Just before I go into the main body of this blog post just a quick little quandary. Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the rudest of them all. Is it woman A, or woman B?
Woman A. I get on the train and sit on the other side of the isle from her, the train is crowded and I warn the young student that I’m about to sit next too about my TS. As the train sets off the woman who is I guess in her late 50’s early 60’s and well dressed gets up and goes to another carriage thus leaving a coveted table seat empty. However another one’s ignorance is another’s gain as a man who is doing some work on his laptop moves into the vacant table seat.
Or
Woman B. A rotund goth, not that I have anything against Goths or the larger woman, has just been served in McDonalds (gasp, shock, horror, why am I in McDonalds?) I’m being served whilst ticcing away as usual. She turns around and I can clearly hear her although I think that she thinks that I can’t hear her and tell her partner “She’s got Tourette’s”, I notice the raven hair and extremely pale coloured eyes, out pops “VAMPIRE” oopps. She’s amused as she’s now become a victim of a tic. I eat my “food” (this is McDonalds and what I am eating can only loosely be described as food) and each time I look up she’s there giving me a little smile and wave, as I leave she says goodbye like I’m her new bezzy mate.
Which one is the rudest?
On to the main blog post. Last week I went on a demo along with some of my fellow Comrades, members of the Nuneaton Socialist Party branch and members of the Coventry Socialist Party branch. If you’ve been keeping up with the NHS reforms you may or may not know that they’ve hit Nuneaton, our local hospital George Eliot as well as soon to be taken over by a private company (probably Circle) it will now be losing it’s children’s ward. nuneaton-news.co.uk/News/Ch...
So as you can see this protest was a must, so we stood at the entrance in the pouring rain with our placards, we did however have quite a bit of support from people coming and going. Apart from changes like these which are going on under our noses the effects of another part of the NHS reforms are becoming more apparent. From reading posts on forums etc there is an increase in the number of people, children and adults alike who are NOT getting referred to a TS specialist. Why you ask yourself? Well, I’ll tell you why, as part of the NHS reforms GPs are now in charge of most of the budget, what that means is that they have to basically pay for any referrals they make, any treatment you get at your local hospital and even any visits to A&E you may need. If a consortium of GPs (that a number of different GP practices that are grouped together for these funding purposes) can reduce the number of referrals they make they get bonuses!!!! Here it is in more detail dailymail.co.uk/news/articl...
So now if you need to be seen by a TS specialist you will need to push for it, you will most likely get fobbed off by your GP. This is seriously going to hinder us ticcers, from the young kids whose education will get affected and those who are trying to hold a job down. Also those of us who are not able to currently work are under pressure from the DWP to “get better” and improve our condition so we can return to work. So currently the referrals that are being made to the TS specialist are decreasing (am I right doctors?). What does this mean for the TS clinics? Well for starters they’ll have more time on their hands, so what could they do, here’s a couple of suggestions.
1. Become our personal trainer, I know there are a few of us that need to get fit, me included, that need a kick up the backside to get fit. We need a personal trainer to kick us out of bed and help us increase our fitness by making us run around like we’re on a military style boot-camp. Then…we can take part in a sponsored run for TA and raise loads of money.
2. Do a sponsored run for TA. (or some other activity that could be sponsored)
3. Sit at their desk playing solitaire on their computer
4. urmmm, I can’t think of anything else.
In reality this probably won’t be happening as now NHS trusts will be treating private patients, up to 49% of a trust’s patients can now be private. This policy isn’t sitting very comfortable with my socialist ideals. I’m just glad that I didn’t have the brains to train to be a doctor, I think that if I was I’d be off to somewhere else, Cuba or maybe France where their health systems are still run on socialist ideals. Really could you imagine it in the waiting room, after waiting endless months to see your consultant you are guided to the plastic chair and shown the water cooler, meanwhile the private patients after waiting a matter of a few weeks get the comfy chairs, a cup of tea and a bourbon cream. Who are these private patients anyway? Not me for certain, apart from sticking to my principals and I’m skint, as are a whole load of other adult ticcers, those of us who will require more care, more visits to the consultant, more meds etc will also be under the thumb of the DWP who will be pushing for some kind of miracle cure for us. The principals of the NHS were for us regardless of our ability to pay was to receive the care we needed EQUALLY.
I remember ages ago watching Brookside, does anybody else remember Brookside? btinternet.com/~brookside.s...
If I remember the plot correctly Mick Johnson’s mother-in-law was ill, she had a form of cancer I think, after her diagnosis she waited patiently for her treatment to begin however her family got frustrated and were pressurizing her “to go private” and be treated immediately, they did need to raise the money but they felt it was worth it. However mother-in-law being the tough scouser that she was stuck by her left-wing principals and told them she wanted to be treated by the NHS, after countless pleas and offers of re-mortgages and car selling etc she told them all where to go. I can’t remember if she eventually caved in and “went private”. But with these reforms waiting times for us who are either sticking by our principals or skint will go up whilst more people will be pressurized to be treated privately to ease NHS costs. Unlike cancer patients who will be from all walks of life, TS patients do tend to be on the lower end of the income scale due to how their TS has effected them so those who will have the ability to pay will either have parents that afford to go private or have jobs with a good salary and not be affected by their TS too much. I’m sure that if many if the doctors in NHS hospitals wanted to treat private patients they would have been off to Harley Street after they first qualified. Many healthcare professionals are altruistic types whose career choice reflected their desire to help people rather than make money unlike the 27+ MPs that it has emerged that voted for the NHS reforms yet have interests in private healthcare companies, certainly the man (or rather film character) in the picture came to mind. Is it just me that smells something iffy?
I’m sorry if I’ve offended anybody, I hope there are more people out there who feel the same way as me about these issues and these hideous policies. However as Joni Mitchell sang, “That you don't know what you've got til it's gone” but at least I tried.
