Guilt Free Railing 11

[WouldBeGood]

The end was not nigh,and still looking far far away, so here’s the latest thread.

Usual railing rules apply: all rails or good news welcome, no nauseating positivity or resilience wankery. 😃

I think we will look back on this time with shame and incredulity.

And yes, @Whenisthisgoingtoend, exactly.

Well I attended my outpatients' appointment last night with 4 hours notice. Although the letter said to go to the Outpatients that's not where the clinic was. I wandered through the deserted clinics and corridors for about 5 minutes before finding someone to ask. Bit eerie to be honest, if I was a burglar I could have had a field day.

Receptionist at clinic sitting in her glass box and refused to look at my piece of paper showing that I had managed to get there with 2 minutes notice. Me and one very elderly lady in the reception. Seen within 5 minutes, which was great. Doctor lovely.

And I got parked at Yorkhill with no problem which was a real novelty after years of attending appointments for the kids and having to leave 45 minutes extra to make sure I got a space.

Evening clinics are a fantastic idea. But the whole experience was just deeply...odd.

Sounds like a scene from a sci-fi film @BroccoliFloret.

Glad it went well broccoli! No wonder it was quiet though if that's the notice they were giving people and the ease of getting to the actual clinic once you're there! One way of cutting down time in the waiting room I suppose... (reminds me of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, where an important, public document was displayed in a locked filing cabinet in the basement, in a room with a "beware of the leopard" sign on the door )

The thing is, what can we do about the NHS being so underfunded? People dont want to pay more tax.

I don't mind paying more tax but the NHS needs to be better managed for a start. Ambulance repaired including a new engine to the tune of £6k plus, then engineer told to send it to auction as scrap a few weeks later, he protested but was "told". Ambulance sold for c£600. Just one small example of the sheer waste that goes on all day every day.

At the end of the day, the NHS is a bottomless pit. It could absorb any amount of money chucked at it and it would barely make a dent. I'm not sure that money on it's own is what's needed. It would also help if the SNP actually used the money they were given for the NHS on it rather than pissing it up the wall on the gobshite.

It makes me really sad as at the end of the day it's patients and staff who take the brunt of it, we could be getting more for what we pay already imo

youtu.be/JhRb5hnTseU

This guy is saying exactly what a lot of you here have been saying, i copied that from another thread

I was just watching that @ssd

@ssd

The thing is, what can we do about the NHS being so underfunded? People dont want to pay more tax.

Spend the money we gather in tax wisely.

All the free stuff just isn't needed. Baby boxes, the baby banks end up full and won't accept donations because their is so much Baby stuff getting circulated. Free bikes, universal free school lunches. They are going on about free buses for under 26s, some 26 year olds will be on £30k.

Spend wisely and people will be happy to contribute more.

So a 4 day working week is being trialled.

When? Which employers? Does it mean longer hours in the 4 days? How is it being paid for?

Will it be teachers? health and social care workers? hospitality? retail?

Nope.

But we get what we pay for @ssd
I would like to see us being asked whether we want to pay more to fund COVID provision in hospitals or whether we want to carry on as we are with hospitals trying to cope on top of their usual work.
I think problem is people don't trust governments to spend the money on what they say it's for.
Whereas my relatives elsewhere in Europe pay a separate health insurance so can't be used for anything except their health needs

Agree on all the free stuff/ tinkering around with how businesses are allowed to operate just seems unnecessary and wasteful. Yes, it's a good vote winner, makes them sound all cuddly and liberal, and who doesn't like a free school lunch? And I appreciate that some things it's actually more expensive to work out who is eligible for "free" and who has to pay, so it's better to make things universally free.

But, yes, it's not necessarily showing the most efficient use of tax money. Things like the free buses for under 26s - great. Will save a bit on DCs bus fares (not too extortionate in Edinburgh, though I know in other areas with eg First, that can add up quickly). But, for example, Edinburgh uni has a student bus that the uni pays for to ferry students around between campuses. They are cancelling that from January because the students can just use the service buses. So lots of young people mixing with lots of pensioners in crowded public transport over winter. Can't see that going too well covid-wise, really... Encouraging public transport use isn't a bad idea in principle of course. But this policy just seems to be shifting an existing private sector service that seems to work pretty well (with concession cards etc for those who need them) onto the public purse, without any additional funding that I've heard of to increase or improve the public transport network that will be needed as a result...

Free buses and bikes is about zero carbon strategies though. There are other considerations behind decisions a lot of the time.

Thanks for sharing that @ssd. Seems sensible!

I always thought a specific nhs tax was a good idea to avoid misappropriation, politicians have too little accountability on spending as so few people have a good grip on stats and numbers.

Rory Stewart tweeted yesterday that on politicians re Afghanistan, he couldn't decide if their positions were cynical or naive, and then he came to the view that in fact their views were unmoored in fact, the starting point was audience acceptability.

Absolutely why we need more political accountability other than elections, and it needs to have teeth.

The 4 day week is a nonsense, who's funding it?
Are people daft enough to think they'll get 5 days money for 4 days work? How does it work for hourly paid?

More questions than answers.
A high percentage of people in retail are part-time anyway.

I agree, theres an awful lot spent on unnecessary fripperies. A lot of wasted money.

But who better to manage this? There doesn't seem any one who has a clue.

Yes free buses is to catch a younger generation into considering the bus as normal.

Tbh though, we also need more buses otherwise what we are teaching them is that a lot of bus journeys are much longer and more unpleasant than having a car.

It's ok as an idea but it's only addressing one part of the reason more people don't use buses.

Anyone i like seems to get shunted out the road...in all parties

YY to the wasteful disorganisation in NHS. Another example is my DM being discharged from hospital on a Friday but having to wait for her meds to come from the hospital pharmacy. More than once they weren't ready in time for the flight back to the north isles where she lived. As she wasn't well enough to make the journey home by rail and boat she had to stay in hospital over the weekend taking up a bed etc.

Longer term bed blocking due to lack of space in nursing/care homes is also common apparently.

Everyone I know claims they'd be happy to pay more tax for a better NHS.

In other news, DS vaccination certificate arrived today . He's nervous about being allowed back on the Eurostar in France on Sunday now Hopefully their digital certificate will be available to him, but he's not banking on it.

I already do a 4 day week by taking a salary commensurate with the hours I work. I would imagine this option is open to many people- appreciate I'm generally talking about cushty middle class desk jobs here - should they want it.

Apparently 8 out of 10 Scots support a 4 day working week, but I wonder what questions they're asking to get that response.

I mean it does seem like a nice idea in theory, but feel there's a few more priority matters to focus on at the minute.

The delay thing happens all the time. Ambulance staff waiting on patients meds before they can take them home. Sometimes because they have other patients either needing to get home or make other appointments, they have to leave them and someone else needs to be sent later to get the patient home. Or maybe they'll use a private ambulance, or a taxi. Sometimes they send on the meds by taxi. That's just one part of what goes on. Often they are waiting on perfectly normal meds that could be available in any pharmacy.

That’s the problem, there seems to be nobody sensible in politics. All hopeless, dishonest, self seeking idiots.

And yep, I take a pay cut to work a shorter week as it is, will I get back on full time salary for the new 4 day week? I know the theory is that people will do the same amount of work over 4 days as they'll be happier and more motivated, but what about jobs where being present is a requirement such as retail and hospitality? or jobs where you are actually dealing with appointments such as doctors, dentists, physios or even hairdressers etc Unless you employ more of them then there will be less available appointments.

There are a lot of NHS money wastage is caused by SG policy! There is more spending per head on health in Scotland and more assigned but it gets wasted!

Take community midwives for instance.... SG changed the rules for them so that the woman saw the same midwife through out but including in labour.... Sounds great care on paper. But reality this means the community midwife being on call approx 4 days a week with over 30 women in a month to deal with! No family life can be had being on call that much so loads have left. But now NHS is short of midwives so they employ the same midwives back as bank staff at a greater cost to the NHS! All caused by the policy and failure to properly consult!