Care homes and Nightingale hospitals

Sadly in the last week or two, more of those I am involved for caring for have died in care homes.  The bravery of those providing them with the care needed, despite the risks, literally makes me well up with tears when I think about them.

I think that more will pass away in the next week or so as some who are in isolation have now passed.

Which brings me onto why I have posted his.  On Twitter, a few people have noted how the Nightingale hospitals have been stood down.  Opening them was necessary as we in the NHS feared the worst.  The UK has been closely following the curve of Italy and Spain.  And we in healthcare were (and considering that the lockdown measures will be relaxed, still are) concerned that the NHS would be overwhelmed.  That does not seem to have happened due to the changes in what the NHS is doing as well as the way that the attitudes of people towards getting help from the NHS has changed.

Some have asked why patients who do not have COVID who from care homes where COVID is spreading are not transferred there.  There are many problems with that is that.  One is that they may take the disease from the home that is infected to the Nightingale hospital.  The next is that the care needs of those in care homes tend to be different from those in hospital and those nurses who work in hospitals have a different skill mix to those min care homes.  This brings up the next issue, staffing.  Before COVID-19 hit the nation the NHS did not have enough nurses.  Nurses have been taken from other duties but as the NHS prepares to deal with other issues.

While patients from hospitals could be discharged to Nightingale hospitals rather than nursing homes, this would require a lot more logistics to move them across greater distances and any communication issues when a patient is discharged would be harder to resolve.  

And last of all, many who are in care homes have made decisions (or the next of kin has decided) that they are not to be admitted to hospital.  Just as those who want hospital assessment should have it, those who do not wish it should not have it forced on them.

Family games night

I have bonded with the children today.  After stressing them out, and my wife.

The kids have been a bit distant from me in the last week, and in they felt that I was not being nice enough.  A little bit of attitude too much and I lost my temper.  Sadly this upset my wife as well as both of them, but it did get them to bond as they tend to stick together when one of us has lost our temper.  My wife explained how she felt I was feeling which was important later in the day.  After this discussion, which took place while we were getting some fruit, we dropped hem off and went to a bakery for some bread.  It is a local enterprise and while there was a long queue (they since have apologised for it) it was nice to get out of the house and relax.  My wife joined me after a while in the socially distancing queue (the lady in front of me was particularly observant about social distancing) so we got our hot date.  Another family that we know cycled past.  I suspect they came for food, but turned around on arrival.  It was nice to have a socially distant chat with them and I have to say I was envious that they were all out together.  They were quite kind thanking me for my work in the NHS, but while I was grateful, and am at risk at times, the real heroes are those working in hospitals and working in care homes.  In addition to which, I am very grateful that those running the shop are putting themselves at risk, along with so many others who are still working.  At my work, we screen those before we see the, if they need to be seen face to face.  Those in the shop see more people than me and have no screening.

Once at home, my family let me listen to Any Questions and Any Answers afterwards, bringing food and drink to me upstairs so that I could rant on Twitter about the topics raised. After this, I took the kids out on a bike ride.  My daughter has been active going out for a walk most days, but this was her first bike ride of the year.  For my son, who was cycling back and forth to school, he has been out of the front door to exercise, literally less than a handful of times.  I was hopeful that I could take them out together as my daughter in innately fitter than he is, but he has had so much more practice on his bike than her.  But they have not done well in the past, and the same happened this time.  This meant that I had to take my daughter back before taking my son out for longer.

I did get to watch The Mandalorian with my son and enjoyed the series finale.  I still say that the little green alien is evil, but my son still insists otherwise, despite the way it murdered a storm trooper.  There were a few plot issues, an example being how the robot got to the baby so quickly, but overall, a great series.  In addition to this, I spent an hour or two watching comedy with my daughter.

After dinner, thanks to a take away, it was a board game all together.  We each favour different games, but we settled on Labyrinth.  The first game was enjoyed by all, but sadly this was not the case on the last one.  Saying that, it was nice that we all played together.

We are lucky to have each other as well as our garden and house.  Especially when I do not know how my mother would have coped with me and my siblings when we lived in our first floor council flat in the past.

Boris and his desire to repopulate Britain

For a man who was a spotty nerd who loved academia, part of me admires how Boris Johnson is now doing his bit to repopulate the nation by himself.  Or rather with a series of women (because he requires the use of several wombs to repopulate the country).  In the public eye, he has been married to two, has had affairs that we know of with two, has a child with his fiance and rumours circulate about another two women (who may not have had any carnal knowledge of this prolific philanderer).  But when I say part of me, that is not the moral part of me.  Marriage, can be open, so long as both partners in it accept that is the rules by which they play, even if that only applies to one of them.  But a marriage where one person cheats, repeatedly, is not really worth its name as far as I am concerned.  So while part of me admires the repeated success that he has had with a string of women, most of me does not and is appalled at how it is acceptable for him to do this, but how any woman who had done the same would not be seen anywhere this level of government.

He was married to; Allegra Mostyn-Owen
Marina Wheeler

He is known to have had affairs with; Petronella Wyatt
Helen Macintyre

As we know, he is engaged to Carrie Symonds

And while these women deny it (and there is no reason to doubt them), he has been linked to; Anna Fazackerley
Jennifer Arcuri

In addition to this, there are allegations that not all of the interest that he has had in women has been consensual.

Why so many women find him irresistible, let alone are willing to trust him in a relationship is beyond me.   

But anyway, we know that he has at least six children and I, like many wish him congratulations on the birth of his sixth publicly acknowledged child.  

If you cannot stand the heat, do not let me take your temperature

I did an oops today.  We have started to measure temperatures at work today but an issue arose when someone was noted to have a possible raised temperature.  I measured it, joking that the person was contagious, only to find that they had a temperature of 37.8!  That meant that they had to leave work, and has they had been in work for over 15 minutes, the room that they were in has had to be locked.  The only issue is that later, it transpired that the thermometer I used may not be working properly.  However, the person is now at home and should hopefully be getting tested.  But I am not allowed to use the thermometer, which to be fair was to have been calibrated, but this was to have occurred earlier this year, but did not as I was in isolation when my son had been found to have a raised temperature.  But, I am going to have to make sure that I am the first one into work on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so that I can carry out the temperature checks.  

And onto what has happened abroad.  I am sure that the government here are glad that no matter how bad they have been with ordering PPE or obtaining it from local sources in the country, that we will look across to the Atlantic and see worse, much worse.  In a recent discussion on Twitter, one tweeter stated that the President was being sarcastic when he made his statements about UV light and injections of disinfectant.  I would say repeating the lie, but while Trump lied about his statement, the tweeter may have actually believed him.  Sadly, many others believed Trump as well, though Trump has refused to accept responsibility for his statements.

Anyway, a quick update on the kids.  And that is quite simple, I have been knackered so have been getting home late.  So I have not seen them that much and when we have, it has not been too good.  Saying that, dinner last night was okay, though the kids were keen not to spend time with me afterwards.  My wife had suggested we all do something together, but they did not want to.  It has been fine for her though as they have bonded with her more in the last few days.  I guess they might like to spend time with me again on the weekend, but I am not sure that will happen.

On a more positive note, I have resolved since my last blog entry to fill my FaceBook feed with things to make people laugh.  I think it is working!  Anyway, good night and stay safe.
         

Lucky Number Slevin

My update since Wednesday is simple.  Though I forgot to add how much work that my wife has been doing in the garden on that day (and since) as well as how she has now got her masters.  It is annoying that she has more qualifications than me, but I am very proud of her.  So far, she has been sent flowers, one by her mother and another by Lynn one of our good friends.

Work on Thursday involved having to see someone in a residential home were COVID was.  I wore the recommended PPE knowing that it only offered me partial protection.  Needless to say I was terrified and I have to say that I am amazed at how brave the care staff working there are.  I found it bad enough being there for thirty minutes, this is nothing compared to those who are there for hours looking after the residents there.  Issues also arose at work due to a bid misunderstanding with wires being crossed and no one checking with us what was happening.  It was so busy that I missed the clapping at eight in the evening for key workers.  I got back to find that my wife and the kids had taken the paper recycling out.  Due to issues with sickness and social distancing the council have not been able to collect recycling as often as before, which means that we have got a huge pile for collection!

On Friday, things were calming down but I had to see people face to face.  None had symptoms of COVID but there is always the risk of infection when seeing people.  I did not get to watch The Mandalorian at the time, but I did get to watch Friday Night Dinners.  I did get to go for a long walk with my daughter, something that I have not done in a while.

Yesterday my wife, had not been feeling that well in the morning but perked up and went to work in the garden again.  Her ability to work is amazing, but our garden needs a lot of work.  It is nice being able to see more of the patio as well as some distant houses now!  I managed to go for a nice bike ride, but my bike really needs a service.  Trying to get that done will be fun! My wife and I also got to watch Lucky Number Slevin.  I was not sure if I was going to like it, but I love watching films with my wife and I should have had more faith that it was going to be good.  Just having the actors that were in it does not guarantee a film will not be awful, but this was very enjoyable.  The characters are memorable and the dialogue is fascinating.  I would recommend it at the best of times, but this I highly recommend it for people who would like to watch a film during lockdown.

Anyway, so far this morning, I have managed to finally watch The Mandalorian with my son.  Again, our views on the little green alien differ.  He has fallen for its ‘charms’ while I am aware of its true evil nature.  Hopefully it is to die as the most recent episode suggests will happen.  Which means that we get to watch the Clone Wars later this week.  Now am watching Marr drinking tea with my amazing wife, resting before I get out to hard labour in the garden.

Blaming the Chinese

There have been many who have blamed China for COVID19.

Technically, they are right in that this horrific disease originated in Wuhan, as did SARS.

But we forget how MERS arose as well as H1N1.  H1N1, also known to the general public as Swine Flu arose in Mexico, in a pig farm.    The wet markets where COVID19 arose do exist in other parts of the world, including Africa as well as other areas in Asia.

My view is that the world should take action to reduce the risk of infections that cross the species barrier, but in addition to ending the wet markets where COVID arose, we need to act to end intensive farming across the globe.

Injections of disinfectants and UV light

I despair.  Why do so many people support Trump.  

It is bad enough that due to Christian values, people have elected an adulterer who is on his third wife over a woman who stayed married to her adulterous husband.  (People have still to explain that to me).

As noted before, Trump has been wrongly blamed for everything in the USA when it comes to COVID-19, but as noted, I do consider his inaction and mixed messages to be responsible for the of spread in many areas of the USA overwhelming services as well as the lack of PPE for healthcare workers there.  (An issue that sadly is present in the UK.)  

I have some idea of why they support him.  His stance on immigration being one.  As noted before, even though his ban will have little effect on immigration, he has been seen to be doing something, just like when he imposed travel restrictions (though not the ban he said it was) on non-US residents entering the USA.  

But his latest 'wisdom' on COVID-19 is just insane.  Injecting disinfectants, or exposing the human body to UVC to treat COVID?  At least his statements on hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir have been about drugs that may be effective in the fight against this horrible disease.  Even if he does not like honest debate on the matter or the fact that other nations need hydroxychloroquine to treat other malaria.  But his latest rant needs someone to explain it to me, assuming that they think that he is talking sense.