Just a rant

I have been crocheting like a madwoman lately, in preparation for the stall I have booked. This morning I woke up and sat in my chair to continue with crocheting some hats while listening to the Today programme on Radio 4. I listen to Radio 4 pretty much constantly, and although I think John Humphries has become a caricature of his former self, and I sometimes avoid the news in the morning if I want to have a happy day, I still rate the programming as superior to the networks I grew up with in America.

But this morning was one of those mornings when I just shook my head in disbelief and got a bit more opinionated with every news story. So my opinions are coming out...

Firstly, there was a news story about Network Rail. Apparently their profits are up by about 10 %, while their efficiency is down by about the same. They are 'slimming down' and 'devolving' some areas of the running of the network, but the spokesmen was adamant that they are not being broken up. The 'slimming down' is because of a report which says that rail costs in Britain are about 30% more than they have to be, and regularly more than our European counterparts. When asked by the reporter if the problems were because of the separation of train companies and network companies, he dodged answering successfully...while I sat there thinking, "Of course it bloody is!"

Then came yet another story on the proposed changes to the NHS. Andrew Lansley and the Conservatives want to make significant changes to the NHS. One of the phrases we keep hearing is 'Increasing competition in order to improve services to patients." Of course, I do think that there could be some changes to the NHS that would increase efficiency and patient care, but these are not them. As GPs keep pointing out, if you allow them to contract private health care providers, then those private companies are going to opt for providing the most common and cost effective treatments. The 'cherry-picking' that we keep hearing about in the news. That is the business model.  That is how profit is made, and why shops selling jeans have lots of pairs with 32 and 34 inch waists, but fewer pairs (if any) that fit if you are a 26 or 44. It is supply and demand and pretty bloody basic. So why don't the Tories understand that?

But then I was angered that no connection was made between these two stories. National Rail was privatised by the last Conservative government, in order to "increase competition and improve services to travellers." my quotes Breaking things up in order that several private companies can attempt to generate profit by providing services is madness. Services are services and should not be run on any business model. Network Rail are struggling, (although not financially) rail companies have done away with services to remote areas that cannot generate profit and travellers are being left stranded. Even booking tickets is mad because there are 20 options. It can cost you £100 to get to London from Manchester. Myself and friends have shown up at railway stations with tickets for trains that don't exist!  What happens when these things are happening when people's health and lives are at risk? Competition does not improve services!

Then I log onto Yahoo to see a story about the privatisation of the Royal Mail.  (I missed yesterday's You and Yours which had an piece about it so must go and listen to that.) But all I can feel, again, is that the business model is the wrong model for the Royal Mail.

It seems to me that their are certain services that are necessary for a population to be productive and efficient and for things to run smoothly. These are 1) an efficient and integrated transport system, 2) an efficient and regular postal service 3) and an efficient and anti-discriminatory health service. 

All of these things run better when they do not run at full capacity,(which is necessary for maximum profit) and workers are not stressed, and resources are available to deal with emergencies, and employees can trust their managers to make decisions on what is best for them and their 'customer' rather than what is best for their shareholders.People need to be able to travel, to get to work, to visit family, to live their live. People need to communicate and be able to receive and send goods. People need to be healthy, and to be treated with respect within all of these area.

Any society (even the Prime Minister's Big Society) needs these services to be run by itself and managed by itself in order for it to be of service to itself. How simple is that?

Oh Well...

So Easter Monday was interesting. Baby A has been quite ill, scaring me with how hard she was finding it to breathe. Finally went to A and E on Monday and she was admitted to Whythenshawe hospital. Little tangent, we went to A and E at Trafford General, but Trafford General don't have a children's ward anymore, so we got to go in an ambulance to Whythenshawe, which was way too busy and full. Aren't the people who decide where we should all go for medical care a bunch of pillocks?

Anyway, I reckon she was already on the mend when we went to the hospital - great thing hindsight, eh?! And we may as well have been at home for the amount of attention we got. You arrive, nobody tells you anything, you have to go out and get that cot they said they were getting 2 hours ago, you have to go out to find out when she is getting her IV antibiotics, you have to go out to ask why the oxygen isn't actually turned on when she has been sitting there in an oxygen mask for 2 hours, you have to go out to find out where the registrar is that you were told was coming. He came, at half past midnight. And you have no idea where food is... Thank goodness for the little woman called Wendy, who brought me fruit, a hospital gown to sleep in, toiletries, and went in search of nurses when none could be found.

I don't blame any individuals. I think the nurses and doctors and everybody does work hard for the most part. It cannot be easy working with ill children. But the system is set up in such a way as to make it virtually impossible to provide anything more than basic and/or emergency care. I really don't think we needed to be in hospital, but at least that option was there for us. I was a worried parent. A had been ill for a week, and every time we thought she was getting better, things changed. They reckon it was bronchiolitis. One of those things I have never heard of, but now when you mention it to people, everybody knows somebody who has had it.

All other things on hold for the moment. I read other people's blogs, and wish I could write more, cuz I used to be really good at writing. But now the living seems to get in the way. I get angry that others seem to have so much time to do so much and actually blog about it, while I just hope to get a shower a couple of times a week, and maybe get some knitting and crocheting time in. I think I have forgotten how much time babies take. But then again, so do they all.

Off to wash some dishes, some pants and me, while hoping the babe stays asleep for another half hour, as I climb over all the shoes, laundry baskets, old post, bags, toys, nappies, and musical instruments that accumulate on every horizontal surface.