AWAKE.........

Fab news seaspirit44 and what a relief for you. 

Todays work in the garden; sort out the raised bed which had strawberries in it, well overgrown and needed digging over and replanting. The netting over is due to enthusiastic moggies who like to use other gardens as a toilet…..!

hugs xxx

seaspirit44 woo hoo about the badge, I'm glad for you. Well done podiatry, actually podiatry was only outside  professional to come to nursing home in covid bless em xxx

moomy very neat looking straws there  I must tackle this garden or should I say wild nature reserve and just read my book?

Regarding the nurses strike... whatever you hear on TV a newly qualified Nurse earns £13.45 an hour bottom of band 5. Has to pay student loan, 9% for pension,.professional fees. They may as well work in Aldi.

Anyway the week of the strike I am.on annual leave, but on the Monday I'm on a course and on the Tuesday I have to work 8-8 as there is nobody, so my holiday will start on the Wednesday. So really opposite of striking.

We have an Indian nurse come over, she has paid £13,000 to an agency but cannot speak or write any English. So we have put her on care which she seems to like. They had provided accommodation but it was full of rough men so she was crying. So we have put her in one of the residents bedrooms ( a spare)

We also have a student nurse. She arrived without a coat??? So when going out on an assessment would have froze, so I had to give her my coat. 

The mind boggles really, if a student nurse cannot adequately clothe herself, can she anticipate the needs of others. And the poor Indian nurse  unable to speak or write English,.maybe she will pick it up.

Sorry for talking outloud, you're all so sensible. 

I've had a lovely day with daughter getting her Christmas presents, she's so easy to please. We got everything in one shop, under budget. Sometimes we hit lucky don't we.

Thanks for listening love Helen  

Snowys Mum life long union member here.  I like to find out why people really striking not the media's take on it.  Big fan of Rail man Mick.  He's so calm and factual when interviewed.  Like Royal Mail it's not about pay it's about restructuring of the workers - code for redundancies, while the bosses reward themselves handsomely with bonuses.  
My hubby was Police and yes like NHS, public sector etc decent pension (for how long though) but they are contributory.  Police was 11% and no shift allowances, no breaks, you eat when you can and he often didn't.  There was much disquiet when they introduced PCSO as their pay had a shift allowance and 6% pension contribution so they took home more than newly qualified police officers.  
People's opinion on strikers is usually clouded by the media that runs down any worker that dares to stand up for their rights or their personal interaction on one occasion with a person who is in the wrong job.  

For those interested about my daughters two cancelled on the day telephone consult with her psychiatrist I rang and finally got a helpful medical secretary who gave her appointment for the following Monday and told me to call her personally if no call with 5 minutes of appointment time.   Call came told to collect prescription from clinic pharmacy that afternoon as change of meds and specific instructions to manage change.  So off I trot at 2pm to collect.  No prescription there.  Call after 3pm to see if it's arrived.  It hadn't.  So ring following morning at 10am.  Still no prescription from doctor.   Told to ring CMHT.  I think I had someone who had been forced back to office after from working from home !  I pushed for prescription told she'd call me back.  She didn't so rang again, answerphone.  Left message, no return call so I went into clinic.  Took details off he went to find it.  After sitting there for 20 minutes grumpy rang me to say she hadn't rung as she couldn't find the doctor. Then the doctor appeared and handed me prescription she'd just written and talked me through changes etc.  Then had to take to the clinic pharmacy about 3 miles away to get filled.  Lovely pharmacist again talked me through changes (stepping down to start new med), put each week in separate bag, gave me their contact details.  The down side is only 1 week of new meds, if no negative reaction after 2 days contact doctor to get new prescription!  Good job I'm retired and have time to chase.  Pharmacist said about new drug it would be her go to for severe OCD so fingers crossed.  

You must be exasperated Grogg......all this additional worry when your daughter is so unwell.

In contrast my son's partner had cystitis develop over last 24 hours. I phoned our doctor's secretary, who made an appointment just one hour 15 minutes later with the doctor in person. A one dose antibiotic at lunch and she tells me she is much better.........

What can I say? It does make me feel guilty that we still get a good service.

@grogg, that’s so very poor. Sadly it’s so often that pharmacy lets the system down but it sounds as if it was all the way down the line for your daughter. I really hope the new regime helps her. 

Snowys Mum, I took paracetamol and have rested ever since I came in, really needed! The only thing I’ve done is get my dinner. 

I’m in total understanding about salaries and care/nursing/police/public sector work, a 5% pay rise with a cost of living increase of over 10%? Can those in power not do the maths? It’s a pay cut, for goodness’ sake!

Hugs to all 

Sorry everyone, but it’s not Pharmacy or Pharmacists that let the system down. It’s the system! 

Mother was Pharmacist, husband is a Pharmacist,  and I worked looking after 20 Community Pharmacies.  

In Hospital Pharmacy there is always a massive delay between Clinician prescribing and physical prescription being dispensed. 

In Community Pharmacy things have progressed, but still a delay in prescription being agreed by GP and then being electronically sent to Pharmacy. Then of course it has to be checked and dispensed. 

Sorry to rant, but everyone has to defend their profession. xx

Well defended, Karen22, but that surely still doesn’t excuse a delay of 6 hours between a drug getting prescribed for a take home on discharge, to actually getting it dispensed? I also happen to know that the pharmacy in question was very understaffed….. (that was in a major cancer hospital)  As I think that was the longest daughter had to wait, they could have admitted another patient into that isolation room in the haematology transplant unit in that time. And those rooms were always in demand. I guess nobody will ever fix the system which is sadly getting no better, only worse. 

Hugs xxx

Hi moomy, I totally get what you are saying. My ex husband ended up being discharged from his isolation room, and I went back the next day to collect medication.  It wasn’t straightforward as they actually didn’t have the drugs when he was discharged and had to order in.

I think we should all agree it’s not the fault of any one person, but a problem with systems and processes. 

Clinical checks in Hospital Pharmacy are quite complex and time consuming. People have had medication withdrawn, added and changed. It is a matter of safety that this is all checked before a patient is given the actual medication.  Doctors are not experts in drugs, that’s the reason there are Consultant Pharmacists within Hospitals.

There is also a process within Hospitals where physical prescriptions are collected by Porters and delivered to the Pharmacy. This maybe only every 2 hours…. 

Anyway,  I think we can all agree that NHS and the public sector has been severely under funded for many years. All the workforce try their upmost to help people.  

I know in my Mothers life, mine and my Husbands (and the rest of my NHS family) they’ve tried their very hardest to help people. 

Maybe time to lobby our MPs? Xx