Rambling into Snakes and Ladders

Posted on December 19, 2017 by john graham

A grey old rainy cold day.   Not exactly ideal weather for rambling—- unless it’s indoors around the internet.

Somehow from nowhere I found myself thinking about snakes and ladders.   Why I don’t know?     I had a vague recollection of a cartoon that number one son, Tom had drawn  for a blog I wrote years ago.  Thanks to my WordPress search facility, I was able to unscramble the history of my rambling mind.    There it was, a blog about social care entitled “Befuddled”.

The sad thing is that five years on nothing has changed in terms of social care.    Except things have got worse for many older people, who are overstaying their welcome in the NHS………. or paying a fortune in residential care homes……… or getting no support at all!  The politicians continue to prevaricate.    A Green Paper is deferred until next year and consultations are due to start in the new year.  Presumably this will cover the same ground as the report commissioned in July 2010 by David Cameron and finally after a year was published by Andrew Dilnot in July 2011.  Needless to say successive Governments continue to prevaricate on the issue.

And I am still BEFUDDLED

 

 

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 1 Comment

Rambling research begins again

Posted on December 17, 2017 by john graham

It was a month ago when I started my Rambling Research, wading through the ether of the internet trying to find something useful to do.  In my first blog on the subject, I discovered SARCOPENIA.  Then in my very next blog I found I might have MEDIAL TRIBAL STRESS SYNDROME.  (You can see both the earlier blogs by clicking on “RAMBLING” in the TAG CLOUD).  It’s a dangerous business walking aimlessly around in the clouds and if you believe everything that Google finds for you, you will be a virtual hypochondriac in a matter of nanoseconds.

I have now re-started out on my celestial journey though the clouds.    In no time at all I landed on a book called “The Age of Aging” by George Magnus.      It rang a bell but not very loudly.  I nearly ordered it on Amazon, but something stopped me when I saw that it was years old.  How on earth did I miss it?

A few days past and I thought of it again, only this time I decided to look on my bookshelves first.     Surprise, surprise there it was, in fact I had two copies.     So I must have been down this path before.   One of the copies had my notes scrawled all through it, so I must have paid it considerable attention back in 2009.

The book is about how the ageing of societies are changing the global economy.  Heavyweight stuff but worth another look, because George Magnus is one of the few economists who forecast the economic crash in 2008.

He predicted that as the old age ratio declined, countries would struggle to grow fast enough to support their elderly populations.   He anticipated that increased immigration would be needed to bring in more economically active people and that retirement age would need to go up to keep people at work for longer.   Both these things have happened in many western developed countries.

What he makes little mention of is the impact of technology.    The Information age has exploded and robotics is poised to replace many jobs.   What does this mean ?  Currently it is marginalising many older people.

More questions than answers.

Posted in Economy | 3 Comments

Dementia Back in the News

Posted on December 14, 2017 by john graham

At the beginning of this month I wrote a blog about the news not being  new but just repeating itself.     I could have dug deeper and concluded the the main reason news repeats itself is the nothing gets done and the same problems in the headlines persist though inactivity, indecision, procrastination and sometimes wanton disregard.

Nothing demonstrates the better than dementia.    I have been writing about it ever since I started this blog in 2010.   (You can see all my earlier posts by clicking on ,”Dementia “ in the Topics List)    There are estimated to be 350,000,000 sufferers worldwide.    This number is set to increase exponentially as populations age.  Yet there is relatively little spent on research into the disease and health and social services are sinking under the weight of the problem.   

In the UK no-one will face up to the issue and successive Governments have backed away from doing any thing that might offend the voters.   They key issue being not how older people with dementia should be cared for but who pays.    Currently most of them are left to fend for themselves or be cared for by relatives, which means in most cases they pay for themselves or get no help at all.   When this self-help system breaks down in a crisis, the State reluctantly steps in but only within tightly constrained budget limits.

None of this is news, it has been repeated in headlines year on year.

My solution to the issue is not new either.   I have been writing about it for years —- politicians need to be honest and say that none of us has saved enough to pay for the high cost of care for those who need it.    The only fair way of covering the cost is some form of insurance paid for by the state or by old people themselves.

In 2002 I managed to go to 10 Downing Street and present a case to one of the Prime Ministers advisers for an insurance based system supported by Government guarantees.  I also argued for a government backed approach to provide better value for equity release schemes.  Sadly both ideas largely fell on deaf ears.

Andrew Dilnot’s report commissioned to look into long term care also set out with similar intentions.   Again it’s recommentations were watered down and eventually dropped completely.

Now it is in the hands of most older people  who own their  homes to look after themselves and not expect support from the State.

Posted in Dementia | 2 Comments

NHS Turns Deaf Ear

Posted on December 12, 2017 by john graham

Thousands of older people are hard of hearing.    In fact one in every six people has a hearing loss.  Yet only 20% who could benefit from the use of a hearing aid, have one.   Significantly,  “one” is the operative word, because if you do manage to get NHS help, ONE is all you get from most Health Authorities !

Age UK do a range of aids, the cheapest of which is £995 for one.   It is OK as long as you don’t want to talk to anybody.  For talking to people you need to buy a more expensive version which can cost upwards of  £1500.    For that you can probably hear a pin drop at 500 yards.   But still only with one ear.    To hear it in stereo you will need two hearing aids at presumably twice the price.

Hearing is not cheap these days, nor apparently is it  considered much of a health problem.     It is one of the first things Health Authorities are cutting in the name of austerity.   You wait ages for an appointment to see an audiologist and then if you only have  “moderate” hearing loss you are not likely to get any help at all.

NICE, the laughingly named National Institute for Clinical Exclusions,  has declared that most Authorities are providing a poor service.      They have noticed that people have two ears and have recommended they are given two hearing aids.     We pay money for this excellent advice, which of course won’t be taken notice of.

Your alternative is to go “private”.    Here you can get tested, pestered and pushed into spending the last of your pension on an all singing, all dancing pair of hearing aids.      And it will only cost you an arm and a leg —- let’s say £2-3,000.    For that you should be able to hear messages from distant galaxies, although Age UK only promise they will work at “the most demanding of cocktail parties”.

The NHS is still ‘free at the point of delivery’, but not if they don’t deliver, and especially not if you are elderly.

Posted in N.H.S. | 1 Comment

Bitcoin News !

Posted on December 10, 2017 by john graham

What have I started ?    I only briefly mentioned bitcoins a few days ago in my last blog and now it is all over the front page of The Times.     What’s more, people have been speculating on this new currency all over the globe.    I may have become the new portal for investment advice.    Before you know it I will probably have my own TV show !  “From rags to riches in two nano-seconds”.

When bitcoins started long ago in 2008,  by a nodding Japanese digital acquaintance – Satoshi Nakamoto, nobody much new what they were.   Almost  ten years later they still don’t.    Only a few techie geeks like me realised their potential.    Five years ago you could buy one for £1,000, now a single bitcoin will cost you £20,000.   Well done Sato old mate !

I bought a load of tulips a few months ago but they have peaked in value in 1637 and I think I missed the financial boat.     So I will just have to plant them in the garden and enjoy them in the spring.     My next wild hope was gold, but after a lot of digging in the back garden I haven’t found another Klondike in Kilsby.       Like thousands of other speculators I may have to fall back on my premium bonds to fund my retirement.  Unfortunately I don’t think £25 will cover me for more than five minutes in a nursing home.

That brings me full circle to the bitcoin revolution.    Like tulips and gold they were worth nothing when they started.    Then I began to write about them and BINGO, Bobs your uncle and Pop goes the weasel.      Everyone’s buying them —- tax dodgers, criminals, drug dealers, Russian oligarchs and other nice people.   Even the big banks are considering on cashing in.

At least now I won’t need to keep all my money under the matress anymore.    I will be able to hide my lifes savings in the cumulo nimbus, just as long as it doesn’t rain bitcoins

 

 

 

I maybe about to become a global investor ikon    😎😎😎.    Who would have thought — me, Warren Buffet, George Soros and Satoshi.

Posted in Economy, SMILES | 1 Comment

What’s in the News?

Posted on December 7, 2017 by john graham

I’ve only just written about the everyday news which quickly becomes history.  Then in a short time the history repeats itself.  So it’s no great surprise during the last few months in the run up to the autumn budget, that everyone claims they need more money whilst at the same time businesses and tax payers all argue to pay less taxes.  It goes without saying that these two things pull in completely opposite directions.  Successive Chancellors of the Exchequer end up trying to satisfy everyone and succeed in satisfying no-one.

This year an early start was made by the NHS Chief Executive, who claimed that NHS England needed another £4billion on top of the increases they had already been promised.  This was never going to happen.  At the same time NHS staff were clammering for pay increases as well as more staff.  This too was likely to fall short of their expectations.  Interestingly no-one was asking for more beds, except of course the patients themselves who were left on never-ending waiting lists or in corridors in A & E.

 

 

 

 

The news still to come:-

  • Brexit goes round in ever decreasing circles.  It’s become an every night series like Eastenders or the Archers but less interesting.
  • Politicians in trouble for their personal behaviour.  Either with their hands in the expenses till or somewhere else they shouldn’t be.  Hands that is!  This will drag on for ages but probably end with no more than a slap on the wrist.
  • Crime used to be in the news a lot but as we are regularly told, it is decreasing significantly.  Mainly because the police don’t seem to go looking for burglaries, shoplifters or drug users.  Whatever happened to zero tolerance?
  • Technology moves on at a great pace, changing everyday language into incomprehensible gobaldy gook.  Bytes are no longer dog bites.  Goodness knows what clouds are but they’re not in the sky anymore.  There again, perhaps they are?  Tablets are trendy things that almost everyone has but they don’t necessarily make you better and you certainly can’t get them from your GP.  Shops are closing down as Amazon and eBay become the market of the world.  Coins and real money are being replaced by credit cards and imaginary bitcoins.
  • Everyday the news brings forward the same old thing whilst at the same time introducing new unknowns.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, who would have guessed the impact that cars would have on society.  Aeroplanes were only just getting off the ground and nobody much would have contemplated travelling to the moon.

SEE IF YOU CAN DECIDE IN TODAY’S NEWS WHAT REALLY IS

NEWS

4 Comments

News not News

Posted on December 5, 2017 by john graham

News is not news 

when it’s old.

Nor when it’s about the old.

 

Bed-blockers and pill-poppers,

costing the NHS a fortune.

Reminded of it every year.

Lest we forget.

 

When news is old

it’s history.

History like the news,

Often repeats itself.

Tagged | 1 Comment

Pill Popping Popularity

Posted on December 3, 2017 by john graham

Ever since I started this blog in 2010, I seem to have been writing about pills.  It is often a daily topic of conversation amongst elderly people, just like the weather.  ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Pills” in the Tag Cloud )

My first post on the subject was entitled “A Pill for Everything” and underlined the expectation that many older people have, that every time they visit the doctor they come away with another pill.

Now a recent study by the Cambridge Institute of Public Health has confirmed the dramatic increase in pill consumption that has taken place since then.    Half of all pensioners are taking at least five drugs a day.  A number that has quadrupled in the last two decades.   Only 7% take no drugs at all.

This is partly explained by the ageing of the population and partly it is due to the introduction of new drugs.   But one other factor may have made a difference and that was the bonus system that the Government used to incentivise  GP’s to prescribe more pills!

Little wonder therefore that GP medication reviews, which are supposed to cut back on unnecessary drugs, don’t seem to happen as frequently as they should.

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged | 3 Comments

BREXIT Negotiations Stalled

Posted on November 28, 2017 by john graham

The Last Laugh Looney Party recently helped with the Brexit discussions with Mr. Junket and successfully negotiated some of the more important issues for older people namely :- small print, packaging and gadgets.   (You can see all my earlier posts on this subject by clicking on “LLLP” in th Tag Cloud.)

Then it stepped back and left Mrs T. Dismay and her cabinet to make progress on smaller issues like trade and exit costs.    Unfortunately they seem to have got stuck on the ever thorny issue of Ireland.

So the LLLP has been asked to come up with some options to break the deadlock.  We don’t really understand what the problem is because we came up with the following ideas after a few drinks at O,Neil’s, in no time at all :-

  • a Berlin style wall on the border with Northern Ireland, with only one crossing —— Checkpoint Paddy.     No passports needed, you just have to talk your way through with the gift of the gab,  or prove you can drink 12 pints of Guinness and still walk in a straight line.
  • Rename Northern Ireland —— “ENGLAND”   Simple as that !
  • Sell Northern Ireland to the European Union for £40billion and let them deal with the United Ireland question.
  • A big punch up in Yate’s wine bar on a Friday night.   Probably won’t resolve anything, but to be sure, they can always  come back the following Friday.

 

Tagged | 1 Comment

Rambling 😩Injury

Posted on November 26, 2017 by john graham

I have only been rambling for a few days and already I am struggling to reach peak fitness. Perhaps I have overdone it walking to the pub.  Now I have got a pain in my leg.   Somebody suggested it might be a shin splint.

I didn’t know what that was, so I thought I would try the latest NHS diagnostic technique.  I Googled it and Google led me to a world renowned medical authority— the Mayo Clinic.   No delays, no waiting for hours on trolleys, no catching other patients’ infections while you wait.    I didn’t even need to speak to a doctor.   Just a tap on the iPad and up pops the answer.   Google thinks I have got Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome.

I am in good company because it affects runners, dancers and military recruits.   Mind you I am a bit too old to join the army, unless they would give me a desk job firing missiles or spying on enemy positions using drones.    Nor have I caught up with Mo Farah when I have been out walking, of course he is a little bit faster than me.    So I can only conclude I must have injured myself while I was watching Strictly Come Dancing on the tele.  Maybe I could sue the BBC for consequential damage.  I will have to speak to my – “No Win, No Fee” lawyer about it.

The website did offer two bits of useful advice.   Firstly, consider buying new walking shoes every 350 to 500 miles —- so I should need a new pair by about 2027.    Secondly, get plenty of bed rest—- so I have told my wife Mo, I will only get out of bed every other day for a few months.

Finally, if, I really still want to see a doctor, the website offered me an appointment.     Sadly, Arizona, Minnesota and Florida all seemed a bit too far away, especially with my poorly leg.

Still, virtual-do-it -yourself health services may take a lot of pressure off the NHS and thanks to Google there is one less hospital bed taken up by an older person.   I could have been in there for days with MTSS.

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 3 Comments