Making the news today....

[sime42]

With my granddaughter being grossly over weight I have been pleading with her to take more exercise and snack less but she doesn't seem to accept the advice. Mind I also try and clean for another elderly lady who won't do anything to help herself she is getting worse too.
 
Of course as has been said before our health services have been extending lives of people with underlying health problems  into old age so failing to address this disease  means lots of people are vulnerable.
 
I mentioned before my primary school friend, 2 years younger than had to be carried out of the house by the fire service as the lady ambulance technicians couldn’t manage. He's 6'4"  doesn't look too large but apparently 18 stone.
 
He got home and I saw him, his next door neighbour, 62, died in the same ward.
 
BTW Mark Carney seems to think the government made a decision not to be prepared for a scenario of  a pandemic.

Wrt your last statement Openspaceman. I hadn't heard that before. What was the motivation behind that decision to not prepare for a pandemic?

[Johnsond]

12 hours ago, sime42 said:

15 Ambulances queueing at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital - the reality of the crisis in Birmingham - Birmingham Live

WWW.BIRMINGHAMMAIL.CO.UK

---

A doctor's photo shows 15 ambulances queueing at the doors of A&E at the city's...

 

This doesn't look like any other year to me.

Is this just hyperbole again?

Does the Birmingham Mail count as Main Stream Media as well, i.e. not to be trusted?
 

 

Months ago I put a post up regarding a comment by a workmates mother whom is a consultant cardio vascular surgeon. Her take on the whole nightingale farce was that it was an utter waste of time and money. I remember getting slated by certain members on here for the comments. Anyway regarding the MSM, the coverage is absolutely relentless and predominantly negative to the point of plain and simple fear mongering. The following pics are just a 2 min screen grab session of what pops up on the phone on an hourly basis, news coverage on the TV etc is the same just COVID COVID COVID the same faces are put in front of the camera constantly and individuals like Ferguson with a track record of failure are wheeled out as though they are the ones holding all the answers, lockdown 1.2.3 etc  🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ what a success eh, nearly a year and apparently we still are trying to save the NHS. 

Edited December 31, 2020 by Johnsond

[openspaceman]

23 minutes ago, sime42 said:

Wrt your last statement Openspaceman. I hadn't heard that before. What was the motivation behind that decision to not prepare for a pandemic?

It's a fleeting comment in his first Reith lecture where he mentions this and not doing enough to combat climate change. Surprisingly he also mentions the need to address growing inequality of wealth. I have not listened to the rest yet.

 

It worries me when people at the top discuss inequality because to my mind it's not wealth  distribution per se that's the problem but the spending decisions that go with it that effectively means the decision on what to spend money on becomes the province of the very rich and damage to the environment results.

 

I am reminded of that actress from tutiftuity who stood by that pink boat and spouted about climate change and how she wished she didn't have to fly for her work, of course she didn't need to fly at all but she did in order to retain her position as a rich and famous person and that meant she was willing to pollute more. This sort of decision doesn't worry me , people have always aspired to reach the top, but it results from a financial management system, which has out competed all other ideologies, by not having the constraints of worrying about the fact we exist on a finite planet or the external costs to the commons of air, water climate etc.

 

Of course man's ability to cause these global problems has only emerged in the last 150 years and only recognised in the last 40.

[difflock]

About time the Government started publishing NHS absence statistics, with the attendant agency cover costs, and on a real time monthly basis.

Because "word is" that, at least here in NI, absence figures are currently staggering.

And how have the NHS Trusts/managers responded, by paying about 2.5 times the usual hourly rate to motivate nurses to come to their work, rather than lie off "sick" or "self isolating".

I was quoted an uplift from £16.00/hr to £40.00/hr(which may be the rate paid to the various agencies providing staff to cover for various absences)

I hope I have not wrongly repeated misinformation, but this is what I was told, very recently.

Marcus

Edited December 31, 2020 by difflock

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

They were paying retired doctors a grand a day in April to work in covid wards. Even if they paid me 10 grand a day I wouldn't have went in. Your health is your wealth and the money is no use when one is dead. 😉

Retired Doctors. Let that sink in.
 

Highly intelligent professionals who know better than the vast majority of the inherent risks involved in Covid, who have made a good wage and most likely have a comfortable life and pension consider the risks low enough for them to accept. 
 

Or we have your opinion. I wonder who’s I’ll respect more? 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, difflock said:

About time the Government started publishing NHS absence statistic, with the attendant agency cover costs, and on a real time monthly basis.

Because "word is" that, at least here in NI, absence figures are currently staggering.

And how have the NHS Trusts/managers responded, by paying about 2.5 times the usual hourly rate to motivate nurses to come to their work, rather than lie off "sick" or "self isolating".

I was quoted an uplift from £16.00/hr to £40.00/hr(which may be the rate paid to the various agencies providing staff to cover for various absences)

I hope I have not wrongly repeated misinformation, but this is what I was told, very recently.

Marcus

It’s still a major issue that never seems to hit headlines and an inherent flaw in the ‘cash struck NHS’ argument. 
 

Agency staff... How many of these ‘agency staff’ are also full time NHS employees using ‘spare’ time to coin in some extra mullah?

 

 

 

 

[Silverhooker]

20 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

It’s still a major issue that never seems to hit headlines and an inherent flaw in the ‘cash struck NHS’ argument. 
 

Agency staff... How many of these ‘agency staff’ are also full time NHS employees using ‘spare’ time to coin in some extra mullah?

 

 

 

 

Full time, and PT, NHS staff are not allowed to do agency work, although they can work over time and most hospitals have a bank of staff willing to do this.

To be an agency staff you have to be wholly employed by the agency who negotiate your pay on your behalf, and take a hefty cut for doing so. Agency staff do get paid more than normal staff, but a large part of the difference is taken by the Agency "middlemen" ! Being an agency nurse means you don't however get a pension contribution by your employer and you are responsible for your own NI and tax. Also you go from one place to another often on a daily basis !

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Agency staff... How many of these ‘agency staff’ are also full time NHS employees using ‘spare’ time to coin in some extra mullah?

I dont see an issue with that. Whats wrong with working over time and if there is a need Id rather that need was filled from within the UK and not farmed out over-sea's. 

 

Edit; just seen Silverhooks reply.  If it where allowed see above.  

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by trigger_andy

[sime42]

Months ago I put a post up regarding a comment by a workmates mother whom is a consultant cardio vascular surgeon. Her take on the whole nightingale farce was that it was an utter waste of time and money. I remember getting slated by certain members on here for the comments. Anyway regarding the MSM, the coverage is absolutely relentless and predominantly negative to the point of plain and simple fear mongering. The following pics are just a 2 min screen grab session of what pops up on the phone on an hourly basis, news coverage on the TV etc is the same just COVID COVID COVID the same faces are put in front of the camera constantly and individuals like Ferguson with a track record of failure are wheeled out as though they are the ones holding all the answers, lockdown 1.2.3 etc  🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ what a success eh, nearly a year and apparently we still are trying to save the NHS. 

Covid-19, along with Climate Change is the biggest challenge facing the world at this present time. (From the perspective of the UK Brexit is the third of the top three issues. Sadly though, that is now out of our hands). Given the importance of the issue it's not really a surprise that Covid-19 is featured so heavily in "MSN" news coverage. A global pandemic is by it's very nature a negative thing, so it also comes as no surprise that the overall feeling is negative. We can't shy away from bad news and pretend that everything is rosy. I do agree to an extent; there is a bit too much time devoted to the virus. I think that some of that quota should be taken away and deployed to coverage of Climate Change issues. That is ultimately going to dwarf everything else in terms of scale and importance, for the whole world.

Regards Neil Ferguson, I don't know what your particular issue is with him, it seems to be some kind of love/hate fetish. Personally I'd always trust a scientist over a politician. Unfortunately though it is the politicians that have the power to dictate all our destinies. Currently they're not leading us down a favourable path on any one of the three top priority issues, as far as I can see.

[Silverhooker]

1 hour ago, Silverhooker said:

Full time, and PT, NHS staff are not allowed to do agency work, although they can work over time and most hospitals have a bank of staff willing to do this.

To be an agency staff you have to be wholly employed by the agency who negotiate your pay on your behalf, and take a hefty cut for doing so. Agency staff do get paid more than normal staff, but a large part of the difference is taken by the Agency "middlemen" ! Being an agency nurse means you don't however get a pension contribution by your employer and you are responsible for your own NI and tax. Also you go from one place to another often on a daily basis !

Forgot to say agency also don’t get paid leave or sick pay.