Dear Jeremy Hunt, Jonny Keogh is right about the NHS and you are wrong

Dear Jeremy Hunt,

I am sorry to say this, but while I admire your optimism about NHS Mental Health services improving, while you have been in charge, but they have not.

You will cite figures stating that the numbers working in mental health have increased, but the stark facts are that numerous posts for psychiatrist junior doctors are unfilled, the number of child psychiatrists are shrinking, psychiatrists in addiction services are facing cuts and the police are having to deal with patients who have mental health issues as there are no beds to admit these patients.

I know you want to improve things with mental health and your answer to Ralf Little includes is ambition, but you have pledged to increase the numbers of GP's in the NHS but have seen numbers fall, you have increased the number of training places for nurses, but the number of students entering nursing is year has also fallen, and while you say that the NHS is getting more money, Simon Stevens says it has not got the money it needs, and the increases in funding are only greater than the coalition government which you were part of!

So forgive me, and the many others in the NHS who have seen your promises vanish, for knowing that Ralf Little is right.

Stupid Blog Post I Was Forced To Do

Today we came back from our grandparents, and after some difficulties with our car we arrived at home. Once we got home Mummy realised that there was some things that we needed which were not in the house. I’m sure she had a whole other list of things to do but I unwittingly volunteered to go for a walk. 10 minutes later me, Daddy and my brother set off on a walk. Before there had been the usual argument about socks, shoes, coats and jumpers, etc. We began our walk and halfway to Budgens (a local shop) Daddy brought up when I (when I was younger) went out walking with Daddy and every time we came to a tree I would ask for a chocolate, usually a M&M. So me and my brother naturally decided we wanted to resume this old ‘tradition’. All the rest of the way, as there was no trees on that part of the journey, we counted lamp posts. Then, Daddy decided he that until we got sweets it would be useless so we waited till we got to the shop. There was a long debate over which sweets/chocolates we should get and after some negotiations we ended up with magic stars. It turned out that the shop didn’t have what we were looking for so we went to a different shop.

By 

    me (his daughter)

Our kids are awesome

Okay, all parents think the kids they have are awesome, and my wife and I are naturally going to be a bit biased, but the kids had feedback from both schools this week and it was good, well, I think that it was better than that.  My daughter got an impressive report and her form teacher was happy with her progress.

Meeting the teacher of our son was memorable as well.  We looked at his work beforehand which was outstanding (most of the time) and his teacher appreciated it.  I guess the most amusing part was when he discussed how my son gets distracted when he is sat next to people he wants to annoy!  But it was good to see that his teacher was able to see his potential, and importantly, some of the reasons that he might be prevented from reaching it.  In fact, the two pictures are some of his work that had been put up on in the corridor outside his classroom.  

Sadly though, both kids have been unwell, my son throwing up in the playground at lunchtime yesterday (and having a 48 hour exclusion from school due to health reasons) and my daughter also was unwell today with abdominal pains, but both appear better now and are sleeping well.

Remembrance Sunday 2017

Another interesting and memorable day today.  While I was catching up on some paperwork today, my wife picked up my son from his sleep over to find that his mobile phone was lost.  It turned out what when he had gone to brush his teeth, one of the other boys had hidden it, though this boy initially denied doing so but did admit it later when all the others at the sleep over said that he had hidden it.  However, despite this it took a bit of time for the mobile to be recovered, so well had it been hidden, but things are better now.  And of course, winter is coming, and we certainly found that out today as the temperature had dropped sharply.  Still, the children have a desire to freeze and both were resistant to wrapping up warm, which has meant that my son now has a cold.

We did watch Strictly and I found the Remembrance Sunday dance just amazing.  The children are too young to appreciate it, and normally I spend time ensuring they watch something about it, but thanks to the dance on Strictly, I did not have to do so before they went to bed.  Anyway, good night all!

Remembrance Day 2017

Another interesting day today.  I helped a local school with mock interviews to prepare the students for the real thing and I found it rewarding.  The children have both had to attend birthday parties (though my daughter forgot to take the present to the party she went to) and at present, my son, who got to try on some contact lenses earlier today is at a sleep over (brave parents) while my daughter is watching the X factor with us.  We do prefer Strictly though but I am impressed with two of the acts.  The kids do love each other and do bicker at times, but my daughter loves being able to snuggle with us without having her brother here.  And while we do miss him, it is nice to have that time with her.  In fact, while I type this, she is stroking the hair that remains on my head!


Last of all, an update on chess. I finished joint first in the We Love Groot tournament.  But I am not going to do that well in a few others!

Jeremy Hunt appears to forget he cut the number of doctors trained for the NHS.

Jeremy Hunt has been saying that the Conservatives have increased the number of medical students that will be trained for the NHS.  I think that it is only fair to give the Conservatives credit for that.  However, he appears to have forgotten that the number of doctors being trained at medical school was cut by the Conservatives.  Needless to say, this is frustrating especially as so many people who, like me care for the NHS and have concerns at the direction it is being steered in by him, are unaware of this.  During the years of a Labour government new medical schools were opened, one where I used to help teach medical students.  To see this cut was heartbreaking, and worse, the NHS has yet to feel the full effects of this, as well as having to deal with the brain drain as doctors continue to leave the UK for more money and less work abroad.

When there have been calls for Boris Johnson to resign over his comments on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a story leaks causing Priti Patel to resign...

Priti Patel has resigned.  She had been in hot water about meetings in Israel, which may or may not have been sanctioned by Number 10, but she almost got away with it.

Then Boris Johnson got into trouble.  Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in jail in Iran on charges that have been disputed by her family.  Being picked up at the airport on a return from holiday there, she has been in jail since.  Boris however gave a different story to Parliament, one which Iran took note of and this meant that she faced the possibility of another five years in jail.  Loud calls were made for his resignation, and with her being a mother, these calls may have resulted in him resigning.

But he is no longer in hot water, as Priti Patel was pushed into public attention again when more details about her trip to Israel mysteriously found its way into the public light.  Due to a visit to the Golan Heights, and the offer of funding the IDF, she has resigned and most people have forgotten about Boris.

A comma is the difference between “What is this thing called love?” and “What is this thing called, love?”

My kids are amazing.  I am continually impressed with how well they do and what they achieve.  But there are times that they amaze me for the wrong reasons.  And this week was one of those times.

One of my children decided to have an argument with a teacher about what they should be learning, after some work that lacked punctuation. What my wife and I could not understand was why this was the case when this child is normally so good at the use of full stops.  But it was talking back to the person teaching them that also was jaw dropping.  This did result in some interesting conversations, but hopefully, we will be able to move on from this.  Fingers crossed...

Fireworks

It has been way too long since my last post.  Since then we have had one birthday but loads of other things have happened as well.  Today however was a day for fireworks. Ideally we would like to do this tomorrow, but we are going to be busy tomorrow and we may not have the time to enjoy them.

We had some fireworks left over from last year, but did by some big ones. I do not think the kids were too impressed with the small ones, but they loved the big ones.

This did bring back memories for me as when my parents were together, we never got to enjoy fireworks. When they split, we got to use them. However living in a flat, we got to use sparklers and it was later that we were able to go to firework displays.

While we drove around Colchester so that the kids could see the fireworks of others, it brought back those memories and just how lucky I was that my mother allowed us to enjoy fireworks in the way my father did not.  And we managed to enjoy them in a safe manner.