Off Topic And Now for Something Completely Different

Letter from our local paper.
It's supposed to be a 'health SERVICE'.
It's just plain wrong.
Not a political post, as the letter says, down to "countless governments" over the years.

 

I would have passed him my phone and asked him to call the receptionist there and then to show how ridiculous her advice and their system is.

 

That would only work if it was 8.00, otherwise it would be just the same answer (if any at all). And even then at 8.00 there's no guarantee.
As you say, ridiculous ..... broken, appalling, unacceptable, sad, ......

 

I've found that you can get appointments outside of that time if you really stick to your guns, but you shouldn't have to, and not everyone can.

Their argument for that strict time is nonsensical and takes no account of people who have work and other commitments. I don't know how they can avoid cringing with embarrassment when trying to justify only taking appointments for that day, yet also claiming that there are a massive number of people not turning up for appointments.

It's main purpose is to fudge the figures, as it influences the data for waiting times, especially when people simply give up.

 

please log in to view this image

 

That’s a fantastic letter that highlights the issues at GP practices throughout the country. It’s also been going on for years and it’s diabolical that the, especially, older generation, who have paid into the system for years should be made to feel such a burden. The system is totally shot and it’s about time something serious was done about it. We can send tens of thousands of pounds in arms to Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russia in a flash but we can’t look after our older generation. Talk about broken Britain!

 

The Americans use TikTok and Apple devices, so no need for spy balloons there either.

 

Just like our GP's surgery, by 8.01 all appointments gone. I'm lucky, I have not needed it or missed out but it's just so sad.

Mrs RSH, had an appointment by text last year with a GP. After about 5 hours waiting for a reply to a photo sent over to them, she was advised to get some medical help. where do you go from that! She gave up and has not bothered with them again. No wonder A&E gets so rammed!

 

Delilah person

 

you may well mock, but that's not even the half of it. in new york, going back four or five years, there were over SEVENTY sets of other pronouns. tom'll never fit the lot in.

 

something i noticed in a newspaper article recently. the article i saw might not have been in the hdm, but it probably was.

this screenshot isn't from the specific article, but it's another example of the same error, easily found with a search on the hdm site.



i assume a duel carriageway is one allocated for road rage resolution.

 

I don’t know the actual details, so can’t figure out how this system will help some important data set…leading to someone getting paid more, but I’m pretty sure it will do.
In the constant discussion of privatising the NHS people seem to have ignored that GPS surgeries were effectively privatised years ago.
They get (or certainly did when I used to be closer to it) paid for the results they achieve against set performance indicators, and as usual poorly set indicators cause poor behaviours. (Even well set ones can!)
And more importantly they don’t get paid for things not on the list, or to over achieve.
That’s why I might get a call to attend a clinic for some check up or other, but if I take them over the payment threshold then Dutch might be exactly the same age etc, but not get called because he is of no financial value (whole other debate…maybe I should have written that the other way round…sorry)
They are small private businesses operating in a system that only pays them for set work…so they won’t do other work, sadly understandably

 

.

 

And therein lies the problem ...

 

Technically from day one of the NHS, GP's have been independent business's though part of the 'NHS Family', biggest problem has been increasing demand and reduced capacity of numbers of doctors, whilst what was once an esteemed position in society and less demanding hours - days of work / red tape / targets (possibly not all bad, though...) and we have now a perfect storm we are trying to fix by adding more of what does not work, alienating both patients and the doctors

 

This is well worth a listen to, Liam at his usual best.

P.S. Liam is up first, I stopped when Steve Evan's came on.

 

Memories


It was the MK2 I dreamed of’: readers recall their Raleigh Chopper rides
The death of Tom Karen, the British designer behind the classic Raleigh Chopper, shifts the gears on owners’ reminiscences

please log in to view this image

Alfie Packham and Guardian readersSat 7 Jan 2023 07.00 GMT


‘I won it in a colouring-in competition’

please log in to view this image

Pete Acini and Charlie Cairoli. Photograph: Guardian Community
I won a Chopper in a colouring-in competition that was on the back page of the Dick Whittington on Ice programme in the winter of 1975-76. The famous clown Charlie Cairoli presented me with the bike during the interval of a subsequent showing of the pantomime at Wembley Empire Pool. He noticed my surname was Italian and said: “I’m a-glad-a you won,” which became a family catchphrase. I was king of the neighbourhood that year, and I’ve never properly thanked my sister for doing the actual colouring-in. Thanks, Anne.
Pete Accini, 55, Brisbane, Australia

‘My friends and I still take the Choppers on road trips’

please log in to view this image

Nick West. Photograph: Guardian Community
Some friends and I, all in our 40s, still own Raleigh Choppers. We have £15 haircuts, like fixing stuff, and are all a bit low-tech – so they suit us well. We take them on road trips to motorsport events around the UK and Europe. They’ve have been to France, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, and we’re taking them to Belgium in May. Choppers are tough bikes. They get knocked around, chucked in and out of car boots, and ridden like they’re supposed to be. We didn’t actually own them when we were kids, since Choppers had little street cred back in the 80s – it was all about BMX by then. People will always stop to chat, take photos, and sometimes ask for a spin.
Nick West, 48, commercial vehicle sales executive, Northampton

‘I was known as “Chopper Mum” in Camden’

please log in to view this image

Vickie’s apple green Chopper. Photograph: Guardian Community
I remember climbing out of my bedroom window with my big sister and sitting on the porch on summer nights in ‘78 and watching the “skateboard gang”, one of whom had the Raleigh Chopper we longed for. She got a purple one for her birthday and my dad dropped hints about a bike for me at Christmas. The big day came … and I received a fold-up bike. It took me many years to buy one of my own. First, a MK3 that I used to take my son to school and to work – I was known as “Chopper Mum” in Camden. Then that red MK2 I dreamed of. Then a horizon blue crossover that I used to ride to work on. Sadly, that one was stolen, so I bought reconditioned parts and rebuilt a blue MK1 that has been my trusty steed for the last 10 years. It was recently repainted apple green.
Vickie, 50, London

‘I used playing cards to make it sound like a Harley’

please log in to view this image

Simon Jones in 1975. Photograph: Picasa/Guardian Community
My Chopper MK2 was an eighth birthday present in 1975, in the days when I was innocent enough to invite my friends for a ride on my Chopper without smirking. I was a pre-teen easy rider on the mean streets of Mundford, in Norfolk. I’d use pegs to attach playing cards to the front and back forks to make it sound like a Harley. I was so proud of my gleaming purple machine, and its three-speed gear shift. If we returned home late, I’d still have to take it out for a ride round the block before bed. It was the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Simon Jones, Munich

‘My parents could never afford one when I was a boy’

please log in to view this image

John Smedley’s restored MK1 Raleigh Chopper.Photograph: John Smedley/Guardian Community
My parents could never afford to get me a Chopper when I was a boy in the 70s. A boy in my street had a yellow MK2. It was fantastic; he let us all have a go. Years later, when I was 55, I started to read up on this iconic bike. I decided to search for the MK1, the rarest of the Choppers. I found a very poor orange 1969 MK1 Chopper, which I then spent £1,500 on new chrome and original Raleigh parts. I now own an immaculate MK1 orange fully working Chopper 45 years later.
John Smedley, 63, gas engineer, Wilmington, Kent

‘I did a daredevil jump over 11 of the local little kids’

please log in to view this image

Darren (left) and his brother, circa 1974. Photograph: Guardian Community
That’s me (above) on the Chopper, and my brother on the RSW11, circa 1974. I loved that bike. I think it was the first model that had the square seat and tail bar. I remember setting up a ramp off the kerb at the bottom of a hill on our estate and achieving a daredevil jump over – what must be the record – 11 of the local little kids, whom I’d roped into participating in my Knievelesque endeavour.
Darren, 58, bookseller and fine art printer, New South Wales, Australia

‘We amassed quite a collection’

please log in to view this image

David’s partner Sandra and their daughter in 2001.Photograph: Guardian Community
I’ve always loved the Chopper. My parents would never let me have one in the 70s but our neighbours had a whole set of Choppers and Tomahawks [Raleigh’s junior version of the Chopper], which we’d ride over hand-built jumps. In the early to mid-90s, I started to see them at car boot sales and picked them up for sometimes little more than £10 or £20 each. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s we amassed quite a collection, and our daughters had their own Tomahawks. A lack of space and a growing collection of “normal” bikes meant we had to let them go in the end.
David, south London

‘Back then, bikes were your key to the universe’

please log in to view this image

Thomas Conroy, aged 12. Photograph: Guardian Community
I loved the look of the Chopper and it arrived, after much begging, in the winter of 1971. I would accompany my friend on his paper round in the mornings just as an excuse to ride it, even in the rain. Back then, bikes were your key to the universe and I went there in style. I rode it until leaving school in 1976, when it was passed on to my younger brother, who in turn passed it on to my youngest brother – until it was stolen sometime in the 80s. A sad end for a much-loved machine.
Thomas Conroy, 63, aircraft engineer, Cockburnspath, Scottish Borders