bignumber5

Sorry - to clarify, heroes poo, couldn't tape house because mrs.number5 was out so taped heroes for her. Back to House, I think...

Well said, Mrs P!

Ah, I haven't got a brown bin, my above troubles relate to a green bin. Bag: cardboard ok, but brown paper envelopes are a no-no: I gets awful confoozed...:-S

A bit of feeling sorry for myself (bad case of man-flu, you see...), pretend I'm going to go for a run, not go, blame the cats for everything, and much, much reading. That's a weekend in the number5 house when Mrs.number5 is away for the weekend! still, at least i'm already home... ;-)

Siduhe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not earth, but several people in our street had > bins (green and brown) filled to the brim with > building waste and rubble a while back. It looked > very much like a builders van had flytipped waste > from a residential construction site. Likewise - pulled up flooring etc dumped in our wheelie bin - v.annoying as all of the developments going on around us seem to have skips on the go. Even more annoying, sometimes the bin men wont take it. My neighbours occasionally put big boxes of paper etc (non-recyclers - grrr;-)) and the bin men sometimes take them out and leave them by the curb, but then the recycling guys will only take what's in the bag, meaning I have to glove up (boxes have been either in the wheelie bin or out in the rain for a week) and rummage thru the boxes, put the paper in my recycling bag, bin the non recyclables and squash the box - I'm sure the neighbours think I'm some sort of rubbish-rummaging stalker-loon! Both these types of fly-tipping are just a pain in the arse now, but what if we start getting charged for our rubbish by weight, or whatever was being proposed? (edit for typos)

It's a rant-y one, so advanced warning: Not exactly voluntary, tho. PCT funded it may be, but there's more primary care work to be done than that covers. And half the time the shifts are unfilled, so A&E regs (trust budget) cover. Interesting point about culture of service use/abuse: worked in NZ for a while, and there emergency care is free, gp care costs you. Yet people still went to their gp. And if they did come to A&E with primary care issues, it was to ask a) do i need to see one of your doctors, or should i see my gp? or b) i've got a gp appointment booked for the end of the week, am i safe to wait that long, could i have some advice about painkillers to keep me going until then etc. And if you gave them advice, confirmed that they were safe to wait for their gp etc, the response was "thank you nurse, that's great, sorry to have troubled you." The situation here is that to refer someone from A&E back to their GP is refusing them treatment, I know my rights etc. Despite the fact that the legislation exists to do so: the 2003 DOH document on "Streaming" (new-speak for "triage") states that there are 5 areas that the streaming nurses may allocate patients to: resuscitation, major treatment, minor treatment, Primary Care and Self Care. these last 2 are rarely used, for 2 reasons. As already alluded to, the British public "know their rights" and and go ballistic, and that health professionals in this country are scared of complaint/legal action and are covering their own arses. Bringing GP cover into the dept was supposed to encourage triage/streaming nurses to use the primary care area by bringing it on site, so you wouldn't be "sending people away." A&E is fast becoming overwhelmed because triage nursing has become largely about defensive practice. Many moons ago, when I was new to the dept that I was in, I triaged someone away and one of my colleagues felt the need to quietly let me know that "we don't really do that here, I mean, you're accountable for anything that happens to that person now, aren't you?". Big debate ensued. The culture of service use/entitlement in this country is, to my mind, a major factor in UK healthcare. Clinicians have a butt-load of responsibilities but no rights, patients have rights but no responsibilities. If patients had the responsibility to use the service appropriately, as directed by the professionals working within the system, and triage nurses were supported in their allocation, A&E waiting time headlines would be a thing of the past, and primary care would be forced to admit that it's current service is hopelessly inadequate. A&E has been overhauled in the last 10 years, and is now quicker and easier than a GP. That doesn't mean that it should be first port of call for everything - GPs must follow suit in becoming more accessible. In NZ, the Emergency Dept was quicker, easier, and cheaper (ie. free) but people didn't turn up in the middle of the night, pissed, with a cough that they'd had for 2 weeks, just because they could spare the time to wait for a couple of hours just then and that was more convenient - they wouldn't dream of doing that, because it was the wrong place to be, and that would be incorrect use of the service. The NHS is on it's arse for a number of reasons - and I think opinion will always remain divided on how to right them: more money, centralise vs foundation trusts, privatise and so on. But the system is set up for use in one way, and is used in another. Either the system needs to change to accomodate the use, or the use needs to change to fit the design of the system. Otherwise it's square-peg-round-hole, changing the hammer wont help.

bignumber5 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But "Heroes" now clashes with "House": what to do? Well, that was shite, so problem solved... 'night all!

Which is a great solution - puts A&E under a butt-load of additional unnecessary strain, which reduces the quality of that service for those trying to use it appropriately. This is why privately owned GPs are never held to account for their service failures, because A&E picks up the slack. What if A&E depts could bill GPs for any care needs that were primary-care?

scotslass Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I did do a quiz once to find out which Hero > character I was similar too and guess what - came > out as Sylar(6) I came out as Hiro Nakamura, time-travelling geek... fair enough... But "Heroes" now clashes with "House": what to do?

All in Tauranga NZ: Somerset Cottage - The closest thing to gourmet nz cuisine that we could find, but spectacular once found: lamb shanks to die for. Turkish to Go near Mount Maunganui for the most overloaded falafel wrap i've ever gone to town on. Alimento for eggs benedict or other lazy brunch of choice.

Sounds like a rough experience, Princess - hope your eyes clear up soon. A clinician is, technically anyone on clinical staff - nurse, doctor etc. bit of a pointless word most of the time. Your whole situation earmarks one of the biggest problems with GP surgerys - receptionists. Demand a butt-load of personal detail (it takes years of training to ellicit a proper medical history if you're a doctor or nurse, who knew cheap shoes and sun-damage was a suitable replacement for a professional qualification), under the impression that they can triage your needs (years of A&E nursing experience to do that safely) and generally be sodding rude into the bargain. The receptionists at my GP (Dulwich med centre) are far better than most on the basic manners front, but still act like they're guarding a nuclear weapons depo if you call for an appointment. If I'm feeling pissy when I have to phone the GP's, I go OTT on medical jargon when they start digging for info, then when they admit that they have no idea what I'm talking about, I politely (seriously...) explain that that is why I would like to see a doctor. I can see that the receptionists are likely working on instructions from the GPs, but it sticks another obstacle between patient and doctor and that's not ideal.

The sad thing is that I truely believe in a free-at-the-point-of-contact health service, I just can't see a way of making it work for much longer without either a lot more money or a lot less service use. That's the saddest thing, really: I've never been in anything other than front line health care, never been in management and never want to, and I still end up talking about funding, because that's what it all boils down to. How disillusioning. And just to stop this getting lounged, ED ED ED ;-)

Honestly, my humble opinion: the NHS is on its arse. Budget buggered, patients dissatisfied, staff getting increasingly frustrated but unable to affect any significant change due to budget buggered, population expanding, SICK population expanding due to medical advances (save a life in a heart attack situation with clever new medicine, 30 years more life with high blood pressure, cholesterol, angina, associated congestive heart failure etc... costs costs costs...). buggered. If the NHS were a business, it'd have been shut down years ago. And it is a business, attempting to provide a specific service on a specific budget. Phone consultations and extended nursing roles are all short-term measures to cope with the enormous strain that services are under. And that's great, until someone phones their gp or sees an inexperienced nurse pratitioner with a non-descript feeling that sounds a lot like indigestion and dies of a heart attack later that day at home, with a bottle of gaviscon for comfort. The cash injection over recent years looks like a lot of money but is nowhere near sufficient - an audit a few years back determined that to run just the diabetic services to an optimal level would cost more than the entire nhs budget. I see the cash injection as the swan song of the nhs, so that in a few years, when arguing for the scrapping of it, whichever political party has the stones to make the case will be able to point out that even the financial investments of 2006-8 did nothing. Whichever party that is will be making a true act of martyrdom: they'll lose power for doing it, but revolutionise the healthcare of a nation. What mamoraman alludes to in an earlier post, a GP being able to provide a round the clock service of top-notch care if they were well funded on a per patient, by-the-patient basis is, I suspect, the future of UK healthcare. Shame, but pretty much inevitable, I reckon.

Me too...

Me-thinks negative equity is the key - papers yesterday were quoting various authorities stating a 10% drop in the next year and a further 5% the following year, then levelling out. This equates to a return to 2006 prices.

If you're an itunes type of person, 79p per track, one track from each of the recommended groups will probably amount to ?8. Then get the rest of the album on the ones you like. When you bring up the album, popularity is rated so maybe start there and branch out. My electro collection is pretty slim, but I've got some early zero 7 and portishead which I still really like, will happily burn copies for you and bring to next forum drinks.

Clever Crime Scene Investigator people, following the evidence rather than taking things at face value, as seen in many glamorous channel5 shows ;-)

Forum CSIs annaj and david_carnell, I salute you! I've followed the googling advice above and see that Tony Parkes has made the point elsewhere that he is of an older generation and that if he looked down from his fighter-plane in 1940 and saw todays Britain, he'd let the Germans through. This does perhaps lend some weight to our previous points about different norms for different generations. He also says elsewhere that he feels that "It is a real pity that the BNP continues to be supported by a vociferous minority who simply don?t have the intellectual capacity to make what is actually a very simple argument stack up." Come on Tony, don't be shy: We await your simple arguement... (edit for typos)

KO

Welcome to the forum Tony Parkes - a hell of a thread to start posting on!

I've read nothing but medical text books, menus and this forum since September, so can't really help. Have "The Once and Future King" lined up for the summer...

*Bob* Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Several years ago, I sat perplexed and silent and > thinking in a pub after a so-called friend layed > 'The Monty Hall Question' on me. > > So, for anyone who wants to sit perplexed silent > and thinking for a while, is desperately trying to > not do any work and who hasn't heard it before, > here it is: > > Monty Hall, quiz show host, offers his contestant > a choice of three doors, behind each of which a > prize is hidden. Behind one door is a sports car, > behind the other two, booby prizes. > The contestant selects a door, which remains > closed. > Monty then opens one of the remaining doors, > behind which he knows there is a booby prize. > The contestant is then give the choice of either > sticking to his first choice, or switching. > > Should he switch, or stick? Good question: sorry to be an anorak, but I have to bring this down to the mathematics of probability. Statistically, answer should be switch - the original probability of getting the right door was 1/3. now that a booby trap has been eliminated, the odds of the other door being the prize are, technically, 1 - 1/3 = 2/3, not 1/2 and 1/2. So switch. _______________________________ Donald Duck never wears trousers. but always wraps a towel round his waist after bathing - why?

Based on the one time I bought veg there, one of the things they do that you don't get elsewhere is potatoes that are, just beneath the surface, bright green. Agree that it's a nice little place but I wouldn't go for the "fresh" veg again...

getting bladdered in a cheesy environment always used to mean starting in The Roadhouse (Covent Garden) but times may have changed...

Well, they're right there at the front, aren't they... magic ;-)