blogging or questions sites?

I've found that Yahoo Answers is an interesting site (sorry Google!) I regularly go to the health section and have put in a fair few responses under a pseudonym (it would really give the game away if I called myself BillyBobCartwright). I get amaized at a number of things. Question and answer sites seem to attract a fair few idiots who think that if they got on the internet they will always get good advice, when if you look at some of the advice it is really dangerous or unhelpful. Some situations sound medical emergencies and you would think anyone with one ounce of sense would go straight to their nearest ER. It is especially interesting looking at those questions about conditions with which physical therapists work as it gives a flavour of the common misconceptions about health. There are more question sites than Yahoo but theirs seems to have more interaction, but let's hope that Microsoft does not buy the company because that would mean a further extenion of the Gates monopoly. Some of the questions might be better put on a blog.

physiotherapy or physical therapy

Has the time come to change the term for physical therapy within the UK , Canada and Australia to physical therapy? In using the term physiotherapy does it not come with a heap of baggage and assunmptions which are no longer valid or are totally out of date? The term physiotherapy was adopted within the days of the British empire, and has many unspoken values and assumption associated with it. It would be interesting to find out what images the general public get when they hear the term "physiotherapy".

physiotherapy blog

Here's a confession. There's more than 1 blog run by me, the original idea was to provide different aspects , so having a serious one, a fun blog and another with a different perspective. The trouble with the idea is the amount of material it takes to run just 1 so I suspect at the moment I'll only do occasional posts on this one. If you go to the "confessions of an NHS doctor" blog listed on physiotherapyblog your will see how much work goes into writing a really popular blog. It's more like running a magazine. maybe if activity picks up I'll revisit the idea of having 3 blogs doing different things.

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