NHS Winter Crisis 2023

 

I'm a big fan of Carl Benjamin, aka "Sargon of Akkad". This internet pundit has a panel show called Podcast of the Lotus Eaters which he co-hosts with about half a dozen other contributors plus some guests. In one programme during the Christmas period, two of them, Harry and Callum, discuss the current crisis in the NHS, which has become an annual event. The Lotus Eaters propose a radical explanation and solution. Harry and Callum begin by referring to one of the Lotus Eaters' articles: https://www.lotuseaters.com/despite-its-virtues-it-is-time-to-let-the-nhs-die. After that they make some good points about the nurses and ambulance strikes that tally with some of my own, as an insider. Why are the government so indignant about the pay-rise demands when they squander multiple times that much money on their ridiculous attempts at monetarism? Why do they employ so many administration officers for the sole purpose of "diversity and inclusion", in other words, anti-white activism? Callum says: "If the nurses didn't work for the government they would be able to negotiate better." That got me thinking. The problem is though, what's the alternative in healthcare to taking the King's shilling? Even Harry, later in the programme, is critical of the private agencies' role in NHS contracting. He understands that they have a parasitic relationship. Source: https://odysee.com/@lotuseaters_com:1/the-quick-fix-to-the-nurse-strikes:6. The reason the NHS is so beloved by the British people is because the provision of free healthcare by the state has saved so many lives that would otherwise have been lost, as well as improving so many other lives that would have otherwise been led in pain and disability; for the simple reason that some people couldn't have afforded it. The supposed "paranoia" about its privatization is nothing of the sort. It has happened almost to the point of completion and the service has not improved as a result, it has degenerated. However, it is true that the ultimate problem is bureaucracy and inefficiency. The government seem to be incapable of reforming it. (Do they want to?...) I am not a socialist and like the idea of libertarian capitalism. However, does private always equal good and public bad? The Lotus Eaters propose a "dynamic" and "entrepreneurial" private sector insurance based system with a social safety net. This is the standard on the European continent. Maybe it is time to think the unthinkable. If my eighteen year-old self could hear me say that!
See here for background: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-nhs-religion.html.

Happy New Year 2023

 

I'd like to wish everybody who is a hospital porter, has ever been a hospital porter, or will ever become a hospital porter, as well as every civilian who loves and supports hospital porters, a very Proud and Dignified New Year. All the best for 2023; and remember, it's only a hundred and fifty-two days to St Theo's Day!

The Great Nurses Strike of 2022

 

I was at work, walking between jobs, and I saw a group of about fifty people assembled on a street corner outside the Churchill Hospital. They were carrying placards and banners; and they received many supportive horn blasts from passing cars. They are the local contingent of a nationwide strike by nurses. This does not mean all nurses are walking off their wards; that's unthinkable, but all those not needed for emergency and essential services are carrying out a one-day strike. This is the biggest strike in the history of the NHS. The establishment media has castigated the nurses, claiming they are "greedy" and "holding the country to ransom!" I am not a trade unionist and stopped being an active one about a year into my own service. However, there are times when strikes are justified and this is definitely one of them. A newly-qualified nurse earns about £27,000 pa. This is after two or more years on a full time degree course and with a student loan to pay off. This level has been sub-inflation for as long as I can remember; maybe even before my own service. When I started, the NHS trained its own nurses with salaried tuition; not anymore. It is true that a senior sister can earn as much as £55,000 a year, but this is after more than a decade of wading through blood and excrement! Would she have the sanity left to enjoy those extra beans? I know for a fact many do not. It is actually the nastiest of hypocrisy that the government dares to accuse strikers of being greedy and holding the country to ransom. They're saying this after virtually blowing the economy out of the water and ruining the lives of millions because Boris Johnson didn't have the courage, maturity or self-discipline to tell to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to get stuffed. After all this I'm honestly surprised there are so many essential workers still at their posts! What happened to all that clapping? Aren't we "heroes!" anymore? Why is a 19% payrise and a little bit of basic job security too much to ask for in a service with an annual budget of £120 billion when the same employer bailed out the banks in 2008 up to over £1.8 trillion, virtually doubling the national debt overnight!? They did this without hesitation or a qualm. The Treasury won't even publish the accounts for the cost of Covid 19 vaccination, but as of February this year 116 million shots have been administered; you do the maths. On top of this you can add on the pings, warning signs and bulk PPE etc; and all of it lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry, including a statistically high number of Tory donors. So, I salute my civilian colleagues for taking this action and I wish them all the best.
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/02/coronavirus-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2015/08/jr-porters-strike-update-2.html.

Finding Barry's Grave

See here for essential background: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2022/10/barry-dies.html.
And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2022/10/barry-dies.html.
I was determined to find out if Barry had a grave or memorial as soon as I found out he had died. This was difficult as I had blocked our only mutual contact, for reasons I will not divulge at this point. However I did mange to find a social media post showing there was something for Barry at the North Oxfordshire Crematorium and Memorial Park, see: https://www.northoxfordmemorial.co.uk. This is not an easy place to get to if you don't have a car and I ended up having to walk from Kidlington, which took about an hour. Thankfully the weather was dry. Once I got there I faced another challenge. The Memorial Park is huge, about thirty acres, and it is covered by thousands of memorials, almost all anonymous and only consisting of a small tree or bush. There are no full-body graves there, but some of the trees have ashes scattered around them or buried in their roots. A few had name tags on them, but most of these were missing. I could see no staff around to ask in the low, modern buildings which included the waiting room, chapel and crematorium. The Park was only open till four PM and so I only had about three hours to search. As I said, I am not willing to ask anybody else where the correct memorial is. I muttered: "Barry, where are you? Help me find you." Luckily it didn't take long. Barry has a more substantial tomb than most of the deceased and it stands out clearly from the trees. His family have interred his cremated remains in a permanent resting place which you can see below.

                               

I said a few private words to Barry. I don't know where he has gone to or where he is right now, but I hope he heard me. I hadn't brought any flowers for the pot, but Barry was never much one for them anyway. Instead I chose a more apt form of remembrance. I went to the nearest pub, a large and pleasant location in the middle of the countryside called Sturdy's Castle, see: https://www.sturdyscastleoxford.com. There I consumed a pint of Guinness. This is not something I often drink myself, but Barry loved it and could drink eight or nine pints of it in a row. When we went camping in Ireland in 1997, we visited the St James Gate Brewery in Dublin where the best of it comes from.

I'm glad I've had the chance to pay my final respects to Barry; albeit almost two years late, through no fault of my own. I've done it in my own way and I think Barry would appreciate it.

I Really Shouldn't Laugh...

 

Have you ever found something funny that you feel you shouldn't, that you feel guilty for finding funny? Probably most people will at some point. Such emotions are called "gallows humour" or "black humour". Doctors and nurses excel at it, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2020/05/sick-hospital-video.html! However, doctors and nurses are not alone. Perhaps it was my twenty-three year career in hospital portering that led me to think as I do for the subject of this article. When I was in Theatres in the early 2000's a new porter joined the department whom I will not name, nor will I post any links to what happened (Right now I can't find any actually). Porters often have nicknames and his was "Swampy". This is because he was a bit of a hippy and reminded us a bit of the famous road building protester Daniel "Swampy" Hooper. A couple of years after he joined, he and a civilian friend of his did a terrible thing. They broke into the house of an old man who lived alone, somebody they knew. The man was in at the time and they demanded money and valuables from him as well as the PIN for his bank card. When he refused they tied him up and wrapped an electric flex around his neck. They then threatened to pull it tight and strangle him unless he complied. I'm not sure what happened next and several different stories came out in court. Either the old man still refused to surrender or one or both of his two assailants got carried away; either way, the flex did end up getting pulled tight and the victim died. After they had fled the scene and calmed down, Swampy and the civilian must have realized that they would be hunted by the police; therefore they took everything they had stolen from the old man and headed for Amsterdam. You might anticipate that this was some kind of escape attempt, but it wasn't. Once in the Dutch capital, the two men went on a wild three-day bender. They blew every penny they had stolen from the old man on drink, drugs and prostitutes. It appears that they realized that they had no chance of evading the police and it was only a matter of time before they were caught, as indeed they were a few days later. Knowing also that they definitely faced a lengthy prison sentence, they decided to have one last experience of hedonism before the years of austerity behind bars. They are probably still there today. The reason I can't help finding this amusing is that theirs is such a typically hospital portering response to the situation. Obviously this is not a laughing matter, especially for the poor man who was killed and his loved ones, who have my sympathy; hence the shame I feel at laughing. We don't choose our feelings though; and once I became a hospital porter I became one in its entirety. I can never again choose not to be one.

Barry Dies

 

I'm very sorry to report that my wonderful friend Barry Blake-Cox has died. I met Barry when I first started at the hospital. He was a telephonist who later became telephone monitoring officer. He went on to be an X-ray records clerk before leaving the NHS. He was definitely the civilian I was closest to and when he left the hospital we remained in touch. He died in April last year at the age of seventy-two. When I joined the Hospital Portering Service, it's no exaggeration to say he kind of adopted me. He was a much older man who became a father figure to me. We drifted apart in the last decade of his life, mostly due to the other relationships he had. Despite this I always held him in the deepest of affection. Rest in Peace, Barry. Hope to see you again some day.

Popping the Question- The Responses

 

What do you do as a hospital porter when somebody "pops the question". You may wonder what I mean by that. It doesn't mean being asked if you'll marry somebody (like the hell that would ever happen to a porter!), it means something very different. It was a question I was luckily not asked very often. It was usually nurses who did it, occasionally paramedics; rarely doctors. Usually I get a few minutes warning before the bomb drops. A stupid condescending smile will come over their face; and then, when we're alone together: "Ben... Ben. Come on now! How long have you been a porter for now, Ben? You're an intelligent young man and you obviously care. You really shouldn't be wasting your life doing something as worthless as portering. Have you ever thought about going up the ladder; becoming a nurse, an ODP, a surgical tech or a paramedic?" There are a number of responses you can make, the most obvious and impulsive being to shout: "Get out of my sight, you patronizing bitch!" Of course you can't do that on duty. I usually take a deep breath and count to ten, and then reply: "No, I'm too young and adventurous. I want more from life than a boring civilian job can give me. If you're content to tootle (great word that) along in your bland and humdrum existence as a nurse etc, then I'm pleased for you; but I am meant for a higher destiny." If I am feeling more aggressive I generally turn the question round: "Have you ever asked a nurse, paramedic, ODP etc if they've ever thought about becoming a porter?" They will of course answer no. "Why not?" They will then be forced into a corner where they have to admit they consider HPing inferior. I can then say: "Right, well I have a much higher opinion of the Hospital Portering Service then you do. I didn't become a HP because I wanted to be something "better", but didn't have the busfare upstairs! I joined the HP Service because I wanted to be a porter! I'm proud to be a porter! Good day!" and I walk away.
 
I try to resist getting too angry when dealing with people popping the question; this is because people who do it usually do not mean any harm. They are being tactless rather than malicious. They've simply never considered seeing the world the way I do. A response that is challenging and robust, yet calm and polite, could educate them. Hurling abuse at them will just drive them away. There is one exception to this, a man called Jack who popped the question continuously to me. He literally did it every time he saw me. He was a former porter who became an operating department practitioner, a kind of theatre nurse. He was very keen on giving porters what he called "the opportunity" to "better themselves". I don't object to that in practical terms. If a HP wants to quit and pursue a civilian career, that's up to them. The problem is, when Jack said "opportunity" what he actually meant was "mandate". It is a very weird thing to be obsessed with what a fellow grown man decides to do with their own life, but Jack was. I do wonder if he was just being a windup merchant. Either way, his behaviour was bizarre and disrespectful. He once shouted obscenities at me in a crowded pub. He eventually moved to another hospital and we lost touch. I suppose I should have just told him to get lost, but for some reason I never did. Maybe it was because of my little "experiment", see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/02/humiliation-reply-to-stefan-molyneux.html and: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/11/nice-guys-reply-to-stefan-molyneux.html. I will have to return to this subject in a future article, but The Gas Spanner programme linked below gives a few more details. Some people appear to have no ability to introspect. They cannot assess their own actions against any external standard other than popularity and peer approval. Resisting people popping the question is not easy; it is actually far more difficulty than making dignity statements. However, it can be done effectively with enough practice.
See here for more information: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-gas-spanner-programme-7.html.