Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

In the past few days I've had two letters for exactly the same hospital appointment.

 

It does seem mad @shiney and @NigelJ, especially when we and they know they are strapped for cash for funding staff and resources. Have they never heard of efficiency and joined up admin?

I am on the committee of two clubs here and both do their utmost to communicate via email because the cost of P&P plus ink and paper is so prohibitive these days. It helps keep our subscription reasonable too so no increase for several years now.

 

It seems daft that appointments can’t be sent by email to those who would prefer that method. The postal method is very prone to delays, printing, signing and put into the hospital system, and then any delays with Royal Mail added on. No wonder we hear of people receiving their appointments after the date, and then getting marked down as failing to attend, and of course the appointment being wasted. Or after waiting for months on end, finally get sent an appointment while they are on holiday, so it sits on the doormat. At least if they had an email, they would probably read that while they were away, and cancel if they can’t attend.
My GP surgery is very reluctant to use email for anything. Despite me waving my Nokia brick at them, and asking them to note that I don’t have a smartphone, they persist in sending me texts with links for surveys to tell them how well they are doing! Not very, in that respect!
All credit to the physio I saw on Monday. He was able to email me a link to videos of the wrist exercises he had demonstrated, plus advice on what sort of splint I needed.

 

It will be interesting to see whether the NHS improves or not after 1800 staff from NHS England are made redundant soon.

 

Don't forget the cost of all the pay outs

 

I worked in the NHS through at least three major reorganisations. The first was because the health providing bodies at the time were too small, so they were merged into bigger organisations to reduce administration costs. Another further re organisation was because the new organisations were too big, unwieldy and didn’t reflect local needs, so they were broken up into smaller ones! Each reorganisation cost a fortune, and many of us who had been there a while were thinking, haven’t we been here before? At some stage, internal competition became a rule, where bits of the NHS seemed to fight instead of cooperate.
One thing that really annoyed me was the ban on carrying over savings to the following year. Even if the money hadn’t been spent because of a staff vacancy which could be filled in the next financial year, if you didn’t use it, it was taken away from the next years budget. So there was a race to ensure that all the money was spent on something, not necessarily what was most needed. One way of spending was to employ managerial ‘consultants’ who were paid way over the going rate, but as a fixed term contract. Often these ‘consultants’ had been made redundant in previous upheavals, with a big payout!

 

Didn't they spend millions setting up a central computer system at one point and then scrap the idea.

 

Can anyone explain how someone can allow rubbish to be dumped, in thousands of tons, in the countryside for months before any one puts a stop to it.

Then they say, we need to find the landowner and who was dumping the rubbish.
Surely it's simple enough and should have been stopped at the first lorry load.

It keeps happening, it's happened here in Kent and a new case in the news today.

 

Not just in the countryside. This was in Stanmore, London and appeared after "travellers" broke into the car park and set up camp.

 

This is one of the problems; the authorities generally expect the landowner to arrange and pay for the clearance. This encourages the landowner not to report and maybe dig a pit and push it in.
In the case near Oxford this week the cost of clearance was greater than the local District Council's annual budget also larger than the Environment Agency's budget for clearing up waste.
That mess near Oxford was the shredded residue from rubbish that had been through a recycling plant.
So the Government (taxpayer) needs to fund the clearance, which should be as quick as possible. Then they need to step up enforcement activities and those convicted should be heavily fined, equipment confiscated and lengthy prison sentences.

 

Perhaps it's just me. OK, I'm a nit picker. And I put my hand straight up and confess my prepositions are all over the place and I frequently fall into the delightful traps of English language... but still.

Receiving a letter on thick, off- white paper from a MP is a special occasion.

Sadly, my first thought was to get the red pen out and suggest better wordings to ensure the message reads a bit better.

"I am often contacted by local people who are concerned with these activities" - "concerned about" perhaps (or maybe I'm missing something- I don't personally know many antisocial people so can't say if they spend their time writing letters to MPs ).


Anyways, it's quite nice that Emma wants to work with local unnamed agencies and partners. I didn't know that Police force or the fire service are partners or agencies.

I'll definitely fill in Emma's survey when the nights drawn in (daytime apparently will not be as efficient) to avoid anything impacting on me.

OK, perhaps I'm just being a picky excpecting this kind of letters to have been proof read before sending out on my tax money. And hey, as Emma might say, it's the thought which matters

 

Illegal waste clearance begins at Hoads Wood in Kent

I just cant see how this can go on for so long before authorities stop it, you cant tell me nobody knew it was happening, likewise the newer case in the news today.

The sooner you stop it the less there will be to clear up, its illegal, for god sake stop it, after the event is too late.

 

I was incensed by the Amazon delivery driver who lobbed a cardboard box containing a Xmas present over our locked back garden gate onto a black bin in absolutely torrential rain last night although he'd been asked to use our front door. Fortunately, although the outer box was sodden, the inner cardboard box containing the presie was ok.

 

No nit picking there @Selleri but I would add 1 more.........."share your experience.....". Everything, even buying a cabbage, is described as "an experience" these days and you are constantly asked to share yours

 

I've been away for a few days and just seen the question. You would be correct in thinking that.