What are you all up to
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Yes I saw that and its reflected in the Ambulance programme. There are times in the programme when they go to a patient who they know very well, they take them into hospital only for the patient to discharge themselves later on. Then you see the ambulance having to go back to them at home as something else has happened. Sadly some of these cases are folk with mental health issues or drug/drink related, some are lonely.
One programme highlighted a case where the call centre had been contacted about an elderly person who had fallen in the house. An ambulance was despatched to them but got diverted to another call, this happened continuously all during that teams 12 hours shift. By the time they got to him he was not in a good way, he had been on the floor for over 12 hours with a broken hip/pelvis.
Some of the programmes bring it home to you just how stretched the ambulance and A&E services are.
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Blood test on Saturday went well.....once I found which floor of the hospital I should be on! Phone call with appointment said first floor, reality was 4th floor. In and out in 20 minutes, and plenty of parking available. Went in past DD afterwards, Callum was very pleased to see us. Nice to be appreciated!
Sunday was picking up C&C orders at Asda and Sainsburys, for us and for DD, and taking stuff to the Guide Hall.
DD was up here this morning then had a check on my broken arm at the big hospital in the afternoon, so OH dropped me off. X -rays first, then saw a very nice lady doc who showed me the X-rays and said all was OK.....not 100% but good enough. It is the radius bone that is broken, plus the Ulna has a chip in it.
We are struggling with patient drop off and pick up at our big, fancy new-ish hospital, we could not find the drop off points, so I had a long walk back to the entrance!
OH sent DD to pick me up an hour later, she does not like driving in the dark due to cataracts, so not as long an appointment as last week. I have to go back again in 2 weeks time.
Tomorrow is optician, then we are free until the 30th. DD needs another "keep in touch day" for her work, so that may be later this week.
We have now hung my 3 piece big aluminium ladder up round the back of the house, out of sight, as it is too long to be in the garage. On a slight lean so it does not fill with water, and on lockable brackets, with 2 large padlocks. DD did the drilling and hanging, her first time using the hammer drill, she is getting very good at all sorts of things these days. A very clever and helpful girl, do not know how we would manage without her.
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So true Brian, the sad part is that its not until the medics visit and take the time to talk to these people that it becomes apparent they have no physical illness, just loneliness. Quite often elderly people living alone but it can affect all age groups.
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I think there is also the care line system where ambulances have to be called out if someone is alone without help etc. Sometimes this works well, when local help hasn't been forthcoming. It happened to my Mum. I wasn't with her at the time but spoke to the paramedic on the phone, she was taken to hospital because her condition was much worse than the gp surgery realised. I'd rather people were checked over properly, sadly some aren't and it's a revolving door for various reasons.
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I agree it is sound advise ,there are though big problems with our East of England Ambulance Service that would ,unless a real problem ,make me reticent to give them a call,
1 just before Christmas last year our friend' who we were with at Ferry Meadows had a stroke while on site ,I called for an Ambulance to be told that they were very busy ,and the call handler could not give even an estimated time scale for the arrival of an Ambulance, Many in this area are crewed by First responders only who just take you to hospital?
It took half an hour of the "Golden hour?"
2 Another friend 84years ,who we visited in Norfolk a couple of weeks ago ,,had been in Hospital after a fall in her front garden with broken arm and collar bone ,as luck would have it she had her phone and called her neighbour who called an Ambulance, ,it took Three hours for the Ambulance to arrive, ,after several callsI
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JVB
The East of England service seems to have been in trouble for many years, not just since COVID. They have had more new bosses that most football teams! I can see that people can be between a rock and a hard place but if you are not in a position to help I am not sure you should put yourself in danger as hard as that seems. Unfortunately I don't have an answer.
David
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Not been the best start to the week here. First of all yesterday has a call from the insurance company we had chosen for this years caravan insurance telling us that due to a mistake on their part the quote was wrong and it would be an extra £120 over the original quote so we told them to stuff it only issue was our current policy ran out at midnight last night so I didn’t get much sleep up checking out the window that the van was ok we have stored our vans on the drive for years and never had an issue but the way things went for us yesterday that would be the night something happened. Luckily no issue and got the insurance sorted out this morning at a good price so that’s one job out the way.
Problem number 2 yesterday was an issue with the Volvo the steering got stuck on had to call out the AA who diagnosed it as a faulty module so it’s going in to the Colvo garage on Friday to get fixed so no doubt that will be expensive. It’s a great car we have had it over 4 years and it’s been good and towed the van all over but over the last 18 months or so it has started costing us a lot of money and at 12 years old with over 100k on the clock we are thinking it may be time to move it on before next summer. So think we will be car shopping after Christmas does anyone have any suggestions we would be looking at a budget of around 8k like the VW Tiguan and the Ford Kuga but open minded. Hopefully that’s the last of our bad work for this week
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Thanks JV. Yes I have heard good things about those cars however have never owned one although I do like that look of the Kia Sportage so may look at them. We have had a Mondoe in the past which was a great car and you can get a fairly new one for not a lot of money so may look at them too
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Last night we opened my husband's Christmas present and tested it out. I meant it to be a surprise on Christmas Day, but, the best laid plans etc etc.
Our caravan television has suited us very well for about 12 years. Admittedly it didn't like the cold, and the screen wouldn't stay on until it had got warmed up (about 10 minutes), but we lived with it as it's not used very much, and it has a DVD player plus an IPod dock. But when we couldn't turn the sound up it's days were numbered. So we've left it languishing in the office.
So I decided to order a new one as a surprise for OH for Christmas with a big looking present. But a few hours after I had ordered a similar TV from Argos he said "what are we going to do about the caravan television?" I hummed and ahhed and said "I don't think we need to think about it just know". But I was unconvincing and he knew what I had done.
It's not flashy, just runs on mains, but has a DVD player and HDMI and USB ports. It's also "Smart", which we may or may not use (via my phone).
And to make up for no present on the Day, I've bought a bottle of Bushmills.
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Whisky is my fall back too Goldie, Dalwhinnie this year...
When we rented a holiday cottage recently we were impressed by the TV, it was smarter than smart (ours at home runs partly on steam and coal
) so having a good TV at home or away is not a bad thing.
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Our caravan TV picks up Freeview channels, will record programmes onto a USB data stick and has a DVD player. I'm not really exactly sure how 'smart' it is. We tend not to use Netflix and the like.... I really must check it out...
David
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Sorry to hear of your woes Francis.
Our last 2 cars have been a Hyundai and now a Kia Sportage. I definitely prefer the Kia. Tugs our Coachman 460 no problem and we get decent returns on mpg. We were lucky and picked up a 3 year old one with just 11,000 on the clock. Not sure what year your budget would get but you might still get some of the warranty period.
Bit worrying about the insurance. Ours due in a couple of days and paid for. Just hope we don't have a repeat of what happened to you.
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Sadly JV that is what is reflected on just about every episode of Ambulance. Then they get to the A&E and cannot off load, have to sit and wait for hours sometimes. Terrible state our NHS is in just now, yet they do a great job all of them. Would love to see a magic wand waved over them. Throwing money at it is unfortunately no long going to work. We need more Drs, more nurses, more paramedics, more beds, more care homes, more care workers. Where are all these people going to come from, who wants to do the job even if the pay got better. So sad.
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Francis, we had a Ford Kuga, loved it for towing and all round driving. Haven't had a Sportage but we have had 3 Kia cars in the past and loved all of them. Hope you find something suitable.
Well we took 'the cat' to the vets this afternoon and had the works done. Flea treatment lasting 3 months, cat flu jag, wormer and a steroid injection for the skin rash on her face (flea related).
At least now we can rest in peace that the poor mite will be more comfortable. Wasn't anywhere near the cost we imagined so money well spent. She will never be 'our' cat as she is just not that kind of cat, its all on her terms but she does seem to enjoy spending some time here, when we are at home. Other folk also get visits, especially the elderly lady next door who loves to have her company, so we know that when we are away she will not miss out on somewhere to go. Such a shame her real owners have turned their back on her.
Getting very cold out again, more frost tomorrow I expect.
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We don’t get away much, so I didn’t want to spend too much, and it had to be small enough (especially the stand) to fit on a small cupboard. Last year if it was raining in the evening, we mainly watched films I had downloaded onto my laptop. And used the television to play music from an old iPod. Now I’ll probably take our Bose Minilink speaker.
I don’t think we watch as much television as some of our friends, or at least not the same programmes. When we met up a couple of weeks ago they were talking about things we had never seen. After fiddling with the new set last night, tonight we will be back with the house set catching up with recorded “Monday Quiz Night” on BBC 2
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I totally agree. I have a SIL who works for our Ambulance Trust. She isn’t a paramedic, but we get to know all the horror stories. It’s got far worse in the last four years or so. Once you do get a paramedic, they are usually outstanding, certainly saved my OH’s life, and got him to where he needed to be. Our whole NHS is on a knife edge nowadays.
Interesting bit of information I read somewhere today. The Test and Trace system has the equivalent to a fifth of the total NHS budget allocated to it. It’s not part of the NHS budget.
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In the last couple of years OH and I have seen how very good and how bad it can be ,and it seems to depend on how rural some areas are,
When i had the it seem start of my heart problem the ambulance service was really good with two ambulances and a fast response paramedic car ,out side our house all in 20mins when the first ambulance arrived with first responders in about five minutes (it was 0400hrs) Although the follow up,was not good, as they lost the records of my admittance to the cadiac unit
then there was as posted earlier
I had to take OH to the urgent care centre at cromer after another of her falls , the nurses there said it is much quicker to if possible take the person needing other than they can supply .direct to Norwich hospital than call an Ambulance
One of our neighbours father was taken ill when they were staying with him in Gloucestershire and two ambulances arrived as they were both in the area,first responders in one and a paramedic as one of the crew in the other
I think it depends on what time of day/night what the responses are
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We're rural and quite a few emergencies are attended to by the air ambulance, although hilly we have some flat areas for landing. I think with any emergency service it depends on local demand, obviously more incidents in city areas and who can get there first etc. I also think, if possible, some are better being taken to A&E in a car, as suggested in Cromer JVB.
I don't think it's always been good even years ago. I was badly bitten on the face by a dog when I was young and my mother said the hospital staff sat at a table finishing their dinner before looking at me!! As you can imagine I'm not keen on hospitals.
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once I found which floor of the hospital I should be on!
Kj, you had me worried there for a minute as I read KJ, hospital and floor! Good luck with follow up.
Got a bit concerned when I received an email this morning from the furniture delivery people. Email timed at 08.18 saying the chairs would be delivered at 08.03.
Just tying my shoelaces to move the car from the drive when they pulled up outside! Still, everything went to plan and they took our old chairs away for nothing. We seem pleased with them. Time will tell. It's a bit like new shoes. You try them on in the shop and then only find out how good they are when you've walked a few miles in them.
The rest of the day seemed to get away from us as one thing led to another. Just got home in time for lunch then had to go out again. Back home mid afternoon in time to phone little Brother, all 6'3' of him. I'm the runt of the family as far as height goes. I believe the Milkman was a smallish guy.
I still get a tingle when I hear a Milk cart trundling along.
Hospitals and staffing - Great staff but lousy admin and too hard pressed. I read today that nearly 14,000 staff have left the NHS just this year, pressures of work being high among the reasons. Just throwing money at it won't cure it. I sincerely hope all of those people who clapped the NHS staff in 2020 but who are railing against vaccinations and restrictions have a good look at themselves.
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We went to the main Lister hospital yesterday for OHs second foloow up apointment at the Frailty clinic by bus ,the Top man when looking at a brain scan she had 18 months ago ,noticed what may be a problem ,that he thinks needs a referral to the Neurology dept for more tests as he thinks she may have a quite common problem that is manageable but not curable ,which could be the cause of her falls
We wnt on the bus as since september I have been trying to obtain a blue badge (consultants advise)for her as i have to open car door wide to assist her in and out ,
On two occasions the dept concerned have mislaid her application
,so last week i sent another application by recorded delivery, today i checked with Royal Mail and it was signed for at 1021 yesterday, ,when checking today ,the blue badge dept (now have their direct phone number) found out it can take over a week to reach them from the post room
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Morning
You're right about time of day etc. End of June I was called to an emergency on site, suspected heart attack. Fortunately all was ok, the ambulance attended in 15 minutes quickly followed by the North Devon air ambulance. Luckily they were stood down and the patient went to hospital by road (back on site next day
). Jump forward to August, Friday night 22.00, I'm called out again this time with the defib. I don't want to relive that but the ambulance never came, we got the person into a fast 4x4 & they got to hospital in 20 minutes.
On a lighter note, I'm working on a site in Cornwall for a month, overseeing contractors and storage visits etc. Today I'm looking for a water leak as after I read the meter yesterday I found it spinning like a top. Used as many units as if the site was half full! Interesting there's so much to do on a closed site
JK
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Not been the best of weeks. The flu bug (despite having had the jab) turned into a chest infection. Already having a lung problem, and previously having an infection turning into plurasy and then a collapsed lung I was a little concerned when it just gradually got worse. To be honest I was feeling dreadful. I phoned the Dr to ask for antibiotics, to be given a phone appointment for a nurse to phone me back a few hours later. Within the hour someone from the Critical Care Team was on the phone, they had read my notes and wanted me admitted to hospital. It took a lot of talking , between coughing, and promising for me to stop at home in my own bed. The chemist, who took 4 days with a previous prescription had the antibiotics ready in an hour for collection. So, a few days later, here I am, still in bed, but finally able to breath with more ease and not still sounding like a Gnu with every breath, able to now read posts and write this, so hopefully on the mend. This time no complaints about the GP or the chemist as the most excellent service. And so grateful to the OH for his support.
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Take care DEBSC and plenty of rest.
JVB winter site support both staff get paid only the second one get a very small retainer due to being about with site equipment and health and safety issues.
Jollykernow we have had a few leaks here and being on a watermeter makes you check regularly and OH said get the bent metal coathangers out they may help.
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Best of wishes Debsc, you are going through the mill one way or another at the moment.
We have a milkman joke in our family as well WN. I am blond, like my Viking Dad. Little Sis is a very dark brunette😉 She does look like my Dad’s sister though😂
Early drive through Sheffield City Centre for us today. Thankfully got parked up with ease where we need to be. Some love it, but City life has never been for us.
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Hope you're on the mend Debsc, looks like the surgery got their act together, glad to hear it!
We were all dressed up with nowhere to go this morning, a village fund raising event, coffee morning and Christmas gifts etc was cancelled after two changes of venue. I think people are now being more cautious due to the Covid situation, we did tests before finding out we wouldn't be going. Met someone else wandering round, we'd all missed the latest updates and notices.
Still got visiting dog, we think his house now has it's new roof and velux window ready for conversion to a loft room, so we're hoping to pack his bags soon.
Meanwhile we are still catching field mice in our roof, a neighbour has similar in a shed, we're wondering why they are all coming inside, do they know something we don't know? But it seems less cold today.....
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So sorry to hear you have been so poorly DEBSC but glad your surgery and pharmacy got their act together. I hope you feel better soon. Best wishes.
Brue I hope you get your mouse problem sorted out soon. Sorry your village event was cancelled. We are still being very careful about where we go and what we do. Will it ever get better? Life here is trundelling along at what has become our 'normal' now.
I hope Bakers2 is OK. We haven't heard from her for quite a while.
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