The Edinburgh Festival is in full swing just now and so are the comedians. The top ten jokes of the Festival were voted on the other day. The winner was 'Hedgehogs? Why can't they share the hedge?'
But the best worst joke was;
'I phoned up the swine flu line and all I got was crackling..'
Sorry. I'll just go and get my coat..
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Saturday, 15 August 2009
IMGs and Hysteria
Twitter has been tweeting its head off this week as Republican rednecks queue up to have a go at the NHS. The NHS is to blame for absolutely everything according to them and I suppose it was only a matter of time before they got round to two of their favourite subjects - immigrants and terrorism.
American commentators have been pointing out that the terrorists that carried out the jeep attack on Glasgow Airport were IMGs (Interntional Medical Graduates). Therefore the NHS represents a terrorist security threat. What this view hooks on, is that some years ago, the government decided to take in more IMGs to deal with a shortage of staff. Those on the lower grades were allowed to work for a number of years without a work permit, but once they wanted to apply for a higher grade, they needed to get a work permit. This was one of the untold stories of the MMC debacle, where IMGs found that they could only apply for job situations if their visa extended beyond August 1st. As many of them didn't have a visa in the first place, it was the boat home for them. I've told the story here.
It's difficult to know where to start with such a ridiculous assertion. How about the Tube bombers who were born and brought up in Leeds? What happened to them? How about one of the bombers of the American Embassy in Nairobi, who went to Nairobi, stayed there for some years and even married a girl there, while preparing for blowing up two hundred people? How about the Madrid bomber Jamal Zougam, who ran a mobile phone shop in Madrid? How about the 9/11 bombers who entered America and trained in their pilot schools before attacking the Two Towers? If I was being really uncharitable, how would the American health medical organisations run without immigrants? From the country that lifts the lamp beside the golden door, it's really rich to lecture us about immigration policy and security.
The truth is, terrorists can find any way in they want. They don't need the NHS for entry and identity cards in Spain did not stop the Madrid bombings. There is actually only one way to stop terrorists and that is to have the moderate majority on your side. Terrorists don't work on their own. They need money, weapons, safe houses and people to look the other way. And when you demonise and ostracise the moderates, that's when terrorism thrives.
The NHS from its inception has relied on immigrants from the Indian medical colleges and others, to be able to function. It is the second biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army. And for all its faults (and they are many)it is a great British institution. I will be saying more on this, but for now, it's time to tell those Texan peskies to take a hike..
American commentators have been pointing out that the terrorists that carried out the jeep attack on Glasgow Airport were IMGs (Interntional Medical Graduates). Therefore the NHS represents a terrorist security threat. What this view hooks on, is that some years ago, the government decided to take in more IMGs to deal with a shortage of staff. Those on the lower grades were allowed to work for a number of years without a work permit, but once they wanted to apply for a higher grade, they needed to get a work permit. This was one of the untold stories of the MMC debacle, where IMGs found that they could only apply for job situations if their visa extended beyond August 1st. As many of them didn't have a visa in the first place, it was the boat home for them. I've told the story here.
It's difficult to know where to start with such a ridiculous assertion. How about the Tube bombers who were born and brought up in Leeds? What happened to them? How about one of the bombers of the American Embassy in Nairobi, who went to Nairobi, stayed there for some years and even married a girl there, while preparing for blowing up two hundred people? How about the Madrid bomber Jamal Zougam, who ran a mobile phone shop in Madrid? How about the 9/11 bombers who entered America and trained in their pilot schools before attacking the Two Towers? If I was being really uncharitable, how would the American health medical organisations run without immigrants? From the country that lifts the lamp beside the golden door, it's really rich to lecture us about immigration policy and security.
The truth is, terrorists can find any way in they want. They don't need the NHS for entry and identity cards in Spain did not stop the Madrid bombings. There is actually only one way to stop terrorists and that is to have the moderate majority on your side. Terrorists don't work on their own. They need money, weapons, safe houses and people to look the other way. And when you demonise and ostracise the moderates, that's when terrorism thrives.
The NHS from its inception has relied on immigrants from the Indian medical colleges and others, to be able to function. It is the second biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army. And for all its faults (and they are many)it is a great British institution. I will be saying more on this, but for now, it's time to tell those Texan peskies to take a hike..
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Revenge of the Jobsworth - Domiciliary Care and Arifa Farooq
For twelve years now, I've been a carer for my mum who has dementia, and for ten of that twelve years I have had carers coming to the house. I've had several different organisations come, and so I know that home support is a bit of a curate's egg. Good in parts and absolutely rank in others. Amongst those experiences was a very brief brush with Domiciliary Care. I won't go into details, but I suffice to say that I was not in the least surprised to see them appear in a half hour investigative programme filmed by the BBC.
To be fair to Domiciliary Care, the faults that were revealed could be found in any care organisation. Saying you'd been half an hour when you'd only been ten minutes; giving people sandwiches instead of a proper meal (and Quavers); not knowing how to move and handle or how to use a hoist, turning up late; these things happen to a greater or lesser degree in all care organisations. It was the sheer unremitting extent of Domiciliary Care's failings that made it the bogeyman of poor service. At the root of this malaise was South Lanarkshire's auction system for the care contract in their area. All those tendering had to log on to a webpage and the company that bid the lowest got the contract. Corners were cut and the service suffered as a result.
Step forward Arifa Farooq, investigative journalist for the Beeb. She went undercover as an employee of Domiciliary Care and unsurprisingly, did not state on her CV that she was a journalist. Last week she was arrested for providing false personal details. The NUJ are backing her and so are the BBC, but she is part of a growing trend of the persecution of whistleblowers in the area of elderly care. Remember Margaret Haywood? She was the nurse that filmed undercover for Panorama in an elderly ward to expose the abuse going on. She was struck off the nursing register for filming patients without their permission. The fact that she asked their permission to show the footage before it was broadcast cut no ice with the nursing board; she was sacked and without registration she will not be able to work in nursing again. Then there was Dr Rita Pal, who exposed abuse going on in an elderly hospital ward in North Staffordshire NHS trust. Her reward for that was ten years of persecution through the courts of the GMC. It's still not over and she is now working as a GP.
One could laugh at the sheer pettiness of the rage of these jobsworths. I laughed out loud when Arifa Farooq revealed that 'Lady' Mary Beattie who is the head of Domiciliary Care is in fact nothing of the sort; Burke's Peerage had no record of her honorific title. (I also thought Farooq would pay for putting in that detail and I wasn't wrong.) At the same time the sheer violence of the reaction to anyone exposing the faults in elderly care is disturbing. It is par for the course for jobsworths to try and trip up whistleblowers; it is not usual for them to succeed, as they did with Margaret Haywood and Rita Pal. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Arifa Farooq and I am hoping the fact that she is a journalist rather than a medic will protect her. In the meantime, it's a rough old world out there for whistleblowers,but we need them. It's time we gave them proper protection.
To be fair to Domiciliary Care, the faults that were revealed could be found in any care organisation. Saying you'd been half an hour when you'd only been ten minutes; giving people sandwiches instead of a proper meal (and Quavers); not knowing how to move and handle or how to use a hoist, turning up late; these things happen to a greater or lesser degree in all care organisations. It was the sheer unremitting extent of Domiciliary Care's failings that made it the bogeyman of poor service. At the root of this malaise was South Lanarkshire's auction system for the care contract in their area. All those tendering had to log on to a webpage and the company that bid the lowest got the contract. Corners were cut and the service suffered as a result.
Step forward Arifa Farooq, investigative journalist for the Beeb. She went undercover as an employee of Domiciliary Care and unsurprisingly, did not state on her CV that she was a journalist. Last week she was arrested for providing false personal details. The NUJ are backing her and so are the BBC, but she is part of a growing trend of the persecution of whistleblowers in the area of elderly care. Remember Margaret Haywood? She was the nurse that filmed undercover for Panorama in an elderly ward to expose the abuse going on. She was struck off the nursing register for filming patients without their permission. The fact that she asked their permission to show the footage before it was broadcast cut no ice with the nursing board; she was sacked and without registration she will not be able to work in nursing again. Then there was Dr Rita Pal, who exposed abuse going on in an elderly hospital ward in North Staffordshire NHS trust. Her reward for that was ten years of persecution through the courts of the GMC. It's still not over and she is now working as a GP.
One could laugh at the sheer pettiness of the rage of these jobsworths. I laughed out loud when Arifa Farooq revealed that 'Lady' Mary Beattie who is the head of Domiciliary Care is in fact nothing of the sort; Burke's Peerage had no record of her honorific title. (I also thought Farooq would pay for putting in that detail and I wasn't wrong.) At the same time the sheer violence of the reaction to anyone exposing the faults in elderly care is disturbing. It is par for the course for jobsworths to try and trip up whistleblowers; it is not usual for them to succeed, as they did with Margaret Haywood and Rita Pal. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Arifa Farooq and I am hoping the fact that she is a journalist rather than a medic will protect her. In the meantime, it's a rough old world out there for whistleblowers,but we need them. It's time we gave them proper protection.
Monday, 3 August 2009
Come In Sunday Post, Your Plane Has Been Cleared for Landing
I have a confession to make. I read the Sunday Post.
Right, that wasn't as painful as I thought. C'mon, it's got The Broons, Oor Wullie and a decent political round up. And Francis Gay. On second thoughts, let's not go there.
But yesterday Homer nodded, or at least the editor doing the editoral was snoozing. He was making a comment on the EWTD directive coming into force, making weeks of more than 48 hours illegal. He said that it shouldn't be 'rushed into'.
Yes, you're quite right. The EWTD directive was agreed on in 1993. Our government and the medical colleges have had 16 years to prepare for this. Instead they have given us nurse practitioners and MMC.
Hell-o-o-o-o?
Right, that wasn't as painful as I thought. C'mon, it's got The Broons, Oor Wullie and a decent political round up. And Francis Gay. On second thoughts, let's not go there.
But yesterday Homer nodded, or at least the editor doing the editoral was snoozing. He was making a comment on the EWTD directive coming into force, making weeks of more than 48 hours illegal. He said that it shouldn't be 'rushed into'.
Yes, you're quite right. The EWTD directive was agreed on in 1993. Our government and the medical colleges have had 16 years to prepare for this. Instead they have given us nurse practitioners and MMC.
Hell-o-o-o-o?
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