One of the few taboos left in our modern society is one that makes it difficult to criticise other people's expressions of grief. Because of that it is difficult to criticise Ann Clwyd Roberts' recent attack on the nursing profession, made in the context of the death of her husband.
Of course I sympathise with Ann in her loss, I met her late husband Owen on a few occasions and I would be horrified to think that his last days were blighted by lack of care in Wales' flagship hospital, but I'm sorry Ann, I doubt that it is true.
Because professional health care workers expect to be at the butt end of anger as an expression of grief, being insouciant about such attacks is an element of being a caring health care worker.
When my eldest son was a little boy, about 4 years old, he was rushed into hospital with a very severe ear infection. A doctor told me that if the infection spread to his brain that he would die and that the severity of his condition suggested that that was the most likely outcome, his chances of survival were very low indeed!
I hated that doctor with a level of hatred that you cannot imagine – I wanted to do worse than "shoot the messenger".
I see him occasionally in the aisles of the local Tesco store and every time I see him I feel my stomach churning 12 years after the event! Did he break the news gently and with compassion or was he brusk and clinical? I don't know. All I can remember of the event is the horror of some ****** telling me that my lovely little baby was likely to die. Thankfully my son survived, but I still hate that doctor despite the fact that he saved my son's life.
When our loved ones are in hospital it is difficult to be rational, they are the most important people in the world to us we are very emotionally involved with their care, anybody who shows less emotion in such a crisis can appear "callous". But the nurse on that ward may have thirty other patients to deal with s/he has other relatives and friends who are as demanding of her / his attention for their loved ones as I am for mine. S/he can only give one thirtieth of the time that I feel my nearest and dearest deserves, because s/he has to care for the other 29 patients too.
Having a child, a parent, a spouse a grandparent in hospital coming to the end of their lives is probably one of the most traumatic experiences any of us can have. Dealing with the expression of that trauma is an everyday occurrence for health care professionals; If they become emotionally involved they will burn out! A caring professional must be able to share professional empathy with all patients and clients but they cannot give personal sympathy (which is what most of us want from them) and carry on working.
Indeed professional standards and even basic empathy can often conflict. Refuse to tell an 82 year old granny how her granddaughter and prospective great-grandchild are doing and you will be accused of being a callous "jobs worth"; give that information, unintentionally, to hacks and you have breached patient confidentiality and are the butt of a radio hoax and at the arse end of a Professional Conduct Enquiry!
What annoys me most about Ann's intervention on this issue is that she, as a Labour MP, has allowed Jeremy Cunt to respond to her grief by claiming that nursing has descended into the normalisation of cruelty! A means of blaming nurses, rather than government, for failings in the NHS
Ann - Is that sick lie about dedicated public servants what you want Owen to be remembered for?
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
03/11/2011
Good Food Guide
Apparently if we in Wales ate an English diet our health will improve dramatically. As I'm feeling a bit peckish now, what would you suggest as a quick snack? A Brummy sandwich, Scouser on toast or a tasty morsel of East Anglian with a nice chianti.
Dr Hannibal Lecter – Welsh food pioneer
23/02/2011
Vote For Wales or be Anti Welsh by default
Those of us who are married, middle aged and set in our ways are the most likely to vote in political elections. At a rough guess I reckon that between parish, area, county, Assembly, British, European and referenda, I have voted about 45 out of 46 times since I was 18.
The one I missed out on was on 18 September 1997 the date on which my Mother in Law had a heart attack. My wife and I accompanied her to the hospital, and by the time we left the hospital the polling stations had closed and three definite YES FOR WALES votes were never cast.
Ever since the opponents of devolution have claimed that those who failed to vote in favour of devolution are tacitly opposed to devolution, people who couldn't be bothered!
I wanted to vote Yes, my wife wanted to vote Yes, My mother in law wanted to vote Yes, other members of the family would have voted yes, but were deprived of voting because of family circumstances!
My failure, to vote yes in 1997 could not have been further from the truth of the antis claims about those of us who failed to vote!
If you support Welsh Self Determination – vote YES if you can; because if you don't, those monsters who hate Wales will claim your vote as their own in the same way that they claimed my patriotic mother in law's heart attack as a vote in favour of their hatred of Wales!
The one I missed out on was on 18 September 1997 the date on which my Mother in Law had a heart attack. My wife and I accompanied her to the hospital, and by the time we left the hospital the polling stations had closed and three definite YES FOR WALES votes were never cast.
Ever since the opponents of devolution have claimed that those who failed to vote in favour of devolution are tacitly opposed to devolution, people who couldn't be bothered!
I wanted to vote Yes, my wife wanted to vote Yes, My mother in law wanted to vote Yes, other members of the family would have voted yes, but were deprived of voting because of family circumstances!
My failure, to vote yes in 1997 could not have been further from the truth of the antis claims about those of us who failed to vote!
If you support Welsh Self Determination – vote YES if you can; because if you don't, those monsters who hate Wales will claim your vote as their own in the same way that they claimed my patriotic mother in law's heart attack as a vote in favour of their hatred of Wales!
23/11/2010
YouGov Health Warning
A new Welsh YouGov survey is due out before the end of this week. Apart from asking the normal tracker questions about which party one will be voting for in the next Assembly elections and how one will vote in the GoW Act referendum it also asks for responses to the Assembly budget. I expect that the budget question will be happy reading for the Welsh Conservative Party – with a huge percentage saying that Health Spending should not be cut, as per Tory group policy.
Unfortunately the question on spending cuts was leading and therefore unfair. The question asked, which ONE of the following areas of spending should NOT be cut? Followed by a list that included culture, transport, education health etc.
Respondents didn't have the opportunity to answer none of the above or to say all spending areas should be cut. The option of supporting the Assembly Governments' decision to spread the cuts across all areas wasn't on offer so respondents were "forced" to choose one area of spending that should not be cut. I would guessed that having been forced to make a choice that most would choose health, thus vindicating the Tory policy by default.
Anybody wishing to join the YouGov panel in order to be in with a chance of being a respondent in future surveys can do so by clicking HERE.
Unfortunately the question on spending cuts was leading and therefore unfair. The question asked, which ONE of the following areas of spending should NOT be cut? Followed by a list that included culture, transport, education health etc.
Respondents didn't have the opportunity to answer none of the above or to say all spending areas should be cut. The option of supporting the Assembly Governments' decision to spread the cuts across all areas wasn't on offer so respondents were "forced" to choose one area of spending that should not be cut. I would guessed that having been forced to make a choice that most would choose health, thus vindicating the Tory policy by default.
Anybody wishing to join the YouGov panel in order to be in with a chance of being a respondent in future surveys can do so by clicking HERE.
14/07/2009
Know your own balls
The news that John Hartson is suffering from complications of testicular cancer is very sad. I wish him well and hope that he beats it.
Here is a video that explains how to check yourself:
Unfortunately some of the most at risk group will not be able to view this video. It is age restricted because it shows real testicles so people between 15 and 21 are not allowed to view it due to US obscenity laws!
Testicular cancer is most prevalent amongst young men aged 15 - 35, so a large section of those who need to know how to check their own balls are denied on line video advice! That is immoral, disgusting and unacceptably obscene!
YouTube should know better.
If you are a boy who is old enough to masturbate, you must know how to check for TC! Ask your Dad, your uncle, big bro, the man next door - anybody (sensible) to enable you to view a TC check video.
If you are too embarrassed to check your own balls for TC, you could really Die from Embarrassment.
Here is a video that explains how to check yourself:
Unfortunately some of the most at risk group will not be able to view this video. It is age restricted because it shows real testicles so people between 15 and 21 are not allowed to view it due to US obscenity laws!
Testicular cancer is most prevalent amongst young men aged 15 - 35, so a large section of those who need to know how to check their own balls are denied on line video advice! That is immoral, disgusting and unacceptably obscene!
YouTube should know better.
If you are a boy who is old enough to masturbate, you must know how to check for TC! Ask your Dad, your uncle, big bro, the man next door - anybody (sensible) to enable you to view a TC check video.
If you are too embarrassed to check your own balls for TC, you could really Die from Embarrassment.
07/05/2009
The efficiency of devolution
Listening to those who still oppose devolution complaining during this weeks decennial celebrations, it has been interesting to note that most of them have based their complaints, not on standards, but on how much per head is spent on Welsh school children, Welsh patients etc.
Because of my health problems I am a heavy user of the NHS in Wales. My experience is that the NHS in Wales is much, much better now than it was ten years ago. English friends who live with hearing loss and epilepsy tell me that my service use experiences are much better than theirs.
As a parent of two children in secondary education I couldn't wish for a better education experience than that offered to my sprogs. English friends are amazed at the range of subjects, extra curricular activities and educational opportunities that my kids have in comparison to what their kids are offered. They can't believe that my children are not just given the range of experiences but that they can access them through a choice of languages!
The funny thing is that those who complain about the Assembly's per capita spending are also the rent-a-gobs who the press can always depend upon to give a quote about efficiency and the need for cutting public expenditure.
Which raises the question: Is the fact that less per head is spent on Welsh Education and Health than is spent on English Education and Health a sign that these services are worse in Wales or a sign that they are more efficient in Wales?
Its only anecdotal evidence, but my experience is that Wales is more efficient, providing more for less.
Because of my health problems I am a heavy user of the NHS in Wales. My experience is that the NHS in Wales is much, much better now than it was ten years ago. English friends who live with hearing loss and epilepsy tell me that my service use experiences are much better than theirs.
As a parent of two children in secondary education I couldn't wish for a better education experience than that offered to my sprogs. English friends are amazed at the range of subjects, extra curricular activities and educational opportunities that my kids have in comparison to what their kids are offered. They can't believe that my children are not just given the range of experiences but that they can access them through a choice of languages!
The funny thing is that those who complain about the Assembly's per capita spending are also the rent-a-gobs who the press can always depend upon to give a quote about efficiency and the need for cutting public expenditure.
Which raises the question: Is the fact that less per head is spent on Welsh Education and Health than is spent on English Education and Health a sign that these services are worse in Wales or a sign that they are more efficient in Wales?
Its only anecdotal evidence, but my experience is that Wales is more efficient, providing more for less.
19/11/2008
Fagging Own Goal
I have smoked since I was nine years old, when I was persuaded that smoking was a sign of being a proper grown up man. By the time that I realised that smoking was really a sign of being a proper mug, I was hooked and, as yet, I have failed to beat the addiction.
As the old joke goes giving up smoking is easy - I did it seven times last week. Knowing how addictive smoking is and how difficult it is to stop, having started, I am generally supportive of any measures that encourage today's youngsters not to start the silly habit.
I have never been convinced of the value of warning notices on cigarette packages. I have smoked thousands of packs with the message smoking kills on them without batting an eyelid. If you were to ask which notice is on the pack in my pocket I would have to look at it to answer. So not very effective.
I have noticed that some packs have started to show pictures on them rather than just words. I'm sure that pictures might be a little more effective than just words.
There is one pictures, however, that I feel defeats the object. This one:
My two teenage boys have always hated the idea of smoking, but they loved this joke and begged me not to bin the pack, so that they could take it to school and show it to their mates. This puerile joke is one that appeals to young men and makes the fag packet more attractive!
The medical facts of erectile dysfunction amongst smoking men is based on studies of 50 year old smokers. Apparently 60% of long smoking 50 year olds suffer from the problem in comparison to 12% of those who have never smoked. So a message aimed at young men is based on research on men who most youngsters would consider past it anyway.
The fact is that most smokers in the age group that this picture message is aimed at could provide simple proof positive that the message is not true. And if that message can be proved to be untrue then it weakens all other messages.
An own goal by the health bods! This image and message should be withdrawn from the campaign!
As the old joke goes giving up smoking is easy - I did it seven times last week. Knowing how addictive smoking is and how difficult it is to stop, having started, I am generally supportive of any measures that encourage today's youngsters not to start the silly habit.
I have never been convinced of the value of warning notices on cigarette packages. I have smoked thousands of packs with the message smoking kills on them without batting an eyelid. If you were to ask which notice is on the pack in my pocket I would have to look at it to answer. So not very effective.
I have noticed that some packs have started to show pictures on them rather than just words. I'm sure that pictures might be a little more effective than just words.
There is one pictures, however, that I feel defeats the object. This one:
My two teenage boys have always hated the idea of smoking, but they loved this joke and begged me not to bin the pack, so that they could take it to school and show it to their mates. This puerile joke is one that appeals to young men and makes the fag packet more attractive!
The medical facts of erectile dysfunction amongst smoking men is based on studies of 50 year old smokers. Apparently 60% of long smoking 50 year olds suffer from the problem in comparison to 12% of those who have never smoked. So a message aimed at young men is based on research on men who most youngsters would consider past it anyway.
The fact is that most smokers in the age group that this picture message is aimed at could provide simple proof positive that the message is not true. And if that message can be proved to be untrue then it weakens all other messages.
An own goal by the health bods! This image and message should be withdrawn from the campaign!
22/07/2008
Its Pick-on-the-sick-time Again!
Incapacity Benefit is a horrible, cruel and devilish benefit.
It isn't a benefit in need of reform, it is a benefit that needs to be abolished and replace with a new system that is more appropriate to the needs of those who live with ill health or with a disability.
It is a negative benefit, because it underlines what a person can't do rather than what s/he can do.
Many people will be faced with a situation where illness or disability prevents them from continuing with their former careers. If a person loses a job in these circumstances that person will be entitled to incapacity benefit, but once one becomes entitled to IB they are placed into a category that says they are incapable of doing ANY work, not just their former work.
IB makes people ill.
Most of us have heard of the placebo effect, where taking a sugar pill makes patients better because they believe that something is being done to make them better.
The opposite of placebo happens too.
If you concentrate on the downside of an illness, mope about how bad things are and count your curses rather than your blessings, then you will become more ill than you need to be. By its negative emphasis on incapacity by encouraging people to look at the downside, IB can make people more ill than they need to be.
IB discourages people from attempting to improve their own health. There is a very unfunny joke that says that if Jesus went to Merthyr curing the lame and the sick he would be crucified by the benefits claimants. Unfunny it may be, but it makes a point:
If you lose your job because of ill health you are entitled to IB, you will be paid a bit more than those who are on job-seekers allowance. If you get better you lose your entitlement to IB and have to go onto the lower benefit. With little prospect of gaining a new job in the IB hot-spot areas you will, in effect, be punished for getting better.
There was a recent case in Pembrokeshire of a man who had suffered a genuine serious illness claiming benefits. His doctor told him to exercise in order to restore his health. He was filmed exercising and prosecuted for benefit fraud. The man might have been better off if he had ignored his doctor's advice and hadn't bothered with the health improving exercise regime.
Incapacity Benefit replaces the benefits of getting better!
The worst thing about IB is the fact that it is a benefit that is so often abused, not by those who claim it but by governments.
From Thatcher through Major, Blair and Brown, governments have urged people to accept this negative health benefit rather than unemployment benefits because the sick and disabled don't count in official unemployment totals. It is a good benefit for massaging true unemployment figures.
It is also a good benefit for vicious political rhetoric that points the finger at the sick and disabled who receive it and show them up to be examples of those who are too lazy to get of their backsides and help themselves.
Is there an easer group to kick than those that benefits policies have brought so low?
The latest Government Green Paper aimed at “tackling” Incapacity Benefit is at least the fourth attempt by the Labour Government to deal with the problem. We had a similar Green Paper almost two years to the day ago!
The latest proposals are just finger pointing rhetoric again, rather than a real attempt to deal with a real problem.
It will fail because finger pointing exercises are bound to fail.
The fact is that the majority of people on IB are genuinely ill.
Look at the IB hot spots and compare their life expectancy rates! People die younger in these areas because of poor health!
Much has been made over the past few weeks about the fact that Glasgow East has both the lowest life expectancy in the UK and the highest rate of IB claims – the people of Glasgow East are not dying young in order to fiddle the social, they are dying young because of genuine poor health!
Of course something must be done for the 3 million people who receive this sickening benefit.
People suffering from poor health need help to fulfil their full potential.
Comprehensive health improvement campaigns that are not linked to benefit reduction are needed in the most deprived areas.
Good employment prospects need to be made available for those wishing to leave health based benefits.
But no government will provide the real answer to the real problem, because the real answers are not cheep and they don't appeal to Sun, Express and Daily Mail readers.
It is so much easier to leave the poor, the sick and the disabled on the scrapheap, to point fingers and to call names!
It isn't a benefit in need of reform, it is a benefit that needs to be abolished and replace with a new system that is more appropriate to the needs of those who live with ill health or with a disability.
It is a negative benefit, because it underlines what a person can't do rather than what s/he can do.
Many people will be faced with a situation where illness or disability prevents them from continuing with their former careers. If a person loses a job in these circumstances that person will be entitled to incapacity benefit, but once one becomes entitled to IB they are placed into a category that says they are incapable of doing ANY work, not just their former work.
IB makes people ill.
Most of us have heard of the placebo effect, where taking a sugar pill makes patients better because they believe that something is being done to make them better.
The opposite of placebo happens too.
If you concentrate on the downside of an illness, mope about how bad things are and count your curses rather than your blessings, then you will become more ill than you need to be. By its negative emphasis on incapacity by encouraging people to look at the downside, IB can make people more ill than they need to be.
IB discourages people from attempting to improve their own health. There is a very unfunny joke that says that if Jesus went to Merthyr curing the lame and the sick he would be crucified by the benefits claimants. Unfunny it may be, but it makes a point:
If you lose your job because of ill health you are entitled to IB, you will be paid a bit more than those who are on job-seekers allowance. If you get better you lose your entitlement to IB and have to go onto the lower benefit. With little prospect of gaining a new job in the IB hot-spot areas you will, in effect, be punished for getting better.
There was a recent case in Pembrokeshire of a man who had suffered a genuine serious illness claiming benefits. His doctor told him to exercise in order to restore his health. He was filmed exercising and prosecuted for benefit fraud. The man might have been better off if he had ignored his doctor's advice and hadn't bothered with the health improving exercise regime.
Incapacity Benefit replaces the benefits of getting better!
The worst thing about IB is the fact that it is a benefit that is so often abused, not by those who claim it but by governments.
From Thatcher through Major, Blair and Brown, governments have urged people to accept this negative health benefit rather than unemployment benefits because the sick and disabled don't count in official unemployment totals. It is a good benefit for massaging true unemployment figures.
It is also a good benefit for vicious political rhetoric that points the finger at the sick and disabled who receive it and show them up to be examples of those who are too lazy to get of their backsides and help themselves.
Is there an easer group to kick than those that benefits policies have brought so low?
The latest Government Green Paper aimed at “tackling” Incapacity Benefit is at least the fourth attempt by the Labour Government to deal with the problem. We had a similar Green Paper almost two years to the day ago!
The latest proposals are just finger pointing rhetoric again, rather than a real attempt to deal with a real problem.
It will fail because finger pointing exercises are bound to fail.
The fact is that the majority of people on IB are genuinely ill.
Look at the IB hot spots and compare their life expectancy rates! People die younger in these areas because of poor health!
Much has been made over the past few weeks about the fact that Glasgow East has both the lowest life expectancy in the UK and the highest rate of IB claims – the people of Glasgow East are not dying young in order to fiddle the social, they are dying young because of genuine poor health!
Of course something must be done for the 3 million people who receive this sickening benefit.
People suffering from poor health need help to fulfil their full potential.
Comprehensive health improvement campaigns that are not linked to benefit reduction are needed in the most deprived areas.
Good employment prospects need to be made available for those wishing to leave health based benefits.
But no government will provide the real answer to the real problem, because the real answers are not cheep and they don't appeal to Sun, Express and Daily Mail readers.
It is so much easier to leave the poor, the sick and the disabled on the scrapheap, to point fingers and to call names!
11/02/2008
Free Nicotine Replacement Therapy
I was chatting to an acquaintance earlier who has been trying to stop smoking. Despite feeling the health benefits of not having had a fag since New Year he was disappointed that he wasn't feeling any financial benefit yet. He is using nicotine patches to aid his abstinence and, apparently, they are very expensive things to buy.
I found his comments about the cost of patches to be rather surprising. Nicotine patches, gum, inhalators etc are all available on prescription from the family doctor. Prescriptions are free in Wales now, of course, so there is no need for any Welsh person to pay for Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).
As persuading people to stop smoking is a cornerstone of the Assembly's policy to improve the health of Wales, why doesn’t the Welsh Assembly Government advertise the fact that NRT is available, without charge, for any Welsh man or woman who wants to give it a go?
I found his comments about the cost of patches to be rather surprising. Nicotine patches, gum, inhalators etc are all available on prescription from the family doctor. Prescriptions are free in Wales now, of course, so there is no need for any Welsh person to pay for Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).
As persuading people to stop smoking is a cornerstone of the Assembly's policy to improve the health of Wales, why doesn’t the Welsh Assembly Government advertise the fact that NRT is available, without charge, for any Welsh man or woman who wants to give it a go?
09/02/2008
Whats in it for me?
The National Assembly has been lauded for its new Epilepsy Strategy that is, apparently, the UK's first of its kind. I am always happy to see the Assembly being innovative and being the first to do good deeds - it makes me proud to be Welsh.
As a person who has lived with epilepsy for the past 30 odd years I am a bit under whelmed by what I have read about the Assembly's Epilepsy Strategy. It seems to be strategy to tell doctors to fiddle with sufferer's medication; this shouldn't need a new strategy. Good GP's should review anticonvulsant treatments at least once a year under present good practice guidelines (as my GP does).
It also claims to include measures to provide more hospital care closer to peoples' homes. The rare hospital involvement in my treatment has always been provided by my local general hospital, so I can't see how better hospital care can practically be provided any closer to my home. So-called quality treatments normaly involve centralising services, and centralising services for people whose disability usually prohibits them from driving is not a good idea!
As much as I would like to shout hoorah! Wales leads the world in services for people who live with epilepsy! From what I have read about the strategy, so far, it isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to my life!
As a person who has lived with epilepsy for the past 30 odd years I am a bit under whelmed by what I have read about the Assembly's Epilepsy Strategy. It seems to be strategy to tell doctors to fiddle with sufferer's medication; this shouldn't need a new strategy. Good GP's should review anticonvulsant treatments at least once a year under present good practice guidelines (as my GP does).
It also claims to include measures to provide more hospital care closer to peoples' homes. The rare hospital involvement in my treatment has always been provided by my local general hospital, so I can't see how better hospital care can practically be provided any closer to my home. So-called quality treatments normaly involve centralising services, and centralising services for people whose disability usually prohibits them from driving is not a good idea!
As much as I would like to shout hoorah! Wales leads the world in services for people who live with epilepsy! From what I have read about the strategy, so far, it isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to my life!
08/01/2008
Blaming the sick doesn't make things better!
Antur Waunfawr and Menter Fachwen are two world leading projects that enable people who live with learning disabilities to play a full and valuable role in their local communities. They provide things such as cafés and recycling services that enable some people with quite serious disabilities to work. It's fair to say that the work that some of the disabled workforce do is not commercial and that most of them still receive government benefits in order to enable them to have a basic standard of living. However the people with, sometimes, quite severe disabilities that work in Antur Waunfawr and Menter Fachwen do work and they do help provide a valuable service for their communities.
In comparison, the suggestion that almost a quarter of a million people in Wales and two and a half million people in the UK are too incapacitated to play any role in society is clearly absolutely wrong. It shouldn't be so, it doesn’t need to be so and it is absolutely immoral that it is so!
However the blame for incapacity should not be laid upon the so called incapacitated, it should be laid fairly and squarely on the present government and its Conservative predecessor who created incapacity as a means of reducing true unemployment figures.
The whole system that leads to incapacity is flawed. Lets take, for example, a registered nurse who develops epilepsy. Clearly s/he can't carry on with that job. Nobody wants a nurse who might have a fit just when s/he's about to stick an injection in your bum! So job lost on the grounds of ill health, automatic claim for short-term incapacity granted for six months. No help or advice is given within that first six month period to consider what else s/he can do other than nursing. At the end of the six months long-term incapacity kicks in.
Once you receive long-term incapacity benefit (ICB), the authorities (not you) have said that you are incapable of any work. If you apply for a job that you think that you could do, despite your illness, the application is a declaration that you are fit for work, so you may loose money by applying for a job that you might not get. Who in their right mind is going to take that risk?
You can't even apply for training in a new occupation whilst on ICB, because if you're able to train you're able to work, so if you train you loose out!
So when a deaf, epileptic, former nurse who can lip-read finds out that there is not a single Welsh language lipreading tutor in the whole of Wales, but is told that his family will be impoverished if he dares to go on a lipreading tutor's course, can you blame him for saying no to the opportunity? Can you blame him for being absolutely pissed off and disgusted that such an employment opportunity should be denied to him by bureaucratic intransigence and unfair financial risks?
Lets suppose you do take the risk of applying for a job, because you are so pissed off with not working and you really do want a job. The Mail, the Telegraph, Tory blogs, David Cameron and even Peter Hain have gone on so much about the lead swinging, work shy, lazy, scrounging, swindlers who claim ICB. So who in the hell will even give you an interview, never mind a job, when your CV says claiming ICB for the last 4 years? No sensible employer would want to employ the caricature of the ICB claimant that is rife in journalistic and political circles. Given the choice between an eastern European desperate for work to help his family back home and a lazy git who has fiddled the country for the last four years and will probably fiddle your business too, who would you employ?
The current system of dealing with illness / disability and employment is flawed - it is in desperate need of change in order to enable those who can contribute to society through mainstream employment to do so and in order to ensure that those who are unable to get out of benefits, for what ever reason, are encouraged and enabled to fulfil some sort of valued role in their communities.
If Wales can be inovative and lead the world by providing a valued role in society for those who would have been condemned to the back wards of the assylum thirty years ago, suerly we can do better for our 250,000 incapacitaed than resorting to blame and fiscal punishment!
In comparison, the suggestion that almost a quarter of a million people in Wales and two and a half million people in the UK are too incapacitated to play any role in society is clearly absolutely wrong. It shouldn't be so, it doesn’t need to be so and it is absolutely immoral that it is so!
However the blame for incapacity should not be laid upon the so called incapacitated, it should be laid fairly and squarely on the present government and its Conservative predecessor who created incapacity as a means of reducing true unemployment figures.
The whole system that leads to incapacity is flawed. Lets take, for example, a registered nurse who develops epilepsy. Clearly s/he can't carry on with that job. Nobody wants a nurse who might have a fit just when s/he's about to stick an injection in your bum! So job lost on the grounds of ill health, automatic claim for short-term incapacity granted for six months. No help or advice is given within that first six month period to consider what else s/he can do other than nursing. At the end of the six months long-term incapacity kicks in.
Once you receive long-term incapacity benefit (ICB), the authorities (not you) have said that you are incapable of any work. If you apply for a job that you think that you could do, despite your illness, the application is a declaration that you are fit for work, so you may loose money by applying for a job that you might not get. Who in their right mind is going to take that risk?
You can't even apply for training in a new occupation whilst on ICB, because if you're able to train you're able to work, so if you train you loose out!
So when a deaf, epileptic, former nurse who can lip-read finds out that there is not a single Welsh language lipreading tutor in the whole of Wales, but is told that his family will be impoverished if he dares to go on a lipreading tutor's course, can you blame him for saying no to the opportunity? Can you blame him for being absolutely pissed off and disgusted that such an employment opportunity should be denied to him by bureaucratic intransigence and unfair financial risks?
Lets suppose you do take the risk of applying for a job, because you are so pissed off with not working and you really do want a job. The Mail, the Telegraph, Tory blogs, David Cameron and even Peter Hain have gone on so much about the lead swinging, work shy, lazy, scrounging, swindlers who claim ICB. So who in the hell will even give you an interview, never mind a job, when your CV says claiming ICB for the last 4 years? No sensible employer would want to employ the caricature of the ICB claimant that is rife in journalistic and political circles. Given the choice between an eastern European desperate for work to help his family back home and a lazy git who has fiddled the country for the last four years and will probably fiddle your business too, who would you employ?
The current system of dealing with illness / disability and employment is flawed - it is in desperate need of change in order to enable those who can contribute to society through mainstream employment to do so and in order to ensure that those who are unable to get out of benefits, for what ever reason, are encouraged and enabled to fulfil some sort of valued role in their communities.
If Wales can be inovative and lead the world by providing a valued role in society for those who would have been condemned to the back wards of the assylum thirty years ago, suerly we can do better for our 250,000 incapacitaed than resorting to blame and fiscal punishment!
21/11/2007
Paul Flynn MP
I was sorry to hear that one of the stalwarts of the Welsh blogosphere Paul Flynn MP suffered a minor stroke whilst going about his work in parliament last night. Best wishes to him for a full and speedy recovery.
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