time pressure

Do you find that most of the time at work you're juggling what you're doing to get everything done? There's never enough time and there are always patients who interrupt admin time with questions that are so important to them but to us really could have waited to a more convenient time. I has one such interruption today , a patient asking about where she could get different splints, in the middle of me sorting out important e mails. This is something of a clash of priorities, many members of the public would think that "paperwork" is unnecessary but often it forms a vital part of communcation. It's the statistcal paperwork which is the real bind. because we're professionals we're polite and intersted in the trivial problem, although last week I drew the line when a patient wanted to talk about something fairly minor when I was in the middle of a new patient assessment. Sometimes i wish i could hide but like many work places the building design does not allow for that.

reorganisation continued

The NHS reorganisation machine continues to grind on and news out todays reports 100 job losses in Warrington. I can't understand why the health unions are so quiet about all this. The NHs looks to be in the greatest crisis ever but very little protest seems to be going on. Somewhere in all this the local political wrangling is being overlooked, not wrangling between unions but between NHS managers at local level as in the middle of the crisis they are trying to carve out empires or protect their existing empire. It's hard to know how our responses will be judged in the future.

NHS reorganisation

This is the blog today of one person who is getting really tired of NHS reorganisation. The last 12 months where I work there has been nothing but change and I just heard today of yet more change on the way. At work it would be so good to be able to think further ahead than the next few months, but at the moment it's impossible to think long term. It seems that our heyday has now passed and that from now on at least within our profession within our locality our existance is being threatened. And I'll reveal the cause of this. One of the biggest driving forces is not at present the Government (although they hold ultimate responsibility for the terrible state of the NHS) but political wrangling at a local level as different managers seek to build their empires since the NHS changes of the last 12 months [especally PCT changes]. It's down to managers trying to gain control of budgets irrespective of what is best for patients and disregarding the brilllant services which have been developed. And yet the very managers doing politics at local level are one of the perpetual failings of the NHS, that the NHS breeds overpaid empire builders whose existance is totally unnecessary yet who hold sway over large numbers of highly dedicated committed health professionals.

server error

Ok I'm having a moan now for the reason I said earlier but I can do without the Google server errors when I am posting the blog! I really don't think there is the need for everything to go into the blog twice

physio work pressure

There's no news I want to report and i don't have any opinions today as work has been really busy. It's a nice idea about having our set lunch breaks but in reality many times it's impossible through meetings, having to use the gap to catch up with admin or because something unplanned happened and we just can't turn our backs on it and walk away. Phone calls are often the worst thing for this. Don't you just hate them? The patient phoning up with the impossible enquiry about something that matters so much to them but all you want to do is tell them to shut up because you're tired, hungry and longing to sit down. The other time that these dread calls comes at the end of a shift when you are wanting to go home and you have to spend 10 minutes talking to Mrs Smith or her relative when all you want to do is go home or get to the mall before it shuts or anything but stand talking about something which to us is just routine but to the caller is something massive. And what about the thing so important in Britain the tea break (although i hope you realise that most of the world does not share the obsession for the brown liquid) . Forget it's national importance as an institutaion once you start the job as a NHS physio; yes maybe you'll get the tea but you certainly won't get the break. However, something I've noticed is that my last statement is not entirely true. Some physios always seem to have breaks, usually those who do not have a set appointment system.

physio work pressure

There's no news I want to report and i don't have any opinions today as work has been really busy. It's a nice idea about having our set lunch breaks but in reality many times it's impossible through meetings, having to use the gap to catch up with admin or because something unplanned happened and we just can't turn our backs on it and walk away. Phone calls are often the worst thing for this. Don't you just hate them? The patient phoning up with the impossible enquiry about something that matters so much to them but all you want to do is tell them to shut up because you're tired, hungry and longing to sit down. The other time that these dread calls comes at the end of a shift when you are wanting to go home and you have to spend 10 minutes talking to Mrs Smith or her relative when all you want to do is go home or get to the mall before it shuts or anything but stand talking about something which to us is just routine but to the caller is something massive. And what about the thing so important in Britain the tea break (although i hope you realise that most of the world does not share the obsession for the brown liquid) . Forget it's national importance as an institutaion once you start the job as a NHS physio; yes maybe you'll get the tea but you certainly won't get the break. However, something I've noticed is that my last statement is not entirely true. Some physios always seem to have breaks, usually those who do not have a set appointment system.

charging for the NHS

Prescrition charges are going up again . The idea of free healthare at the point of need no longer applies to the NHS on many points so maybe it's time to be more honest about it and make the payments more open rather than having to pretend. The idea of a totally free healthcare system is very nobel but what I've seen in the NHS over the last 18 months makes me really start to think about the advantages that private care could bring. We are told that over the last 2 years the system has seen the biggest investment of cash in its history but as an insider I can see no evidence of this at all. Working in the NHS means that every day there is no spare money for anything including training , upgrading building or new equipment. The NHS in general and physiotherapy in particular is dependent on charitable donations and penny pinching to survive. Because we're coming to the end of the financial year I know of a reliable account of one service where the staff cannot order any stationary until April. I can remember being in the situation in the past where this happened and we could not have any more pens for a few weeks. Anyone working in industry would not believe this happens. Training is another thing. I've been on courses where staff were paying for it themself and doing it in their own time. Everyone knows when it comes to job applications that courses give the applicant an advantage [although job intervies are becoming a forgotten event in the current NHS]. Why should NHS staff have to pay out of their own money to do their jobs? Isn't it time to speak out about the hidden descrimination this creates by favouring those with larger disposable incomes and descriminating against those who cannot afford to do this?