Article by Margaret Cook

West Lothian 'Stop The NHS Downgrade' Campaign have received permission from Margaret Cook to reproduce her article "Disappearing wards and asset-stripping symptoms of PFI failure", originally published in the Scotsman.

Read all of this very pertinent article here.

I Wouldn't Go to the Van Dressed Like That..

There is a story of a man who wanted to be a saint. He had read about the desert fathers, who lived out in the wilderness and didn't wash or cut their hair or nails. So he decided that he was going to do this; he didn't wash, grew his nails and hair long and lived on the street~(and no, he wasn't from the west of Scotland). Naturally, people were put off and did not stay long enough to hear his sermons. So he cut his hair and nails, washed himself and found somewhere less smelly to sleep, and people came and listened to him. The moral? People can be shallow in their judgements but it's not your business to judge them either; don't trip them up on something that doesn't matter.

Your blogger has been campaigning over the past few days, and this problem of image has reared its ugly head. For example, should you wear brown boots that are comfortable, with a black suit, or should you go for the killer stilletto black ones? I went for style over substance and my feet are kilt, I can tell you.

Then there's colours. Red is Labour, green and orange are a bad idea, black and yellow is SNP, blue is Tory. I finally settled for purple cos I don't look good in pink; I look like a bottle of Pepto Bismol in it.

Not to mention blouses versus jumpers. There's an extremely annoying fashion going round that insists on plunging necklines and short sleeves for blouses that is absolutely freezing; either that,or the alternative is a kind of winciette blouse that looks like it's off a public information film about clothes going on fire. Or it's the jumper, but if you're a carer like me, you tend to steer clear of jumpers, especially stripy ones, which are the standard BBC drama code for 'loser' in a sitcom. Is there a fashion designer out there that can keep a campaigning girl warm and fashionable? Let me know.

Doc Dave Smith

Wahey! yet another health independent has declared in Glasgow Cathcart. Dr David Smith, a retiring surgeon, is to run against Charlie Gordon, former leader of Glasgow council. He says he is dismayed at what has been happening to health services in Glasgow and feels that party politics has been detrimental to decision making on health in Glasgow. You're darn tootin', David.

Your blogger does not wish to appear shallow, but thinks that David will beat Charlie Gordon on looks as well as brains. A rather dishy doc, and we are sure that he will win a large percentage of the female vote - all on political issues, of course. Go gettem David!

STV - Not a TV Station

A friend of mine asked me the other day, how the single transferable vote works, or STV. It's the voting system that is going to be used for the council elections and is a form of proportional representation. It's going to lead to a major shake up in councils across Scotland. Anyway, I promised my friend that I would post a full explanation of STV and the Additional Member system on my blog. Which is probably why I haven't written here for some days. It will appear in due course.

Bonnie Jean

Lets start with a wee test. How many of you have heard of John Crofton? Rachel Carson? Tim Berners Lee, anyone? If you haven't heard of them, don't feel bad. These people all did something useful, and the curse of being useful, is that you generally don't get attention. No good news is news.

Which brings me to another useful person who gets very little attention; Jean Turner. I was at a Stobhill meeting with her in Kirkintilloch the other night and it was a reminder to me, of just how much I have to learn, before I'm upsides with Jean on the health brief. Jean could tell you what an ACAD is, standing on one leg. She could explain how all the different areas of health care connect; what step down beds are; what the implications of merging health visitors with district nurses are; what can go wrong in the most routine of operations which would require emergency attention and so on. For the past four years, Jean has been sharing that expertise with anyone who would listen in the Scottish Parliament and because of her things are much better up here than they are down in England. But most of the people I speak to say 'Who's Jean Turner?' Well, it's time you knew.
( By the way, John Crofton came up with the definitive cure for TB in the 'fiftes, Rachel Carson was a microbiologist who wrote 'The Silent Spring' and stopped the indiscriminate use of pesticides and Tim Berners Lee was the inventor of the Internet. So now you know.)

We Need Helicopters

The newsletter of the NHS Consultants' Association just came out today. In it was an article by Evan Lloyd, who is a Consultant Anaesthetist(hurray, spelt it right) in Edinburgh. He talked about the principles that were used in treating the wounded in Korea by American teams, where the injured were evacuated by helicopter with on board paramedics.

Minor injuries were treated on site, major ones which could wait were sent on, while others were stabilised and then sent to the major unit. He comments,
'If this was found to be the best management system when helicopter transport could be virtually guaranteed, how much more important is it for land based travel in an ambulance? For example, though the Lanarkshire health board state that the ambulance transit time between Monklands and Wishaw is only 20 minutes, ambulance drivers state that this is the best possible time, and that in rush hours it could be twice or three times as long.'
He continues,
'On purely medical grounds it would surely be better to maintain Monklands A&E in the middle of an area which has one of the highest rates of MI (heart attack) in the world. It is obviously unfair on ambulance paramedics and unsafe for severely ill patients whether trauma or medical, for the medical responsibility for a case during long transport times,to be left to a paramedic.' Give this man a medal for speaking out.

Now do you think that NHS Lanarkshire will a) reprieve the hospital; b)provide helicopters to Wishaw;or c)run a Wee Happy Bus service for heart attack victims, to Wishaw? We'll c..

Coatbridge College Cool Dudes

Vanity has its price.
On Thursday, I was going to hand out leaflets outside Coatbridge College. It was an absolutely miserable day, and normally I would have opted for my anorak, but knowing the cool dude company that I would be moving in and not wanting to look like-well, an anorak, I went for my Matrix style leather coat. I hope I looked cool. I can tell you I was absolutely frozen. I am now sitting at home with a very uncool cold and a nose like Rudolph. So I hope you're all grateful and that you'll all vote for me. Cool running,guys..