.
I can't be bothered to write any more about this....but lets just say that I, like many of my colleagues, am getting a little tired of the constant "what else can we do to demoralize the workforce" attitude.
"Nuff said.....for now.
.
Showing posts with label Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hospital. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Annual Pay Freeze,Possible increment freeze and Pay Band Downgrades, now they want to charge me £20 a month for parking my car at work!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Man gets £175,000 for mis diagnosed Leukaemia....I wish!
Strange story really, but you have to ask what the hell the Basildon hospital were thinking when they diagnosed this guy with MRSA, then 5 days later decided he had Leukaemia (unspecified type) and only had 1 year to live!.
To be fair to Mr Moore the gentleman involved, there is probably a lot more to this story than the "£175,000" headline, and, having suffered similar worries,concerns and fear after my own diagnosis, i can say that the mental grief that he experienced is not a nice place to be.
Anyway, lets just hope that the jokers at the hospital departments learn from this very expensive lesson, and lets also hope that Mr Moore,should he ever read this, considers making a donation to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research or some other blood cancer charity to help thousands of others who sadly don't get told it was all just a horrible mistake :-)
To read the full story click HERE to visit the Daily Mail Website.
.
To be fair to Mr Moore the gentleman involved, there is probably a lot more to this story than the "£175,000" headline, and, having suffered similar worries,concerns and fear after my own diagnosis, i can say that the mental grief that he experienced is not a nice place to be.
Anyway, lets just hope that the jokers at the hospital departments learn from this very expensive lesson, and lets also hope that Mr Moore,should he ever read this, considers making a donation to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research or some other blood cancer charity to help thousands of others who sadly don't get told it was all just a horrible mistake :-)
To read the full story click HERE to visit the Daily Mail Website.
.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Michael Jackson has died. Heart attack in LA
I have just seen the rather sad news on the BBC News channel that Michael Jackson suffered a heart attack at his LA home and was pronounced dead after arrival at hospital a few hours ago.
No matter what you may have thought of this eccentric singer/songwriter and all round performer,christened with the nickname "Wacko Jacko by the press, Michael was undoubtedly an icon of our times.
I must admit as to being personally rather sad at the news of his untimely death,and no matter what you thought of the guy, i bet that you can name at least one of his long list of hit songs.
R.I.P Michael Jackson 1958-2009
No matter what you may have thought of this eccentric singer/songwriter and all round performer,christened with the nickname "Wacko Jacko by the press, Michael was undoubtedly an icon of our times.
I must admit as to being personally rather sad at the news of his untimely death,and no matter what you thought of the guy, i bet that you can name at least one of his long list of hit songs.
R.I.P Michael Jackson 1958-2009
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
6 monthly blood test confusion...or is it just me ?
Ok, enough posts that are simply links to other websites or current news articles, this time I have a concern that i would like to discuss with you relating to my 6 monthly blood tests.
Going back to 2006 (no, i am not Dr Who !) when I was first diagnosed with CLL (Chronic Leukaemia), i was asked to attend Grantham hospital every 4 months so that i could have a blood test and then have a chat to my consultant about the results of said test.
Almost immediately I found that "my consultant" was never actually at the hospital when i had an appointment, and sadly when the lady left some 2 years later i had not had the chance to even meet her to say hello !.
The next issue is that after my tests (which i had done at Grantham hospital) were moved onto a 6 monthly footing (i was asked if i wanted to stop having them completely, but declined the offer....how i love needles !) i found that having the blood taken at a different venue (my GP's surgery or the hospital that i work at during the week) seemed to be something that caused a severe breakdown of the "system", when A) it took ages to get the results, and B) If i did not ask for the results, no one ever took the initiative and called with them. The most recent example of this was when, during a period of feeling "wiped out" just before Christmas, i visited my GP and was advised to go and get my (then due) blood test done.The surgery could not get the bloods taken there as they were busy until the 29th December, and as i was due to return to work at the hospital on the same day, i arranged to have the bloods taken at King's Mill (to save me having to miss half a day by having it done at the surgery). The sample was taken in the morning at around 9.30 am, and i remember asking if the results would be passed on to me via my GP to which the answer was in the affirmative.......yes ! :-).
This seemed like a logical answer as the surgery address was on the sample request form......but apparently this was not so !. I also asked if the surgery would contact me if there was a problem that needed to be addressed, and again the lady advised me that she would expect this to be the case, which again seemed to be the expected procedure.How wrong can you be ?
Fast forward to today, 3rd March 2009 and I am at the GP's again, this time due to a chest infection. Before leaving i enquire as to the results of the test on the 29th (i explained that i had assumed up until this point that"No news is good news", yet again...wrong!).
My GP then explains that they do not have any results on record. "Who did the tests ?" i was asked , "The hospital that i work in in Nottinghamshire" i replied. "Ah, well then we will have to request them to send us the results via fax then" she continues and promptly writes down the surgeries fax number for me to pass on to the hospital.
Quarter of an hour later i am on to phone to the hospital explaining the situation to one of the staff members of the Phlebotomy dept, but when i ask her to fax the results to my GP i am told that it is against hospital policy to fax results, and instead i will need to get the GP to phone them and speak to them in person to find out the results.
After the chat with the hospital i then call the surgery again and pass on this information to the receptionist asking if she can get the doctor to do this.
Now i work for the health service, and believe it to be an excellent service, but i can't help but feel that somewhere along the way things have got a little "over complicated", and that it appears that the process of communicating results to patients (i.e me !) seems to be lacking any sort of structure.
So, is it just me, or have other people had similar experiences in regard to finding out the results of their blood tests ?
By the way, all through my consultations with my "consultants" (about 3 different ones so far!), never have they really sat me down and explained what all of the markers that are highlighted in my test results mean....so i assume that it's going to be a case of "go away and we will see you in 6 more months" if everything is "behaving itself", or "We need to put you on medication" if its not. Having been on other leukaemia forums on the net, it strikes me that many sufferers (most notably in the US) appear to have a much greater understanding of their illness, because someone has bothered to explain it to them in great detail.......then again it appears that as is common with a lot of hospital patients in the UK...they are the one of the last people to know anything.......but good for sorting out result requests !
Going back to 2006 (no, i am not Dr Who !) when I was first diagnosed with CLL (Chronic Leukaemia), i was asked to attend Grantham hospital every 4 months so that i could have a blood test and then have a chat to my consultant about the results of said test.
Almost immediately I found that "my consultant" was never actually at the hospital when i had an appointment, and sadly when the lady left some 2 years later i had not had the chance to even meet her to say hello !.
The next issue is that after my tests (which i had done at Grantham hospital) were moved onto a 6 monthly footing (i was asked if i wanted to stop having them completely, but declined the offer....how i love needles !) i found that having the blood taken at a different venue (my GP's surgery or the hospital that i work at during the week) seemed to be something that caused a severe breakdown of the "system", when A) it took ages to get the results, and B) If i did not ask for the results, no one ever took the initiative and called with them. The most recent example of this was when, during a period of feeling "wiped out" just before Christmas, i visited my GP and was advised to go and get my (then due) blood test done.The surgery could not get the bloods taken there as they were busy until the 29th December, and as i was due to return to work at the hospital on the same day, i arranged to have the bloods taken at King's Mill (to save me having to miss half a day by having it done at the surgery). The sample was taken in the morning at around 9.30 am, and i remember asking if the results would be passed on to me via my GP to which the answer was in the affirmative.......yes ! :-).
This seemed like a logical answer as the surgery address was on the sample request form......but apparently this was not so !. I also asked if the surgery would contact me if there was a problem that needed to be addressed, and again the lady advised me that she would expect this to be the case, which again seemed to be the expected procedure.How wrong can you be ?
Fast forward to today, 3rd March 2009 and I am at the GP's again, this time due to a chest infection. Before leaving i enquire as to the results of the test on the 29th (i explained that i had assumed up until this point that"No news is good news", yet again...wrong!).
My GP then explains that they do not have any results on record. "Who did the tests ?" i was asked , "The hospital that i work in in Nottinghamshire" i replied. "Ah, well then we will have to request them to send us the results via fax then" she continues and promptly writes down the surgeries fax number for me to pass on to the hospital.
Quarter of an hour later i am on to phone to the hospital explaining the situation to one of the staff members of the Phlebotomy dept, but when i ask her to fax the results to my GP i am told that it is against hospital policy to fax results, and instead i will need to get the GP to phone them and speak to them in person to find out the results.
After the chat with the hospital i then call the surgery again and pass on this information to the receptionist asking if she can get the doctor to do this.
Now i work for the health service, and believe it to be an excellent service, but i can't help but feel that somewhere along the way things have got a little "over complicated", and that it appears that the process of communicating results to patients (i.e me !) seems to be lacking any sort of structure.
So, is it just me, or have other people had similar experiences in regard to finding out the results of their blood tests ?
By the way, all through my consultations with my "consultants" (about 3 different ones so far!), never have they really sat me down and explained what all of the markers that are highlighted in my test results mean....so i assume that it's going to be a case of "go away and we will see you in 6 more months" if everything is "behaving itself", or "We need to put you on medication" if its not. Having been on other leukaemia forums on the net, it strikes me that many sufferers (most notably in the US) appear to have a much greater understanding of their illness, because someone has bothered to explain it to them in great detail.......then again it appears that as is common with a lot of hospital patients in the UK...they are the one of the last people to know anything.......but good for sorting out result requests !
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
More news about donor sessions in Nottinghamshire.
Ok, today I had a chat with a lady called Nidia at the Newark Hospital in Newark-upon-Trent in Nottinghamshire. The main gist of the conversation was to confirm that she is more than happy to make available an area within the hospital (at a date yet to be confirmed) to use as location for a donor recruitment session that will be arranged and hosted by the Anthony Nolan Trust.
Anyone who has been following this blog for a while will remember that the little boy Joel Picker-Spence, who sadly died of his ALL Leukaemia last November, was from a small village just outside Newark, and it is for that reason that we will be promoting this event in his memory.
Just got to try to push ahead with similar arrangements that I hope to implement at Kings Mill Hospital sometime in the near future.
A very important part of these sessions will be to make sure that the general public, as well as hospital staff, will be able to participate, and it is to that end that I will (as soon as details are finalised), be engaging the help of the local press,radio and hopefully TV, to spread the word and ensure that as many people as is humanly possible, are given the chance to offer "the gift of life", and perhaps save someones life as a result of registering on one of these sessions.
Anyone who has been following this blog for a while will remember that the little boy Joel Picker-Spence, who sadly died of his ALL Leukaemia last November, was from a small village just outside Newark, and it is for that reason that we will be promoting this event in his memory.
Just got to try to push ahead with similar arrangements that I hope to implement at Kings Mill Hospital sometime in the near future.
A very important part of these sessions will be to make sure that the general public, as well as hospital staff, will be able to participate, and it is to that end that I will (as soon as details are finalised), be engaging the help of the local press,radio and hopefully TV, to spread the word and ensure that as many people as is humanly possible, are given the chance to offer "the gift of life", and perhaps save someones life as a result of registering on one of these sessions.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
One day...............
You know, if you pick up any newspaper, watch any TV news or listen to local or national radio, it seems like not a week goes by when there is not at least one person pleading for bone marrow donors to come forward.
Maybe it's because i am "in the club" as it were due to my own Leukaemia diagnosis, but I can't help but feel compelled to try and do something constructive to assist in these appeals. It is to that end that i spoke to staff at the Anthony Nolan Trust earlier this week, offering to try and recruit potential donors by way of using Scarlet (the car) and her trailer to spread the word to people and try and educate, inform and dispel misconceptions about what being a marrow donor involves.
One day, hopefully not so far away, there will be no need to make appeals, and bone marrow donation will be as commonplace as a blood transfusion. That day needs to be sooner rather than later, to avoid the human lottery that we currently have.
The Donors Mantra
A part of me I give to you
so you can start your life anew
a chance to live your life again
to free yourself from fear and pain
to lift your spirit and faith renew
this gift of life from me to you
Andy Ward.2008
"Every passing minute, is another chance to turn it all around" Vanilla Sky (Film 2001)
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Maybe it's because i am "in the club" as it were due to my own Leukaemia diagnosis, but I can't help but feel compelled to try and do something constructive to assist in these appeals. It is to that end that i spoke to staff at the Anthony Nolan Trust earlier this week, offering to try and recruit potential donors by way of using Scarlet (the car) and her trailer to spread the word to people and try and educate, inform and dispel misconceptions about what being a marrow donor involves.
One day, hopefully not so far away, there will be no need to make appeals, and bone marrow donation will be as commonplace as a blood transfusion. That day needs to be sooner rather than later, to avoid the human lottery that we currently have.
The Donors Mantra
A part of me I give to you
so you can start your life anew
a chance to live your life again
to free yourself from fear and pain
to lift your spirit and faith renew
this gift of life from me to you
Andy Ward.2008
"Every passing minute, is another chance to turn it all around" Vanilla Sky (Film 2001)
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Meet the team. Andy Ward
Hi there.My names Andy Ward (the one without the dummy !),I'm 41 years old (young ?) and I am the guy who got us all into this mad quest !.
I suppose it's only fair that I give you a quick rundown of my background as I am expecting complete strangers to help our team out on our adventure next September so here goes:
I am currently ,like Glen and Gary, also employed within the NHS but i work for the Kings Mill Hospital as a medical Technical Officer (I repair the machines that "go ping" in hospitals as was featured in a sketch by the Monty Pythons team many years ago !).Before I was employed by the NHS I served for 12 years with the RAF as an Airframes Technician working at several stations including RAF Cranwell,RAF Lyneham,RAF Honington and finally RAF Lossiemouth in the deepest darkest highlands of Scotland.I services and maintained a wide veriety of aeroplanes such Jet provosts,Hercules and Tornado GR1's.
I have been married to my wonderful wife Teresa for 20 years (in July) and we have been blessed with 3 children, Rachel,Lauren and Andrew Jr.
My interests include Ebay,Online games,Messing with my car (yes it's a Scirocco and I have owned 4!) and giving up some spare time (if i can find any these days !) to help out at the Cranwell Aviation Heritage Centre at Rauceby were I maintain their static displayed Jet Provost Tmk4 and other exhibits.
Why am I doing the challenge ? Well in August 2006 I was unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with Chronic Leukaemia, and after a few months in "the wilderness" i got my head back together and decided to turn my efforts to trying to raise money for Leukaemia Research, which is how I ended up together with Teresa, undertaking Roc Around the Clock in August 2007, and at the end of that event we started to think "bigger"....and after a few months of consideration and debate Scirocco 2 Morocco was born and named as such due to the the fact that Morocco just happens to rhyme nicely with Scirocco :-)
I am really glad that we are doing this challenge, and that i will have the company of a very good friend of mine for what i believe will be a memorable trip, and that not just one, but 3 charities are hopefully going to benefit from our efforts.
My fundraising page is at: www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco .Meet the team.Glen Place.
Now that Scirocco2Morocco is underway, we thought it would be a good idea to tell you all a bit about ourselves, so here goes……
My name is Glen Place, Im 31 (in February) and has worked for the NHS for 12 years!! I currently work in Gravesend as a Rehabilitation assistant, helping patients suffering from a variety of neurological illnesses and conditions including MS, Parkinson’s disease, and Stroke.
My hobbies include ‘trying’ to play the guitar, editing videos (I have a few on youtube under gplace01) and, surprise – Sirocco’s! I have owned 8 of these cars since I passed my driving test in 1995 and still have a keen interest today. I am also the events co-ordinator for the Scirocco Register - the UK’s best Scirocco club, and I’m a regular visitor and contributor to the forum (http://www.sciroccoregister.co.uk/).
So, how did I end up volunteering for this venture? Obviously I heard about the idea from its creator – Andy Ward, after meeting him at a few of the Register meets and events in 2007. I even joined Andy and Teresa on their final leg of their ‘roc around the clock’ challenge this year, helping them to achieve their 35 Hospitals visited. Shortly after this venture Andy mentioned an idea to enter something a little more ‘ambitious’ in 2008 and I quickly jumped at the chance to assist him in his efforts. It was only after this decision that Morocco became the ambitious destination! However, this only boosted my interest and determination to help – what an idea!
We decided to support a charity each on our adventure + the Air Ambulance. I chose to support MacMillan partly because so many of us have lost friends and family to cancer and also because my wife Rachel recently lost her Aunt Nell to cancer. It was during this difficult time that I learned how much help and support this charity gives to sufferers of this terrible disease. This has made me all the more determined to raise as much money for them as possible
So that’s me! If you think you can support us on our perilous quest (thought I would add some drama at this point!) please visit my web page at www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco-mac or if you would prefer to support one of the other charities we are supporting, click the respective links on my page. I will leave Andy to explain more about these.
Thanks for your support
Glen Place
My name is Glen Place, Im 31 (in February) and has worked for the NHS for 12 years!! I currently work in Gravesend as a Rehabilitation assistant, helping patients suffering from a variety of neurological illnesses and conditions including MS, Parkinson’s disease, and Stroke.
My hobbies include ‘trying’ to play the guitar, editing videos (I have a few on youtube under gplace01) and, surprise – Sirocco’s! I have owned 8 of these cars since I passed my driving test in 1995 and still have a keen interest today. I am also the events co-ordinator for the Scirocco Register - the UK’s best Scirocco club, and I’m a regular visitor and contributor to the forum (http://www.sciroccoregister.co.uk/).
So, how did I end up volunteering for this venture? Obviously I heard about the idea from its creator – Andy Ward, after meeting him at a few of the Register meets and events in 2007. I even joined Andy and Teresa on their final leg of their ‘roc around the clock’ challenge this year, helping them to achieve their 35 Hospitals visited. Shortly after this venture Andy mentioned an idea to enter something a little more ‘ambitious’ in 2008 and I quickly jumped at the chance to assist him in his efforts. It was only after this decision that Morocco became the ambitious destination! However, this only boosted my interest and determination to help – what an idea!
We decided to support a charity each on our adventure + the Air Ambulance. I chose to support MacMillan partly because so many of us have lost friends and family to cancer and also because my wife Rachel recently lost her Aunt Nell to cancer. It was during this difficult time that I learned how much help and support this charity gives to sufferers of this terrible disease. This has made me all the more determined to raise as much money for them as possible
So that’s me! If you think you can support us on our perilous quest (thought I would add some drama at this point!) please visit my web page at www.justgiving.com/scirocco2morocco-mac or if you would prefer to support one of the other charities we are supporting, click the respective links on my page. I will leave Andy to explain more about these.
Thanks for your support
Glen Place
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Bought a camera...i love Ebay !
I bought a video camera for the trip on Tuesday, a Panasonic Full sized S-VHS (on the shoilder job !) that uses your standard full size VHS video cassettes.It comes complete with charger,all leads,battery and carry case, all in full working order and for the pricely sum of...wait for it.....£14.99 :-).
Ok, so its about 19 years old, but that still makes it 2 years younger than the car, and a LOT younger than me and i work ok..well most of the time (my boss says i sometimes don't work at all !...what can he mean ?).
The reason for buying such an antique peice of video history ? Well someone on another Blog (realbuzz.com i think) suggested (after i winged that people doing documentries always get more help cos they have a camera crew) that we invest in a camera, not just any camera, but one that looks like a "proffessional" one (is it 2 ff's or 2 ss's...oh well i'll use both !), so that we can appear (to the unannitiated) to be making a documentry during the drive, and thus gain the trust/help of the locals if we need any "favours"....crafty eh ?.....and of course we will be using it to film our progress also !.
Is that the time...damn, that's lunch finished...better get back :-).
Ok, so its about 19 years old, but that still makes it 2 years younger than the car, and a LOT younger than me and i work ok..well most of the time (my boss says i sometimes don't work at all !...what can he mean ?).
The reason for buying such an antique peice of video history ? Well someone on another Blog (realbuzz.com i think) suggested (after i winged that people doing documentries always get more help cos they have a camera crew) that we invest in a camera, not just any camera, but one that looks like a "proffessional" one (is it 2 ff's or 2 ss's...oh well i'll use both !), so that we can appear (to the unannitiated) to be making a documentry during the drive, and thus gain the trust/help of the locals if we need any "favours"....crafty eh ?.....and of course we will be using it to film our progress also !.
Is that the time...damn, that's lunch finished...better get back :-).
Monday, 17 December 2007
Scirocco 2 Morocco 2008
Wednesday 12th December 2008
Not a lot to report really. I had an email from a journalist at the Sleaford Standard newspaper on Monday asking if he could do a story covering our planned trip. I explained that at the mo we don’t really have anything sorted except for some small details such as the justgiving pages (we now have 2).The car is still resplendent in the logo for the Roc Around the Clock adventure, so no point in getting any snaps of her yet and the trailer is still very much in it’s concept stage, nothing more than a “virtual” image exists….I mean we haven’t brought the car back from Derby yet, never mind actually started chopping and cropping! (Or is that “cut and shut”?).
On Tuesday I gave Gary a hand setting up his S2M page, and we decided to call it “Scirocco2Morocco-Air” to set it apart from the page I have started that is tailored to raise money for Leukaemia Research. Glen will hopefully get his page sorted some time this week and he will have the suffix “-Mac” to identify it as being there to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support group.
I heard a lady on BBC Radio Nottingham talking to John Holmes this evening. It appears that she is raising money for a cancer charity group in Nottingham, and she hopes to raise 3 million quid eventually through a wide range of events. Coffee mornings, sponsored walks, fashion shows etc, I remember thinking to myself “maybe we are under valuing our event. Maybe we should set our targets a lot higher than the £1500 we have posted on our respective pages….not sure what we should do, will have a think !.
Must sort out getting the donor car sometime in the near future before Paul changes his mind J.
Not a lot to report really. I had an email from a journalist at the Sleaford Standard newspaper on Monday asking if he could do a story covering our planned trip. I explained that at the mo we don’t really have anything sorted except for some small details such as the justgiving pages (we now have 2).The car is still resplendent in the logo for the Roc Around the Clock adventure, so no point in getting any snaps of her yet and the trailer is still very much in it’s concept stage, nothing more than a “virtual” image exists….I mean we haven’t brought the car back from Derby yet, never mind actually started chopping and cropping! (Or is that “cut and shut”?).
On Tuesday I gave Gary a hand setting up his S2M page, and we decided to call it “Scirocco2Morocco-Air” to set it apart from the page I have started that is tailored to raise money for Leukaemia Research. Glen will hopefully get his page sorted some time this week and he will have the suffix “-Mac” to identify it as being there to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support group.
I heard a lady on BBC Radio Nottingham talking to John Holmes this evening. It appears that she is raising money for a cancer charity group in Nottingham, and she hopes to raise 3 million quid eventually through a wide range of events. Coffee mornings, sponsored walks, fashion shows etc, I remember thinking to myself “maybe we are under valuing our event. Maybe we should set our targets a lot higher than the £1500 we have posted on our respective pages….not sure what we should do, will have a think !.
Must sort out getting the donor car sometime in the near future before Paul changes his mind J.
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