[kj] O/T Thanks for the messages

Paul Wady paulwady at hotmail.com
Thu Jan 20 09:42:16 EST 2011



One way or another I was in a room full of London council reps this week. One explained that his borough was losing £22 million pounds over the next year. He said that what is poor service today will be worse or gone over the next few years. Everyone knew they faced a slow disintegration, an erosion of the services they were expected to offer and maintain, and do so to 100%.
So everyone in that room was part of organizations of people who daily face abuse over what they try to do, let alone look forwards to more over this. A pal of mine years ago was a chief housing officer for Hackney. Quite a normal thing for people on the phone, that he'd had to refuse accommodation, to terminate the call with effective and explicit threats of violence towards him. I watched him remember, and shake as well. A good buddhist who suffered bipolar. Imagine being him?
Yeah, this is what the decline of western civilization looks like. Everyone got to expect a certain standard of societal maintenance, support for the body and mind and law and order. It is slowly evaporating here in blighty. Remember the Mad Max films?


Keep smiling folks!



From: fatpotanga at gmail.com
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:53:42 +0000
To: gathering at misera.net
Subject: Re: [kj] O/T Thanks for the messages



Couldn't agree more with what Janean said,
I empathise with your anger totally and to leave your father sat there from 1pm til 6.30 defy's beliefThere'd be outrage if it were livestock.And add to that no one had even called you in the first place.
You have every right to be bitter & angry.

On 20 Jan 2011, at 11:44, Janean Lancaster wrote:

Jesus, what a nightmare. Your poor dad. You've every right to a
bitter rant.



Public cuts/spending is all arse-over-tit and politicians like it
that way. Cut hospital beds, teachers and lollipop ladies; leave
all those bloated managers, directors and chief execs alone.



On 20/01/2011 11:20, Brian Whitehead wrote:
Thanks for all the mails of sympathy.

A rant:



My dad (88) was in and out of hospital 3
times over the last few weeks because as soon as was discharged
he went straight
back in. He’d had a heart attack just before Christmas which he
survived which resulted in him having a pacemaker fitted.

At his last hospital stay: I went round to
visit him last
Friday at around 3:30pm and as I walked into the ward I saw a
forlorn figure
slumped in a chair in the waiting room in front of a TV with
kids TV on
surrounded by his bags and belongings – my dad. They were
discharging him again!!!!! It was just a case of waiting from
his medication to arrive from the
hospital pharmacy and then they’d get an ambulance to take him
home. He’d been
there since around 1pm and they had not contacted me or my
sister to let us
know, they had absolutely no idea of his circumstances at home,
whether he had
food in or even if he had a key to get in. I sat with him until 6:30 when his medication
finally arrived and by
which time he was getting very desperate and just wanted to lie
down. There is
no way I could put him through another couple of hours sat in
that chair waiting for an ambulance to take him home so I
grabbed a wheel chair and pushed him through the maze of the
hospital and to my
car on the car park. It was a massive struggle as it was cold
windy and rainy but I
eventually managed to get him home and sat in his favorite
chair. I was just
about to getting the heating sorted out when he started to
complain of chest
pains – his heart was giving in again. Long story short – called
999 and within
a hour of arriving back home he was back in the hospital
battling for his life, which he eventually
lost around 12 hours later.

In off the reord chats with staff they tell
me that the pressures on the helath service and to free up space
is even greater with the cuts. So if I hear another politician
use the phrase "We're all in this together", when certain
sections of commerce are earnig huge profits again, I'll
explode.

Do I sound bitter...yes, good.



Rant over

Brian.
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