"by no means am i lizzie bashing here.
it just seems to me to more about lizzie getting what she wants instead of vi getting what she needs."

No, it is me trying my best to stand up for not just Vi, but for all the other elderly people who, bit by bit, are being pushed aside, by a system that is more and more refusing to care for us all as they once did.

And meanwhile, the Corporate NHS bastards sit in their plush offices, entertaining medical reps galore, living off the fat of little 95 year old ladies, who they've cut back on.

Well, let them cut back on themselves first! Let the NHS get rid of way too many managers and let the money go where it's supposed to go, to the PATIENTS!

This is about principle, morals, caring, compassion...and the more we cease to fight, the more we will all be treated in this way!



"for example, just because they would not fit handles have they recommended another agency take over vi's plight?"

She was advised to buy the handles, or seat, herself and then contact Age Concern who'd fit them for her, for free.


"we have seen here that the handles requested might not be up to the task but we have not been told by lizzie if anything else was suggested."

Yes, Kate suggested a seat that goes on the top of the bath, you need handles put on the bath too for that, to enable you to get in and out.
Vi wanted handles on the wall, as she's always had. After spending a very long time explaining to Vi about the benefits of the seat, she then took her back to her room and told her that she was not eligible for *any* help at all, because she didn't fit The New Criteria.

"it is very annoying when something that is needed does not get provided."

Yes, but sometimes, it is way beyond that. It is WRONG!"

"however i am sure there are better ways of getting this information than shouting and swearing at someone."

I did NOT swear at Kate, nor did I shout at *her*...but I did let off steam..apologising first for doing so, because I know she is just 'the messenger' here and not the unfeeling Fatcatprat who makes these decisions whilst subtracting pounds here and there from his 'Abacus of Human Resources Who Do Not Matter Anymore'



"i am feeling sorry for the woman who was subjected to this ranting.
it must have been very intimidating to be in someones home on your own and to be set upon like that, from what we have been told she handled herself with dignity and more patience than i would have had."

Kate ASKED me to go to the Top! She ASKED me to take this further! She bloody well came round, 15 minutes later with all the details, so that I could do EXACTLY that! She said..."We KNEW this would happen eventually. We KNEW it would just be a matter of time"

Just because *I* am the one who blew my top, does not make me a bad person, jade! I come from a very different generation, it is one that knows what Vi's generation has been through, heck, my own FATHER would have been the same age, were he still alive today.

When Dad was ill, and he lived with me too at the end of his life, he had a District Nurse who came round, free of charge, to bathe him and care for him in a 'personal' manner. All patients did, every single patient in this Land of mine! Alison became a friend to him, he looked forward to her visits. It was a social thing as much as a medical one.

Shortly after Dad died, 'they' withdrew the District Nurses from doing this, giving it to the private sector.

Nowadays you so often have staff in to bathe and dress people who don't give a shite. They're paid crap wages by companies who are 'just in it for the money'....and they cut corners, won't do anything unless it's down on their job description etc.etc.etc...and the patients have to pay for it all.

If you give up, if you keep letting this slip and that slip away, then eventually you will end up with nothing!

If I had not been there, Vi would have apologised for being a nuisance and bought the handles herself from her pension.

Sorry, but why the fuck should she?

For the NHS to tell a 95 year old lady that she has to carry on standing up to wash, rather than helping her to have a bath, by assessing her getting in and out of the bath (which was NOT done, btw) then seeing what they could do to help, is appalling.

And meanwhile..the Fatcatprats grin their 'Cheshire' grins....and lap up the cream from the money they've just saved from yet another little old lady bewildered and apologetic, who has, through no choice of her own, given in.


"lizzie, i hope that you get something that will help, there have been suggestions galore here.
maybe look into finding a product yourself and seeing whether the local council or social services can help pay and install it for you?"

Torbay Care Trust IS my local council Jade, they are one of the few Health Trusts/Social Services, linked in the Council in the way they are....They ARE the Social Services..

They should rename themselve 'Torbay We Don't Give A Shit Trust' as it would be far more fitting.

For yours and everyone else's information, the Fatcatprats won't even stop licking their cream long enough to talk to the BBC. ALL they will ever do is issue a statement saying they cannot commnet on individual cases and follow that with the rules for 'The New Criteria' and that is as close as they will come to 'discussing' ANYTHING with the BBC.

Corrupt?

You betcha!!!

What are they so afraid of? WHY won't they talk to the BBC?

AND for your information....


Do you know that GPs are actually paid BONUSES to NOT refer you on to a Specialist?   

Yup, isn't that wonderful!

HOW do I know this?

Well, the man who came round yesterday to interview me told me his own story.

He damaged his knee playing football. He went to his GP and was told it was badly bruised but it would soon get better. It didn't. He went back FIVE times, and luckily for him, on the final visit he saw a Locum, who, without even touching his knee told him that he had probably torn a ligament, because of how he described the pain. He referred him to a Specialist immediately and within days, he was having his knee operated on, by wonderful staff who cared for him marvellously.

A few months later his boss asked him to cover the story of GPs getting paid bonuses to NOT refer patients...

One of the women I work with has a 14 year old daughter who has severe dyspraxia. Her daughter was highly premature, weighing just over one pound at birth. Amazingly, she survived, against all odds...
Over the past few years (YEARS) she has had fainting fits, where she loses consciousness, falls down and her lips go blue.

Has she been referred to a Specialist?

Nope.

Her mother has been told over and again that it's 'just her age' and it will pass.

Well, she did it again last week, at school...and they could barely bring her round, took them longer than normal. They called her mother, rather than an ambulance, and yet again, her mother was told by her GP that it was nothing to worry about.

She now knows the story I learnt yesterday and is so flamingly mad...I've told her she must INSIST that her daughter is now fully investigated, as she should have been years back.

The more you give in, the more you keep quiet, the more you believe in 'musn't grumble' way of life, the more they will shite all over you!

GRUMBLE!
And grumble so bloody loud that they can here you inside the Houses of Parliament, where they'll start to shake in their Cutthroats, Crooks & Conmen Designer Shoes!