One Out All Out

I may be a bit annoyed at not getting my public sector annual increment in pay, but you have to laugh; UNISON are balloting their members on strike action over the issue, but the process of sending out ballot papers have been delayed... because of the postal strike.

Isn't it ironic.

CHSG Presentation to IRP

I have posted the presentation made by the City Hospital Supporters Group (CHSG) to the Independent Review Panel (IRP) opposing the planned removal of emergency surgical and trauma and emergency paediatric beds from City Hospital on Support City Hospital blog. It is a concise summary of the case against the proposals and is well worth a look if you care about the future of emergency acute health services in the central/ west Birmingham and Sandwell region.

Update 19/10: I am clearly an idiot. I have now added in the links so you can actually look at the presentation should you so desire.

Deaf Leopard

Please keep it down.

I got my ears syringed today and everything seems a bit loud. It appears my ears have been blocked for a few years and I can't believe how much noise is actually in the world.

Before I went to the doctor to sort this out, I was slightly concerned that I was losing my hearing at a young age. The last couple of weeks really have made me appreciate my hearing, a sense that I previously along with many others I suspect considered secondary to sight.

I had checked out NHS direct beforehand and noticed that ringing in the ears, a feeling of them being blocked, and pulses and hissing sounds in the ears can actually be a sign of wax blockage. A high powered jet of water later I can suddenly hear everything and life feels a bit different.

Anyway, I have been at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival over the last few days. I am planning to write some reviews about what I saw over the next few days so you can have some ideas on what to go to if you are going later in the month, or you can see what you are missing if you are not.

Lies, Damned Lies..?

I was very suspicious of the news this week detailing evidence from one hospital in one month that the liberalization of the drinking laws had led to a three-fold increase in alcohol-related A&E admissions. Very suspicious because i work as an information analyst at a hospital close to Birmingham City Centre and have done two studies into this which suggest there has been absolutely no impact. My colleague looked at the subject again this week as a result of this story breaking and came to the same conclusion. I really suspect there is a hidden agenda behind this story, because it is questionable to present data based only on one month. I looked at a years worth of data, and in one of the reports took into account many conditions that may be related to increased alcohol consumption, but found no significant changes.

It should also be noted that it is not very easy, at my hospital at least, to produce this information, as the data from A&E is pretty difficult to interrogate. I doubt it is very different at St. Thomas' hospital because of the nature of A&E data. I would put this down to an increased awareness and recording of alcohol problems by the medical staff in A&E, as opposed to a genuine increase.

Poor Sleep Cloud Moral Judgement

Poor Sleep Clouds Moral Judgement reports the BBC in its health section today. Margaret Thatcher famously survived on only 4 hours sleep a night when Prime Minister.

Explains a lot.

Nutters on YouTube 2

These guys really are sad. Get a life.

Nutters on YouTube 1

When I first saw this I thought it might be a new Bin Laden video. The problem with YouTube is it allow any idiot to post films.

iSoft Target

Working for the NHS means unfortunately I have a fair amount of contact with iSoft, the company currently under investingation for accounting irregularities. Yesterday I came across a mousemat from the company with the following strapline (or words to this effect):

"Creating tomorrow's Healthcare solutions today"

Apparently this is also how they report their profits.

School Knife Attack

In the news a few weeks ago was this article on the stabbing of a young boy outside his school. What surprised me about this was that he was taken across the city to City Hospital, rather than the A&E on his doorstep at Heartlands Hospital.

Presumably this was because City hospital have become specialists at this sort of incident.

US-Style NHS Forum in Birmingham

Birmingham hosted a gathering today at the ICC in which patients gave their views on the NHS.
Apparently others had been held before but certainly this is the first that made the national news and is the biggest.

Birmingham, being in the centre of the country, is the ideal place for such meetings and there should be more of them. The city is famous for being a business conference centre and the Nationwide building society has also recently announced it is returning its AGM to the city following consultations with its members.

Brum's location its greatest selling point and we should be seeking to exploit it to the full.