Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

I've spent most of this week exercising my BoB and ignoring my cats, flying up & down to my mother's whilst she has apparently suffered a string of "minor" strokes or TIAs & been shunted in & out of hospital; she's in again at the moment. Part of the problem has been that when we tried to ring alarm bells with her surgery & get someone (anyone!) to come out & see her at the start of the week, they were unaccountably reluctant to do so, and messages to the District Nurses kept going astray or just not answered. Turns out that the GP in a neighbouring village has suddenly decided to retire at two weeks' notice, having been unable to find a replacement after 6 months advertising, and simply downloaded his patient list to Mum's surgery as they're on the same computer system. So their caseload has doubled at very short notice, and their area more than doubled, in a hilly rural area with lots of elderly patients, many of them not rich retirees but ordinary working folk. And one of the District Nurses, normally a bunch of complete superstars, has gone off long-term sick.

My step-sister's been hunting around online, as she was initially somewhat dubious of this tale. To her horror, she's found umpteen other examples; apparently very few GPs are now being trained here, and none of them want to work in the small rural surgeries; they're too small & remote to attract the army of experts (and patients) that a surgery needs to qualify for all the grants that keep them in business.

Those of us who live outside city limits need to realise that our services are being starved of funds and we can't take access to medicine for granted any more, any more than we can access to shops and schools, clergy (if required) & pubs...

nuatha

thriftwizard wrote: »

I've spent most of this week exercising my BoB and ignoring my cats, flying up & down to my mother's whilst she has apparently suffered a string of "minor" strokes or TIAs & been shunted in & out of hospital;
... Turns out that the GP in a neighbouring village has suddenly decided to retire at two weeks' notice, having been unable to find a replacement after 6 months advertising,

Sorry to read that your mother is poorly again. Your BOB has certainly had a work out recently (and the cats will make you feel guilty regardless of whether its several days or a couple of hours)

I know of two similar GP tales fairly nearby and we're about to lose a fire/rescue station with a major road accident blackspot on its doorstep.

Cuts to public spending - read the services we rely on - are well beyond what would have removed fat and waste from the system. Its not even just the rural areas that are suffering. The media has heralded the death of the beat bobby (though all I've seen for the last few years is the very occasional PCSO, who are also under threat).

The landscape of prepping is changing rapidly and the future is going to be very different from what we reasonably expected even just a few years ago.

Frugalsod

Nargleblast wrote: »

My son told me an.interesting fact yesterday, and it also was on Have I Got News For You last night. Apparently domestic cats have some of the same neurotic and aggressive traits as wild cats, and while they are schmoozing around you, they are secretly plotting to kill you.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Just make sure the cat does not get a gun. Then you are toast.

greenbee

Frugalsod wrote: »

Just make sure the cat does not get a gun. Then you are toast.

Until cats develop opposable thumbs and can operate can openers I think we're safe. They still need us. Of course, once we are obsolete, then all bets are off...

jk0

Did anyone see this come up on the Simon's cat clip? (Don't watch if American kids annoy you, but some of them are very cute.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WNwbZzz7cI

[Deleted User]

The future is as much of an unknown country as the past, if the central support networks are dismantled and stood down we will have to become self sufficient communities wherever we live and accept that life with a safety net is gone forever.

jk0

Sadly, it's not just country areas where it's difficult to see a GP. I live in suburbia, and thankfully the surgery is across the road.

When I had my gallbladder trouble last year, it took four visits to the GP over several weeks before I was sent to hospital.

Visit no. 1 was to the Saturday morning locum at the same hospital, but I was just fobbed off with trapped wind tablets.

Visit no. 2 was to my surgery, and I was fobbed off again with different tablets.

Visit no. 3, I staggered in there at 7.50am and begged for an appointment that day, and was given Tramadol tablets.

Visit no. 4, I had to threaten to go to hospital myself before they would let the GP phone me. He called me in at 5pm, and finally contacted casualty for me at 7pm.

The hospital were absolutely brilliant, and I was so well looked after. However, the man in the next bed summed up the GP experience he had had:

He said that nowadays, doctors treat the symptoms rather than the disease. That's exactly what I experienced.

Nargleblast

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Give cats their due though - and I've read various tales about cats saving their owners lives (be it from fire or spotting the owner had an illness like cancer before the owner themselves realised).

Of course they could just be protecting their meal ticket:rotfl:

.....and no I am still resisting the wiles of a particular little furry near here.

Go on, money, you know you want to....

thriftwizard

Go on, money, you know you want to....

Have to say, our ex-feral furry friend is the most delightful & rewarding "pet" in the household. She's still quite shy, but very affectionate, and rarely takes us for granted like the other two do. Yes, they're all "ties" & responsibilities, but we live in the kind of place where we all look after each other's livestock to cover holidays etc., and the rewards massively outweigh the logistical problems. A cuddle from a furry (or feathery) little friend can brighten up the darkest day.

ivyleaf

Nargleblast wrote: »

Go on, money, you know you want to....

The cat will win in the end MITSTM, you might as well give in gracefully :rotfl: