Monday 24 April 2006

Medical notes (In confidence)

Today's Guestblogs are selected against the farcical statement from Skippy Hewitt that we have never had a better NHS. Obviously, she has just dropped in from the planet Zarg and hasn't a clue about her subject. I do not see there will ever be any solution to the NHS problem. We spend vast sums on fertility treatment for women of 50. When that works, we spend yet more money seeing if we can get yummy mummies at 60. We pull babies through at 28 weeks. Having accomplished that, we try for viable births at 25 weeks. The pressures of medical work mean that no one wants to give up and say "Enough is enough". Some people will have to forego paternity, some premature births will not survive. Death is a reality.

Image hosting by Photobucket
TODAY'S GUEST BLOG

How To Hold Back Tears
Joey is twelve. No, wait, fifteen. His face is twelve. His neck, scarred from pepper spray, is a bitter eighteen. His abdomen, with a line from a stab wound, is a harsh twenty-five. I guess it averages out. Okay then, fifteen it is.
Joey is the third minor I see by myself today at a well-child checkup in Fremont; his parents are working. I’m starting to get the hang of it—medical history is quick, social history is long and involved. Tells me his grandmother had just passed away and his one-year old daughter—yes, daughter—was sick in the hospital with pneumonia. (I double-check his age, yes, he’s 15.)
Our dramas in UK
The UK National Health Service (NHS) is going to be cutting about 15,000 to 20,000 healthcare jobs this year in an attempt to reduce the deficit of £1bn. Government officials are, of course, saying that patient care will not be compromised. But, most healthcare workers like Dr. Greg Hopkinson disagrees.
Ladies who care
BERLIN (Reuters) - German prostitutes are signing up for a career change, training to become nurses to tend to the country's aging population or working phones as tele-marketers.
Thirty prostitutes have enlisted in a church-funded project in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia and more are on a waiting list, project coordinator Gisela Zohren said.
"Competition in prostitution is fierce and the days when one could make a decent living out of it are long gone, especially once you hit the thirties," Zohren said.
She said prostitutes' fees had hit rock bottom and they were well suited to jobs on offer in the retraining program.
"After years of prostitution, they know how to listen, look after people and are savvy in selling over the phone," she said.
Experts in the care industry for the aged also welcomed the initiative. (Ed note - And, of course, they will not have concerns about 'inappropriate touching') I'm not too sure how nurses might see this "Too old and raddled to earn your keep as a working girl. Come and be a nurse" is a harsh recruitment come-on


No comments:

Post a Comment