Saul

I like the choir. Not into football so not a hard choice for me.

I do think he is a bit unhinged, does some real interesting stuff. Earns big money from Youtube and sponsorships.

Working. as usual. Yellow warning for ice for all three days so I think the bike will not be commuting this week. Gutted really thats the fun part of my commute ruled out. Heres hoping for not to many miles driving at work this weekend. Slippery stuff not fun even in the works 4x4 Octavia Scout.

A Russian, an American, and a British admiral were having a drink on an American aircraft carrier. They were talking about the bravery of their sailors. The Russian said, “I will demonstrate the bravery of our sailors.” He calls a sailor over and says, “Jump off the ship. Swim under it and climb back up.” The sailor promptly salutes and jumps off the flight deck, swims under the ship, climbs up the davits and stands in front of the admiral and salutes. The Russian says, “That, gentlemen, is courage." The American says, “That's nothing.” He calls over a PO and says, “I want you to jump off the bows. Swim under the ship to the stern and then return." The PO salutes, jumps off the bow, swims to the stern, and climbs back up to stand in front of the admiral and salutes. The American says, “That, gentlemen, is courage." The British admiral says, “That's nothing. Sailor, come here." The matelot comes to attention and salutes. The admiral says, “I want you to climb the highest mast on the carrier, jump off, swim under the boat from bow to stern and then from beam to beam then climb up the mast and do it again." The matelot looks at the admiral and says, “You can fuck right off, sir!” The admiral turns to the other two and says, “And that, gentlemen, is courage."

No mist so far.

Well I went and saw for myself today as a local dealer has a Gold Star in stock. Its bloody lovely, sound awesome to. If I had the spare cash I would have one in a heartbeat.

Cheers Bob, lucky to have this on my doorstep. I have no real love for Fowey town but I would miss the coast path if we ever moved.

Well out and about with my Ginger Bud today. Bloody cold 2.5C so definite nip in the air. I was surprised to see two warships out in the bay this morning. I say surprised because I haven't see any for weeks and they are normally a common site given my close proximity to Devonport Dockyard. I normally see a couple every week but haven't for months. Obviously something to do with events in the east. Lovely light and not many people around which I do prefer, I like to have the place to myself in a selfish way. I am sure the Dear Boy had a blast and even found a couple of squirrels to chase. Not as good at catching them as rats. Found a bit of boat down on the beach. Always entertains me to find a bit of plate. How does it get there, not as if it floated in.

No it's still all working mate. China clay industry still uses the goods Yard and that station is on the main line. The Round House is now industrial units and the turntable is filled in more the pity.

Wow haven't thought about UFO for years. Deffo blast from the past, love it.

Please tell me you watched it all. . I mean I grew up there and even I got bored shitless after the first couple of minutes

I sort of remember a chat with a few of you about the Round House engine house and turntable at Par goods yard and their link to the Thomas the Tank engine stories. Anyway I can across this video from the 1980's that shows them in the beginning of it. Thought it might interest some of you.

Its alright Stewart is on the case,

He doesn't like water for some reason, bit of a wuss most of the time.

First day back walking after a 10 day gout break. Managed 7.5 k with the Dear Boy. Bloody lovely out there. 7 degrees C but didn't feel cold at all, probably be different when the Sun goes down.

I can see that re reading it, wasn't my intent though. My Job and that of the Clinicians I work with starts at the triage list so that is what we focus on. There are several steps before anyone gets on that list to get a chance to talk to a medic and while I know that, it's not part of our working focus. I have the suspicion that the call center systems in place are often set up just to put people off so that they do just wait until the morning and try and get through to their own GP. I think that 111 is toted as the answer to everything, GP shortages, District Nurse shortages, MIU staff shortages, emergency dental care, OOH mental health care and the list goes on. It's not realistic to think our relatively small service can take up all that slack and to sell that idea to the public is misleading. Especially given that we are short staffed and have the same challenges of recruiting as the rest of the NHS. That is why our service is overwhelmed and people don't get the care from us they expect. The clinicians in our service prioritise the End of Life care, acute but not necessarily emergency pain (blocked catheters and such), the elderly although they do deal with many other cases as well. Now I have probably worded that clumsily as well but I just drive the cars, chaperone, stock the drugs and do the paperwork. I would say it is no wonder that NHS staff struggle and moral is rock bottom. A lot of the non clinical people I work with are looking for a different job, personally I love my job but I genuinely don't know how long I can afford to do it. I could earn more stacking shelves, don't want to but may not have the choice ultimately.

I certainly was not trying to be misleading. I think we may be talking at cross purposes, I was not talking about the call center staff who work as you say. The service is not fit for purpose as people perceive it, as it is not properly staffed or funded. But our service is run by Nurse Practitioners and Advanced Paramedics once the calls get through to the triage list. They also have to see TCs and work on the cars. I made the point that they are very committed and hard working people and I would never sully their name or what they do. I am in awe of their commitment and professionalism. They are exceptional people.

I wish I could say your experience was rare but its not. I am also sure people come away from using our service (Kernow Health CIC) with the same experience as you had. 111 is a patch work of OOH services around England with levels of contact often farmed out to different areas depending on call volume. Which is why you were bounced around. The service is run mostly by Nurse Practitioners and Advanced Paramedics, all very clever and hard working people but not GP's. On Sunday there were only 2 GP's working in our overnight service to cover a county of 450,000 which more than doubles in holiday periods. Hence why we use the term Clinician. Now with the experience you had, you can probably guess at the level of abuse our call centre staff get as people who are ill get frustrated, it is very hard to retain them given that they work out of hours for just above minimum wage. There is a lot of responsibility and a high turnover, and not surprisingly very low moral. We are recruiting all the time but can never catch up. I have seen many good people leave because the job is unbearable long term. I would not do it. None of that excuses the poor treatment you had and nobody in our service wants it to be that way but it is unfortunately all to common. The real reason things are the way they are is money or lack of it and a public with the attitude like the old biddy I described. Who thought that with a cold it was ok to use the 999 service and then later to tell the 111 service to fuck off rather than open the front door and have the care she asked for. Tis a bleak outlook on a NHS service that is failing and that makes me sad.

I would say that Out Of Hours part where I work is a service that is utterly swamped by the volume of work it is expected to deal with. Lots of good people working very hard but the triage lists are huge and we often fail people who are ill. I have to be careful what I say but I do know what happens in Cornwall and the resources are way too small to deal with the volume of work. Many people don't get the treatment they expect and that is a shame but the amount of dross our clinicians have to work through to get to those in need is staggering. I know our triage list (people waiting for a call back from a clinician) was way above 200 last night. Only 11 clinicians on duty in the whole county to deal with the triage list, visits and treatment centre appointments with seven of those being on the cars. Weekdays it is worse. The same is true across the whole of the NHS. I could tell story after story about it but nobody wants to hear it or really cares until it affects them. Now I am tired and am saying to much so time for bed. I am genuinely sorry things didn't work for you Bob.