I’ve become a tiny part of how the NHS is changing for the better

 

This is me with my new NHS electronic spirometer which, via an app and my mobile phone, enables me to send lung test measurements I take periodically direct to Nottingham City Hospital’s Lung Department. We were introduced to one another at the City Hospital a week ago with the help of a wonderful member of staff, who took me and Susan through the procedure step-by-step, and after a week of sending in daily test results I learned today that I will part of the program to remotely monitor people with lung conditions (I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2015 and have been living very differently ever since).

The pandemic has changed the way we are cared for dramatically and I have become a tiny part of that future, one where more and more of us will be monitored remotely, thus reducing the number of visits we make to hospitals, clinics and the like.

The NHS needs more resources and staff and this Government has to be reminded at every opportunity by all those who care about the NHS of its Brexit promise to redirect £350millions a week to the NHS. Remember this?

Providing outreach services like the ones I am a beneficiary of is one way of spending money differently, so money can go further. The NHS needs spare capacity when it comes to resources, staffing and quality of care. - if the pandemic teaches us anything it should be this.

Many of the NHS 'horror stories' we see, hear or read about in the media come down to overworked staff, often depressed, working long shifts. We all want someone to blame, so perhaps we should look in a mirror, because Governments that fail the NHS are a measurement of shortcomings in ourselves.

My time will come soon enough. In the meantime I am happy with what I have. I am fitter and feel healthier than I have at any other time in my life, despite being a few months short of 77 and medically ‘vulnerable’. I had open heart surgery four years ago this month to replace part of my aortic valve (I was born with two cusps instead of three, which was discovered thanks to Nottingham City Hospital’s Lung Department back in 2015). I am here today thanks to our NHS and what it does with limited resources. 

I am one lucky bunny.

Non-NHS care on the NHS and political sloganising

Yesterday afternoon I spent four hours at the QMC Hospital’s privately owned Treatment Centre having a inguinal hernia repaired under a general anaesthetic.

I visited my GP on 9 April (six weeks ago) about a problem first diagnosed in June 2016 but at the time I was waiting to have open heart surgery, so the surgeon wasn't keen, for understandable reasons, to operate on my hernia until 18 months after my heart op. In the event this pushed back the hernia op until August 2018. The solution was to wear a support belt during the day, but most days began with me pushing my inguinal hernia back inside, usually more than once. By the beginning of this year (2018) it had become quite painful at times, so I started to keep a hernia log and decided to visit my GP sooner rather than later on the basis that I wanted to have my hernia op at the first opportunity.

The private Treatment Centre adjacent to the QMC Hospital saw me on 18 April and I had my pre-op assessment the next morning, thanks to the fact that the 8.30 a.m. appointment is difficult to fill. My hernia didn’t stop me walking or exercising, so I walked from Beeston to the Centre each time. At the end of last week I was offered a cancellation for yesterday at 2.30 p.m. which I willingly accepted. So here I am at home 12 hours later recovering, feeling fine and taking it easy, doing this post. Tomorrow I plan to walk into Beeston, then home after a coffee.

The Treatment Centre treated me like royalty from beginning to end, mirroring the heart and lung care and support I have been receiving from Nottingham City Hospital for the past three years. With my hernia fixed I hope I am now at the beginning of a long Indian summer. I’m 74 and never felt better in so many ways, but I am not complacent. I have to stay active and I am enjoying exercise now more than I ever have. I feel more creative. From where I am sitting writing this I can see my runner beans growing and the last of the blue bells, the garden has been awash with them this year.

Now back to the point of this post. Circle Health says of itself if you visit their website: The Circle Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre is the largest day-case centre in Europe. It operates under a Standard Acute Contract, providing a wide range of outpatient, inpatient, diagnostic and therapeutic services. It is the only independent sector facility in the UK to offer teaching and research, including pre- and post-graduate medical, nursing and AHP training. Its surgery has been rated "outstanding" by the Care Quality Commission.

It is also a private company listed at Companies House and has had its moments in the media. I am politically opposed to any public service / utility being in the private or voluntary sector with the exception of mutuals in which users and workers are joint owners. I feel able to say this having worked first as a Family Planning Association (FPA) clinic volunteer over 50 years ago, then 12 years with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) followed by 21 years with Advance Housing & Support, all charities providing healthcare related services local government and the NHS failed to provide in large swathes of England. All these organisations budgeted to make surpluses but not to pay shareholders directly. However all of them took out bank loans on which they paid interest and, therefore contributes to 'profits'.

Labour politicians have actively encouraged private healthcare so we have to be cautious when condemning private healthcare. At the point of treatment, in my experience, there is no distinction between public, private or private. Many charities are now led by managers paid a 'market-led wage' little different to the private sector.

I have long favoured the issuing of bonds offering a fixed annual return for a fixed period of time as a way of enable small savers to invest in public services and utilities, so that their need to borrow from banks can be minimised.

At the end of the day it is easy to sloganise when it comes to healthcare and public services if you give little thought to the consequences, then there taxes on our income, purchases, property and wealth!

Taken altogether, this is why I believe we need to arrive at a cross-party bipartisan agreement — something I have blogged about before — when it comes to the NHS, welfare and housing (and I'm pleased to say that our MP Anna Soubry agrees with me on the NHS, but struts like a Tory when it comes to housing).

I managed to live 71 years before needing to draw down on 47 years of National Insurance payments (money which was not ring-fenced). It annoys when the media and politicians talk about our 'rising older population' and ignore the fact that as a percentage so is the working age population.

What concerns me is the quality of all lives and this is not simply about age, it is about income and wellbeing, and I know for a fact that even at 74 on a relatively low income I am one of the lucky ones!

Tony Blair had a plan to improve the lot of working people and it failed big time, but I do not doubt his intent.

An e-mail to my MP Anna Soubry — Why the NHS, housing (and general wellbeing) needs a bipartisan approach — and the reply

As  you can see I sent the e-mail below two weeks ago come tomorrow. In the absence of a reply I have to assume my MP has no interest in a bipartisan approach to our NHS and the even greater housing crisis which has bedevilled us for decades. In fairness Ms Soubry is not alone. Many other MPs, including Labour, want to keep the NHS and housing party political. It is not a view I've ever shared.

From: Robert Howard <robert@parkviews.org.uk>
Date: 9 January 2018 at 5:54:09 pm GMT
To: anna.soubry.mp@parliament.uk
Subject: NHS, housing (and general wellbeing) needs a bipartisan approach

Hello Ms Soubry

First, please forgive this long email, but please bear with me.

You write in your latest e-letter  'We really do have to grasp the challenges our NHS and social care system face. Extra money is important but so too are better systems and integration.' Over 40 years ago Old Boot, an English sheepdog character in the Daily Mirror strip cartoon 'The Perishers' said of a comment: 'As a statement it cannot be faulted for its accuracy, but it hardly throws a blinding flash of illumination on the dark mysteries of the universe (or in this case the NHS and social care).

I have long held the view that the NHS (and social care) needs a bipartisan approach involving politicians of all political parties, health workers, regardless of their status, the voluntary sector, related businesses and the general public, and that we need some kind of national convention to come up with a framework which supports local innovation and diversity alongside standards and a funding formula based on some kind of  health & care tax/charge, which also covers dentistry and eyesight (hearing is still part of the NHS, whereas the other two cost considerably more than many can afford).

I would also argue that housing needs to be considered as part of our health and social care system, because lack of decent housing impacts on personal wellbeing, and lack of wellbeing feeds into health needs big time (alcohol, drugs, diet, mental health and so the list could go on).

You are well placed to argue the case for a national convention to consider health care and related issues in the widest sense, perhaps suggesting that someone like Graham Allen could chair it (we live in an age when 'experts' rule when we what we need are sensible adjudicators who come to a problem not thinking they know the answers). He was an able honest MP with capabilities not utilised because he was a bit of a maverick - which is how I regard you.

Less than 12 months ago I had open heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic heart valve I was born with 73 years ago and 3 weeks ago my wife had a mastectomy after a recurrence of breast cancer after 11 years, so we both know the value and quality of the NHS first hand.

Between 1971 and 2006 when I retired I worked for two voluntary health care charities. BPAS Development Officer and Regional Manager/Head of Housing Management Advance Housing & Support (mental health/learning disability support), and chaired a community health council for six years, so I have a personal interest in health related issues and the local historian in me rate the provision of municipal housing in the 20th century as a greater achievement than the creation of the NHS.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the post-war period when, it can be argued, there was a (albeit competitive) bipartisan approach to health and housing by political parties. Public buildings all around us attest to this fact.

If I have a political wish for the future this is it!

Robert Howard
Beeston NG9 2PJ

PS. Brexit has to treated as a political beast with a life of its own and not one which we are all in thrall to at the expense of all else (ie. health, care, housing).

AN E-MAIL REPLY DATED 24 JANUARY 2018:

Dear Robert,

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in replying.

Anna very much supports the introduction of some sort of bipartisan commission or body for the NHS. At this stage Anna would be open as to exact nature of this commission and looks forward to considering proposals put forward by her colleagues and others. Anna sends both you and your wife her very best wishes, and would like to thank you for your work in this field.

Please be assured that this Government intends to significantly increase the number of houses being built. That is why the Government has committed to a total of at least £44 billion of capital funding, loans and guarantees to support the housing market over the next five years which will help deliver 300,000 net additional homes a year on average by the mid-2020s.

I hope this provides you with some reassurance.

Best wishes,

Emily
Emily Horner I Parliamentary Assistant to the Rt Hon Anna Soubry I Member of Parliament for Broxtowe.

Stapleford's 'Hemlock Room' — is it bad taste, funny or a point of view?

Yesterday morning I went to my dentist, who is based in Stapleford Care Centre. On the first floor there is this door...

...with a sign saying 'Hemlock Room'.  The other sign on the door says 'Sheila Gibson Unit'.

The Sheila Gibson Unit is what? Well, follow the above link and see for yourself.

My take on the name immediately was that someone was pissed off with the services offered by the Sheila Gibson Unit and was making a statement about them — hemlock is a poison, famously taken by Socrates.

At the other extreme it could be someone making a reference to the town's famous 'Hemlock Stone', but when you realise that the weblink says this is the 'Broxtowe Day Unit (which) offers a range of group and individual therapies for older adults diagnosed with a mental health condition' you may, like me, read the room name and wonder as to how it was chosen?

If the decision to call the it the 'Hemlock Room' is official then it is in bad taste and shows a lack of sensitivity towards older folk with mental health needs or am I just an over-sensitive oldie?

Oh I know posting this will flush out a few nasties keen to say all us oldies are past our sell by dates, so poisoning us all to death is a good idea and if the NHS wants to do it, yippee!

'Uneasy' probably best sums up how I feel about seeing a door in a 'Care Centre' labelled the 'Hemlock Room'.

Walking around eyes wide shut

My last post was about news which changed my world and I would like to say thank you to those who have contacted me and to bring readers up-to-date with what has happened to date, but first a couple of photographs I have taken in the last few days.

I have stood under this sign countless times loaded down with shopping, waiting the little to carry me up the hill, yet until last week the wonderful Commercial Inn pub sign never registered. I must have looked at it eyes wide shut. Now I see every time. I must find out more about the scene depicted.

I was also slow to notice the demise of the Belle & Jerome Café Bar and its replacement by Rye. From what I have read elsewhere, Rye is owned and managed by the same people who ran Belle & Jerome, so it can be fairly described as a rebranding exercise. Looking at the price list, it appears to be offering themed food days for £10 including a drink. I will go and try the coffee before too long. I do like the frontage and the signage. According to Beestonia the name is a nod in the direction of Beeston Rylands as well as alcohol.

Right now though, Susan and I are so pleased that when we decided to downsize from Lenton last year after thirty-five years we were determined to look no further than Beeston or Chilwell (OK, we did look at Bramcote and Sandiacre too, but in each case just once, honest). Our main reasoning was to do with being close to shops, public transport and hospitals.

We only ever needed the latter big time back in 2006, when Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer and we found ourselves visiting the City Hospital regularly for about three months. The attention and care was excellent then and it has been during the past month for me. Since the 8 May I have been to my GP or hospital nine times, with three hospital visits already booked for June, and the attention and care from the local NHS has been fantastic.

In my case I can only describe myself as one lucky bunny. My visit to the Nottingham City Hospital Respiratory Assessment Unit (RAU) resulted in better news than I and Susan dared expect after the x-ray report from the QMC two weeks ago, which said I showed signs of ‘established fibrosis of the lungs’. My young doctor moved fast — hence the visit to the City Hospital last week.

The specialist doctor we saw ordered another x-ray, which was identical to the first one on 8 May and she said what the x-rays showed was ‘some scarring (of the lungs)', but not enough to produce the symptoms, so it is unlikely that I will need any treatment now. Having presented early they want to see what happens, as they don’t know what causes scarring/fibrosis in 40% of cases

There have since been further blood tests, a chest scan and next week I have a heart scan, because when the hospital doctor examined me she identified some calcification of the aortic valve of the heart, not unusual in someone of my age.

My cough can probably be traced back to a virus I had before Christmas for three weeks and the accompanying cough in some people continued for up to two months afterwards. I then cleared out the loft, followed by some reaction to cutting grass for the first time in twenty-seven years and the blood I saw was probably from small blood vessels in my throat rupturing.

I have been told to avoid crowds and public transport during the winter and my GP is being told that if I ever have a chest infection, I am to be prescribed anti-biotics. On hearing this, my daughter Alicia’s comment was ‘No more buses for you Dad’.

As you can imagined all this comes as a relief, but I am not sure life will ever be ‘normal’ again. It is the closest I have come to examining my own mortality. How I am going to miss those winter bus rides!

It will probably be another couple of months before I fully understand what has happened, but I will try to find some way in which I can do more to help promote public awareness of lung fibrosis and how people can best support and fund research into finding a treatment just to arrest its progress. If I understand what I have read, the medical profession and researchers have given up trying to find a cure — and that is a dramatic measure of just how bad lung fibrosis is!

For now, to repeat myself, I am one lucky bunny!

Our NHS is a truly wonderful institution, which I am sure we all know from personal experience. Occasionally it will get things wrong and when it does they need to be put right ASAP.

Living in Beeston, we are truly blessed when it comes to easy access to hospitals. A close friend, who lives in Gainsborough, has a knee problem and will  be coming to the QMC later this month to see what can be done. Beeston, truly, is a great place to live.