost any credibility with them.
I'll be watching the PDE closely to see the final collapse and demise of Renfrewshire Labour as they push daggers into each others backs.
HO! HO! HO!
Christmas has come very early this year.
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 12:01
No one likes to see trouble within their own party but, I would be more worried if I were a member of a party where no argument or dissent was allowed like the SNP. That is not a political party it’s a conspiracy and those members of the Renfrewshire SNP who hate each other with a vengeance are afraid to say a word out of line in case the men in the grey kilts come from them.
Trouble within the party should stay within the Party and be dealt within the Party's own disciplinary procedure. You know this very well Terry.
This is a complete embarrasment and should never have been allowed to happen.
I hope the Party take the appropriate action against Jim Sharkey for trying to cause such a public humiliation to Iain McMillan.
"And lastly, any of my political enemies who write to this blog offering me any sympathy will have their comments deleted."
Why?
Is it not within the realms of your understanding that someone could have a politically opposed viewpoint but still be a compassionate human being?
Well, if good wishes are banned then let me say that the fact that the Nationalised Health Service resuscitated you is more than reason enough to dismantle it - NOW!
Just picked up the Paisley Express after reading the comment on your blog.
This man Sharkey is a total embarrassment.
He is never out the paper complaining about other Councillors but to do it to one of his own is riduculous.
Surely this could have been settled privately.
I hope that he is shown the door.
I hear that Jim Sharkey's wife is standing for election this year.
If she is elected, I wonder how long it will be before he reports her to the Standards Commission
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... on 10/01/12
Sorry for being so prickly but it means a lot to us.
“Your Uncle Arthur and Aunt Paula were not fans of NHS after seeing something different”
I assume that they like everyone would have welcomed the NHS considering what they had before it. If they liked the American system better and could afford it then I am happy for them.
“Anyone who walks in the door of an Emergency Room must be treated insured or uninsured, it's the law”
The 40 Million referred to were not emergency patients and I would guess that their inability pay for health care and fear of crippling debt turned many of them in to emergency cases.
“be in charge of my own destiny no sole providers no sole providers”
Everyone can’t be in charge of their own destiny; the fact that we don’t kill and devour the weak is what puts us above animals. Don’t look now but you already have sole providers, cops, soldiers, Etc. And if the state is not the sole provider of health care the rat race takes over and they have the benefit of their customers not being able to say no and that is when their capitalist gentle human side kicks in.
It’s an explosive subject and we defend it resolutely, the NHS is the greatest institution in the world.
FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 13:56
Yes of course it should be kept within the party but that is not always possible.
When Ted Heath was asked why Margaret Thatcher behaved toward him they way she did he said “how should I know I’m not a doctor”
when Margo and Jim Sillars started criticising the SNP they were sent to Siberia. And perhaps the greatest political tongue in cheek insult of them all was when someone said that "the trouble with Herbert Morrison (leading labour politician) is that he is his own worst enemy", immediately, Ernie Bevan (Labour Foreign Secretary) responded with a booming "Not while I'm alive he ain't"
Even Tommy Sheridan Scotland’s own “Danton” couldn’t keep the lid on some squabbles.
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 14:06
Like all good professionals I like to stay in character, you sound like great fun.
By David Duff on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 14:08
Thank you once again for renewing my faith in the struggle.
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH...
I have commented on a similar post to yours at 14:22 Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:36:00 PM.
Was my comment re your colleague a liitle too close to the truth for you to print.
By Alan on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 14:24
Alan – After god knows how long and having read the mind numbing drivel you send me you have at last said something witty, well done. I assume from though from what you say though that you are single.
By Alan on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 15:47
It’s just not your lucky day Alan is it? If you check the comments and times that were sent today you will see that I answered your post a minute or so ago, perhaps you would be honest enough to withdraw your accusation of me not publishing your post?
"Yes of course it should be kept within the party but that is not always possible. "
It is always possible to avoid reporting one of your own Party members to the standards commission.
This is a very deliberate attempt to unseat Iain McMillan before
the election.
Fortunately it is very likely to backfire on Mr Sharkey who has lost all crediblity both with the standards commission and the electorate. the damage to the labour Party is unfortunately done and I hope that Mr Sharkey is taken to task by it's members for his thouroughly irresponsible behaviour
By Anonymous on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 16:05
“It is always possible to avoid reporting one of your own Party members to the standards commission”
I understand and share your anger and frustration but you need to get real, this has already happened which means 'de facto' that your statement is wrong.
“This is a very deliberate attempt to unseat Iain McMillan before the election”
I don’t accept this at all, it’s just not credible; remember I’m a member of the labour Group.
This issue will run its course and the Standards Commission will decide what happens with it, no one is in a position to do anything about that now.
Dearie me Terry,
is it true that rather than attend a council meeting to re-instate all the vicious nasty nats cuts, some of the Labour group will be lying on beaches or complaining of a twinge rather than be there.
I also hear Labour cant make up its mind to put the council tax up by 50% 0r 70% to fund all their promises.
i know most of the working people in the NHS are wonderful, it's not the workers I speak of.The NHS means a lot to me because it means a lot to you. You mention that our parents were OK with the NHS, like you say there was nothing before, something is better than nothing but. The majority of Americans are like you "Sorry for being so prickly but it means a lot to us." and do not want what has worked very well dismantled and taxes the politicians force on us used to bail out banks (croney capitalism) Arthur and Paula never paid a nickel for health insurance in 50 years they had like most of us group insurance it was part of their wage package, collective bargaining. Watching Labor become a third division team really scares me, as the alternative is not good. We need change as Obama promised, but not the change he delivered (croney capitalism) Labor is playing the same old plays and players, that will keep them relegated, time for that paradigm shift.
"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will" Martin Luther King
Arthur Kelly Chgo./Craigneuk
I hear that one or possibly two Labour councillors are contemplating jumping ship after the elections in May so alienated by the colapse of the Labour party in Renfrewshire and splits.
Tell me there are no comrades ready to abandon the great cause Terry.
I didn't see yesterday's Express but I can't believe the Party are turning on each other especially so publically.
This is a time to be showing unity if we are to rebuild the damage done since the elections.
Councillor Sharkey is an embarrassment to the Labour Group and needs to be seberely reprimanded for his actions.
Marlene
Anonymous - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:13:00 PM.
Perhaps you are getting mixed up with the local SNP who are gearing up to fight like ferrets in a sack after they lose.
Anonymous - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:48:00 PM.
Could you possibly try this again and make an effort to be understood.
“Arthur and Paula never paid a nickel for health insurance in 50 years”
Let me quote that great Chicago philosopher (A Kelly) “you get nuttin for nuttin”
“and do not want what has worked very well dismantled”
If 40 Million without proper health care is working well Etc. Etc.
“Watching Labor become a third division team really scares me”
That depends who you listen to, I tend to think that the opinion formers in the British press (99% right wing) would not spend so much time attacking Labour if they thought we were a “third division team” we are in fact the only credible alternative Govt. And the B******s know that.
“time for that paradigm shift”
I’m always willing to listen to good advice, please elaborate.
By Marlene on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 16:01
I am not sure if you understand how these things work because I don’t know you but, I would be interested to know what action you would take to deal with this.
Because you are unwell, Councillor, I am sending you this to cheer you up. You will need to don your NBC-suit because the site is so Tory it wears plus fours! However, you will find there-in, Good News! A weapon with which to smote your enemies - no, no, not the royals, the other ones.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7568638/salmonds-dangerous-corporatism-exposed.thtml
By David Duff on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... on 12/01/12
I have written about this before and spoke about it at public meetings; it is typical of the press that it was not properly reported.
“we Scots. did not mind Thatcher’s economic policies so much, it was her social policies we did not like” (Alex Salmond) that was brushed under the carpet as well.
"“we Scots. did not mind Thatcher’s economic policies so much ..."
Oh! So he's not all bad, then!
By David Duff on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 15:05
That is a quote from Alex (the spiv) Salmond who is her soulmate.
Thatcher was the most evil woman of all time she was more evil than the famous Mrs. Slime-evil who won the most evil woman on the planet title beating in to 2nd 3rd and 4th place her evil sisters Spiteful, Heartless and Nasty. Thatcher was known to carry a diseased tooth around with her so she could enjoy herself by pouring sugar on it and watch it ache.
If you can imagine a compilation of the charm of the Wicked Witch of the West, The gentle touch of Cruella De Vil, the human touch of Irma Grese, Lady MacBeth’s family values, the neighbourliness and community spirit of Tracy Barlow and the shallow fraudulent and parsimonious arrogance of the Queen Mother you start to get close to what this evil creature was really like, Do you need more or have I made myself clear?
Oh, you are never less than clear, Councillor, even when you are in a muddle. That is why we all worry about you.
By David Duff on FALLEN TREES-FLOODED ROADS-BIBLICAL STORMS- AND TH... at 10:22
If you found my last comment to be a muddle it’s you we should be worried about.
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