The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

.... diabolical treatment when they discharged him ....

They seem to treat everybody as if they are 35, fully fit and not worried at all, not a care in the world, a home to go to with people/family available and a vehicle right outside the Hospital doors...

There seems little thought put into "what state is this person in .... if we shove them outside in the cold where are they going and what's there when they get there".

Lots of people turfed out, walking home alone late at night etc - often because the person's either a little bit ga-ga or doesn't have the capacity to sit and think"Right... now, who will come and get me"...

The discharge process doesn't actually question the person and assess whether they're lying/saying what they think they're expected to say ....

"Right - you're off then"
"Yes"
"See ya"
....

They arranged for my dad to get a volunteer driver lift home .... shame it was to the wrong town - and dad never questioned where the driver was going....

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

Locally they include integrated garage and even garden office in the total square footage.

Did you know that if your garage is within the boundary aka curtilage of your house it is included in its value for Council Tax purposes, but if it isn't and is say in a block, then it isn't?



Picked up that little factoid when I took the VOA to tribunal and won. My garage had been included in the value even though it isn't attached to my house. Et voila! A one band reduction.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

They seem to treat everybody as if they are 35, fully fit and not worried at all, not a care in the world, a home to go to with people/family available and a vehicle right outside the Hospital doors...

Indeed. And not just at discharge. When mum was in having her colostomy, the ward she was on was for abdominal surgery, and seemed to have no capacity to make allowances for her dementia or her Parkinson's. Once she was eventually conscious, they would bring food at meal times, and then take it away uneaten without questioning why, or considering whether she was able to feed herself (which she wasn't because of the Parkinson's) or understood the importance of eating to keep her strength up even if she didn't have much appetite (which she didn't because of the dementia). Aged P had to go in twice a day for several weeks to feed her her food, or she'd have starved to death, as far as I can see.

At one point I found myself thinking "She would probably cope quite well with this place if she wasn't ill" before realising that if she wasn't ill she wouldn't be in hospital, would she? Although I've been in hospitals overnight on three separate occasions (for one or two nights each) and wasn't ill for any of them: two were for childbirth, and the third was when I was staying in with DS and DD after the accident. DS was in for just less than 72 hours, including surgery to plate his arm bones back together, I was allowed to stay in with him, and DD, although discharged on her own account after 24 hours, was allowed to stay in the other 48 because he needed me to be with him, but she needed to be with me. The first two nights were fine - it was a weekend and they gave us the otherwise unused day case bay to ourselves: 6 beds between the 3 of us. The third night was awful - we had 2 beds between the three of us, which meant DS and DD had one each, and I kept swapping to be with whichever one was awake and wanting me, while several people got admitted (loudly) in the middle of the night, including a baby who cried. Apparently there are findings that quantity and quality of sleep makes so much difference to recovery from illness/injury that if hospitals would invest in improving patients' sleep - for example issuing all inpatients with earplugs and eye masks like they do on planes - the faster recovery times would make the changes easily pay for themselves. I'm not aware of any hospital that's doing it, though.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Did you know that if your garage is within the boundary aka curtilage of your house it is included in its value for Council Tax purposes, but if it isn't and is say in a block, then it isn't?

Picked up that little factoid when I took the VOA to tribunal and won. My garage had been included in the value even though it isn't attached to my house. Et voila! A one band reduction.

Useful to know - thanks for educating us. But beware - things that are not included within the curtilage of the house may not be covered by your buildings insurance, so check.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Don't forget - it's National Sit With Your House Lights All Out Night tonight

Bolt those gates, curtains closed, lights off...

DS and DD and I retreat to my bedroom (not visible from the street) and watch movies while eating junk food. This year we saw The Pacifier (quite fun) and Hidden Numbers (really excellent).

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Indeed. And not just at discharge. When mum was in having her colostomy, the ward she was on was for abdominal surgery, and seemed to have no capacity to make allowances for her dementia or her Parkinson's. Once she was eventually conscious, they would bring food at meal times, and then take it away uneaten without questioning why, or considering whether she was able to feed herself (which she wasn't because of the Parkinson's) or understood the importance of eating to keep her strength up even if she didn't have much appetite (which she didn't because of the dementia). Aged P had to go in twice a day for several weeks to feed her her food, or she'd have starved to death, as far as I can see.

At one point I found myself thinking "She would probably cope quite well with this place if she wasn't ill" before realising that if she wasn't ill she wouldn't be in hospital, would she? Although I've been in hospitals overnight on three separate occasions (for one or two nights each) and wasn't ill for any of them: two were for childbirth, and the third was when I was staying in with DS and DD after the accident. DS was in for just less than 72 hours, including surgery to plate his arm bones back together, I was allowed to stay in with him, and DD, although discharged on her own account after 24 hours, was allowed to stay in the other 48 because he needed me to be with him, but she needed to be with me. The first two nights were fine - it was a weekend and they gave us the otherwise unused day case bay to ourselves: 6 beds between the 3 of us. The third night was awful - we had 2 beds between the three of us, which meant DS and DD had one each, and I kept swapping to be with whichever one was awake and wanting me, while several people got admitted (loudly) in the middle of the night, including a baby who cried. Apparently there are findings that quantity and quality of sleep makes so much difference to recovery from illness/injury that if hospitals would invest in improving patients' sleep - for example issuing all inpatients with earplugs and eye masks like they do on planes - the faster recovery times would make the changes easily pay for themselves. I'm not aware of any hospital that's doing it, though.

There's an enormous capacity for making life better by simple actions. I despair sometimes at the lack of joined-up thinking and the way that nobody is responsible for promoting it.

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

Did you know that if your garage is within the boundary aka curtilage of your house it is included in its value for Council Tax purposes, but if it isn't and is say in a block, then it isn't?



Picked up that little factoid when I took the VOA to tribunal and won. My garage had been included in the value even though it isn't attached to my house. Et voila! A one band reduction.

Same for water rates, if you are on an unmetered supply.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Did you know that if your garage is within the boundary aka curtilage of your house it is included in its value for Council Tax purposes, but if it isn't and is say in a block, then it isn't?



Picked up that little factoid when I took the VOA to tribunal and won. My garage had been included in the value even though it isn't attached to my house. Et voila! A one band reduction.

I've never tried for a rebanding... sounds like you went to a lot of effort to get yours downgraded.

My houses have always been "like the neighbours" so I never had any doubt mine was "right".

So, how did you discover the garage rule - how did you compare what others have got/what's included etc?

I didn't think that valuation could be "nailed" down and that rebandings were just done on "obviously wrong/a different sized house".... e.g. if a road were all Ds and 4-5 beds detached ... and a little 2 bed was also a D as an assumption was made that all houses in that road were the same size.

chris_m

Fingers crossed for you, PN.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

They seem to treat everybody as if they are 35, fully fit and not worried at all, not a care in the world, a home to go to with people/family available and a vehicle right outside the Hospital doors...

There seems little thought put into "what state is this person in .... if we shove them outside in the cold where are they going and what's there when they get there".

Lots of people turfed out, walking home alone late at night etc - often because the person's either a little bit ga-ga or doesn't have the capacity to sit and think"Right... now, who will come and get me"...

The discharge process doesn't actually question the person and assess whether they're lying/saying what they think they're expected to say ....

"Right - you're off then"
"Yes"
"See ya"
....

.

zagubov wrote: »

There's an enormous capacity for making life better by simple actions. I despair sometimes at the lack of joined-up thinking and the way that nobody is responsible for promoting it.

Didn't all those things use to be done by the old 'almoner' at a hospital?
Dunno why they did away with that role. One person with fingers in loads of different pies, providing all the said joined up thinking.

I know when I had my gallbladder out about 3 years ago, the bad experience wasn't the op etc. but the way I was discharged when I was feeling very rough from the anaesthetic.
I was turfed out of the post-op ward, and had to wait 5 hours in the discharge lounge I wasn't allowed to go home before the 5 hours in case I came over peculiar.
The discharge lounge was right by the ambulance entrance, so was cold, with the outside door opening and shutting all the time. It was really noisy, too, with people coming and going.
I was feeling horrid, and just wanted to lie down and sleep the effects off. In the end, they let me lie on a hard trolley in the corner with no blanket, and no one checked on me, so I might just as well have been at home.

I understood that they needed the bed, but surely a room off the discharge place with reclining seats could be available for people who are turfed out of wards but aren't allowed to go home?

vivatifosi wrote: »

Did you know that if your garage is within the boundary aka curtilage of your house it is included in its value for Council Tax purposes, but if it isn't and is say in a block, then it isn't?
Picked up that little factoid when I took the VOA to tribunal and won. My garage had been included in the value even though it isn't attached to my house. Et voila! A one band reduction.

Surely the garage just gets assessed separately, though? So you'd still have to pay council tax on the garage, but as a separate building?

And if you're really unlucky, they might assess it at business rates, as it's not residential.

silvercar

Surely the garage just gets assessed separately, though? So you'd still have to pay council tax on the garage, but as a separate building?

From memory I think that happened. As the garage didn't have a water supply, the water rates bill didn't include the rateable value of the garage.

May not be so relevant now with water meters.

PasturesNew

Still daily going through "every house in the entire county that's come to market" and researching it.... then shortlisting for viewing. Not many tick the "essentials" boxes though.

There's no way I'll ever get to the 35th item on the list which says "you have to like how it looks" .... that's just not going to be on the radar at all.

What IS annoying though is that the places that seem "most likely" are the ideal "snap it up" project houses for those who want to build their own Grand Designs.... turning a 2-3 bed little place into a 4-5 bedroom mega palace. *sighs*. I am looking at those 2-3 bed little places and thinking "I could live with that.... bit grotty, but ... you know, it'll do".

When a little old fashioned bungalow's for sale - sandwiched between £500k houses ... and is on at £280k ... you know everybody with £200k to splash about is eyeing it up and thinking "Demolish that pretty much ... and build one like the rest of the road"... as they've gone down the road in the last 5-6 years being overdeveloped like that.

Some won't even show you the insides.... some that do show you "OAP hoarder clutter" ... and I'm thinking "Might need to live in a caravan in the garden for a year while that's tidied up a bit! But I can do that"