Help with Jodie Comer

I loved this.  Loved maybe the wrong term to use considering the subject matter, but overall, it reflected a lot of what I saw.  Saying that, I did not see anyone from primary care wearing the full body suit as shown in the film and while our surgery tried to do things on a remote basis when possible, this was to reduce the risk of bringing infection into, or spreading infection around, the home.

Sadly, we know that the shortage of PPE did contribute to the premature deaths from COVID of those in care homes.  Exercise Cygnus had raised this as an issue before, but the government did not act on this.

Just a reminder if there is any doubt about COVID. 

 1 - COVID kills. I have treated people who survived as well as too many who died. A nursing home I am involved in looking after took ages to become full again after COVID killed many of the residents there last year. I have seen nothing that killed so many so quickly before.

 2 - Face masks save lives. Not just by reducing the risk of spreading it if you have no symptoms, but as seen by those working in healthcare, myself included, face masks prevented many from catching this when treating those with COVID.

 3 - Funeral homes were overwhelmed over the wave of infections seen in the winter surge of infections earlier this year. I know as I had to visit a few. One had issues coping despite the increased capacity that they had built. Speaking to someone who works in a funeral home, they said that they had never been busier during the winter wave.

 4 - People with no symptoms can spread COVID. We saw that with the super spreader events held by President Trump last year.  We have seen other diseases spread through those with no symptoms, a famous example of the past being Typhoid Mary and we also see that today with HIV.

 5 - Just because Boris has dropped restrictions, this does not mean that we can act like we did in 2019. Our local hospital is under pressure again, though not let to the point like they were this winter when things were limited to life and death operations only.

 6 - Vaccines work. We have seen that in the USA. The states where vaccination rates were lower had the higher numbers of COVID than those were vaccination rates were higher.

 7 - There are those who have spoken out against vaccinating people who have changed their minds once infected.  Those that survived that is.

In season

Leia has come into season now. It is expected as we knew it was coming, but it is frustrating as we have a few things planned, and she will not be able to go to the dog sitter as normal.  Which means I will have to find a way home tomorrow 

Arsenal and frustration

How can a team that took Spurs apart with ease play so poorly against Brighton? I know that Tottenham let us play, while Brighton did the best they could to frustrate us, but there was a huge difference between the two games.

I hope that we play like we did last weekend more often, but my faith in our ability to do so is limited.

Keir Starmer At Lab21

Today, I took a break from work at lunch to listen to the speech from the leader of the Labour Party. 

It was one that the Conservatives would have loved.

The most memorable part of the speech was the heckling that took place.  I suspect that will cause as much damage to the chances of Labour being elected as the high profile resignation before.  After all, I do not remember much of what Theresa May said in 2017, but I do remember her being given her P45.

Saying that, Labour have forgotten that part of politics is advertising.  The brand of Labour was damaged due to the worldwide economic crash of 2008 which both the Conservatives and Momentum have blamed on New Labour.  But further damage to the brand occurred under Jeremy Corbyn.  I still stand by my view that the damage was caused, not just by a manifesto that appeared to be out of touch, but also occurred due to the actions of some who supported him, but ignored his call for Kinder Gentler Politics.  Under Tony Blair, easy to remember sound bites were used, Education, education, education being one.  The Conservatives understand this and in the last election, repeated the mantra of more police (but not enough to replace the way they defunded it), more staff for the NHS (despite increasing vacancy numbers) and the like.

Boris Johnson will come across as having a united party next week, and I doubt that he will many hecklers distracting from his message.

GP surgeries are open

“GPs must bring back face to face consultations with their patients. We need to get back to our workplaces.” Jacob Rees-Mogg said that in Parliament being unaware, along with our Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that surgeries have been seeing patients face to face since the pandemic began.  

It is frustrating as before the pandemic, it would be common to be sitting next to someone in the doctors waiting room who had a viral respiratory tract infection.  Just before the first lockdown, many GP’s moved to a system of triage by telephone before seeing patients and this recommended by medical institutions. Patients continued to be seen, but what could be dealt with by telephone was dealt with by telephone.

In the surgery I work in, much more face to face activity is taking place, but people still slip through the net, coming into the surgery with symptoms of infections.  Staff are now vaccinated and social distancing takes place, putting them at far less risk compared to last year.  However there is a risk to them still, and more importantly to other patients.

With the waiting rooms kept quiet, the risks posed to other patients is reduced (at our surgery, we see suspected respiratory tract infections in our hot room).  If general practice is opened up to the levels seen before the pandemic, in the same manner, then more people will catch infections in the waiting rooms, and of those, some will be COVID19, and of those, some will die when they would not have if the triage system was in place,

Sadly, the Conservatives forget the pressure that Primary Care was under before the pandemic, let alone the increased pressures it faces now.  They did promise to recruit more GP's in 2015, and failed.

So when Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks about GP’s seeing patients on a face to face basis, he either is unaware that this never stopped, or that he wants waiting rooms full of ill patients infecting each other.

Why I am wrong to call Conservatives scum.

Our nation has record levels of In Work Poverty, rising Child Food Poverty and the government are to cut Universal Credit.  Apparently this is acceptable, as is referring to women in certain forms of Muslim attire as letter boxes, being racist, being homophobic, conspiring to beat up a journalist, cheating on your spouse as well as lying to your employer, electorate and other politicians.

Angela Rayner was unprofessional when she called the Tories scum.  But I have done the same, normally when I have dealt with someone who has been affected by the policies that the Conservatives have brought in.  Often after and during listening to interviews with Conservatives redefining black as white I will rant about how much I hate them.

I know that many honestly are unaware of the hardship that they cause, but I honestly think that is because they refuse to see and hear the truth.  

However, it is wrong to refer to all Conservatives as scum.  I would consider it accurate to say that they have done some scummy things and those in power appear to have no morals and seem to turn a blind eye to corruption if not engaging in activities which do not appear above board.  But not all Conservatives are like that, and due to this, I have been wrong on the many times that I have called them scum.

Zombieland

Last night, I finished watching Zombieland.  And I enjoyed it.  I still think that Shaun Of The Dead is one of the best Zombie comedies around (along with Braindead) but this was fun and I am glad I watched it.  Full of gore, and black humour, it was a much needed lift to the day.