I generally look forward to Fridays but today was a little unusual in the way it started off. I was expecting one of our regular care workers, who was going to be accompanied by a manager who often puts himself ‘on shift’ when they are short staffed. Today, though, the young care worker had been in a car crash which was not her fault. The offending driver was drunk and refused to undertake a breathalyser test and I wondered what the consequences of this could be. In short, it probably means the suspension of a licence for a year and the possibility of increased fines and/or a prison sentence if convicted. Our young care worker was OK but somewhat shaken and I feel for her. So I acted as the ‘assistant care worker’ for the manager, not for the first time and I suspect not the last either. But when we were all done, I could get Meg her breakfast and we could prepare ourselves for a trip down the road to the Waitrose cafeteria, as we often do on a Friday, where we meet up with our University of Birmingham friend. Our trip down appeared a little different to me today for the following reason. In the last few days, I ordered a couple of Hi-Vis (high visibility) vests that were on sale for less than £6 the pair. I wore one over my normal outdoor apparel this morning and it may be my imagination but I got the distinct impression that the traffic was much more inclined to stop (one even stepping on his brakes) when I was observed standing at the kerbside. Whether this is or is not the case, when the mornings get darker and gloomier in the autumn, these vests will come into their own. We had to have rather a hurried coffee with our friend this morning and would have liked to have tarried a little longer but the care workers late morning call was scheduled about 30-40 minutes earlier than is usual so we had to make full speed up the hill. After I had got Meg home and the care workers had paid their morning call, as it was a fine morning and we had some time in hand, I decided to give the back lawn a much needed cut. This opportunity was well taken because it did not delay our lunch hour at all and the cut was badly needed, having been missed for a week or so.
This afternoon, the Olympic games will have their very original opening ceremony starting at 6.30. The opening ceremony is going to be very different from the norm, not to be held in the arena itself but rather on a succession of craft which will process down the Seine for about 6km in total. The advantage of this is that many more people can see the athletes from a variety of vantage points most of which will be free. I get the impression that the French are not quite as enthusiastic about their own Olympic games as we were about our own games held in London. What amazed the world on that occasion was the way in which Danny Boyle highlighted and celebrated our own NHS which we used to think of as being the envy of the world. Of course we could not say that nowadays and I did not fully appreciate that the last Olympic games held in Tokyo may have had an opening ceremony but it was at the height of COVID (or was it postponed for a year?) and consequently the number of people allowed to attend was minimal. The French have been promising a spectacular and innovative opening ceremony showcasing the best of France – what aspects of their history will they choose to celebrate on wonders. But there has been some rather devastating news overnight. So many police and military have been detailed to police Paris particularly for the opening ceremonies when all of the athletes process so the rest of the country might be lightly policed. Anarchist groups (one assumes) have chosen this moment to sabotage practically all of the major high speed (TGV) lines running out of Paris. Lines to the North, East and West have been subject to arson attacks but the one running south to the Mediterranean might have been spotted just in time. As the celebrations start at 6.30pm this evening and Meg is put to bed shortly afterwards, I am going to bring into commission our little portable TV so that we can watch the opening ceremony together from Meg’s bedside. So I am especially glad that I have equipped myself with a nice comfortable bedside chair from which to view the TV./ommission commissioned by the Tories but now received by Labour has been received. The new Labour Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the CQC not fit for purpose and some of the findings are shocking. Some hospitals have not been visited in 10 years and one of the care inspectors had never been in a hospital in his life. About 10-20% establishments had never been visited and so on. So the Health Secretary had labelled the CQC as ‘not fit for purpose’ because it is quite possible that members of the public were relying upon reports that were superficial or based upon the most inadequate data sets. I asked the Care Agency manager what he thought of the setup and he said that when he was last inspected, it was six years ago and just relied upon a telephone call. For this his organisation had to pay several thousands of pounds a year. Listening to a debate on Radio 4 this morning, it was said that the CQC could not afford to conduct in-depth inspections and therefore relied upon more artificial reports to which my retort is that if you are going to rely upon an inspection routine, it either gets done properly or not at all. Much as I am interested in issues of Quality Management, I abhor the tick box culture which pervades quality measurement these days wherever one looks.
© Mike Hart [2024]