Good morning all. Just returned from the Arctic Circle where the weather was rather better than Hampshire this morning! Much enjoyed the cruise despite my apprehensions, though we did have one very rough day and were unable to dock on the Lofoten Islands because of the high seas. Svalbard was a truly stunning place...snow covered mountains, midnight sun, glaciers, and fascinating small settlements, including an abandoned Russian mining town. We managed to see a blue whale but no polar bears, despite being accompanied outside the settlements by a man with a rifle. There were reindeer aplenty and sea birds of all shapes and sizes. As for the cruise ship, it was small by comparison with those we saw in Tromso, Molde and Bergen (400 passengers, 270 staff) but the lecture programme and the evening entertainment was far better than I'd been expecting, as was the food. We had a dedicated butler and in the 24 hours since we got back we've taken to asking "Where's Albert?" when there are chores to be done! No-one else on board appeared to use the gym much and so I even managed to get home without gaining a single pound...helped perhaps by a couple of strenuous hikes on our stops in Norway. Few complaints at all then...though no-one in Norway seems to know how to make good coffee!
Morning, Dave; morning, all. Back to work after day off sick, the highlight of which was finding out I have to have Op Numero Two on my dodgy knee.
I was given the go ahead for a second knee replacement last Friday - I expect it to happen in about 8 weeks time. At least up here I can be sure there'll still be an NHS when the time comes...
I've gone through NHS with knee for the last few years. Three years ago i had my cartilage done - by BUPA hospital, as NHS local hospital farmed it out to them. So be it. I didn't like it but as the local hospital had had a couple of fatalities under the knife for the same op, I thought I wouldn't fight it too hard. This time I've been referred to BUPA again. I said to the booking lady on the phone that I was very suspicious of a private company making medical decisions - surely there is a possibility that they might be encouraged to increase turnover and more profitable treatments favoured? She reassured me (!) and so it came to pass that I am now with a different BUPA hospital who have opted for the op. I don't like this nonsense. I would nationalise all hospitals, all schools. My wife was recently dangerously ill in an NHS hosp which was disgustingly under-resourced, desperately badly run, and nearby is a top private hospital, comparatively under-used. It's plain wrong. Good luck with your op, BB, mine's 12th August, yours must be shortly after?
Haven't got a date yet as it's hard for them to second guess. I suspect roughly an 8 week wait which will take me nicely up to the start of the next school year (20th August) - a bonus as the school is being inspected in August or September The Scottish NHS seem to use a similar system as England - farm out some operations to private hospitals in order to reduce waiting times. I know that I will receive offers from private hospitals in Dundee/Edinburgh/Glasgow to do it earlier, but want it done locally as the 'after sales service' is great here & my family can visit easily. Plus getting home from down there after such an op would be a challenge...
Morning all from an already hot rural France. Temperatures this afternoon expected to be 31-35°C, so I expect I will be looking for shade then. One of the joys of having a house with stone walls is that the temperature remains far more even, and you can retire to it when it becomes too hot to be outside. While you are on medical matters, I was talking to my youngest this week, who works in two NHS hospitals. She was saying that they have the money, but are finding it difficult to get the staff to join at present. For some reason the steady flow of nurses and doctors has dried up, something that they have not experienced before.
We have one up here too - unfortunately, when it becomes too cold outside, it seems to retain the same temperature inside... Well, in spite of Tory claims of the opposite, lack of funding for the NHS may be the problem - plus the public perception that, in spite of Tory claims of the opposite, the NHS in England is fast approaching its death bed. Not so much staff jumping from a sinking ship, more a case of staff not wishing to board the sinking ship?
