Yesterday, before I came to bed, I decided to reinstall a banking app on my new iPhone - they had warned me in the EE shop that I would need to reinstall this app because as a security option, it would not transfer from the old phone to the new. This turned out to be quite a long and complicated procedure and involved taking photos of my driving license front and back, making a video image, speaking some numbers to get a voice sample and so on. But eventually, I got the app to install on my new iphone and can now view some banking information via the app. I was delayed getting to bed last night because when I had installed our new TV a year ago, I had used a facility to access the web and had constructed a link that allows a viewing of the videos (i.e. speeches) made on the occasion of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. The video clip I was particularly interested in viewing was a completely improvised speech that Meg made off the cuff and unscripted some seven years ago now and as her illness started not a great deal later, it was interesting to access this for the record. Later on in the day and after lunch, I showed these videos to Meg and I think that she remembered making the speech all of those years ago now. It was a rather gloomy day today and we found ourselves a little short of time because the care workers came a little bit later this morning. So we confined ourselves to going down into town, picking up the newspaper and then wandering along the High Street to eventually visit the AgeUK shop where we had a quick browse around without making a purchase. Then we made it up the hill in time for the scheduled carer who, as it happened, did not arrive but another worker turned up half an hour later. As I had previously rummaged around in our freezer for something or other, I found some parsnips that I thought we could well eat up and I popped these in the oven and made a meal with some petit pois and some of the beef that was cooked yesterday.
The government have instituted an NHS public consultation exercise in which it is hoping to glean the views of the public, NHS staff and any other interested parties. But is already being admitted that any real changes in the NHS might not come into effect until next April. But Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, made some interesting observations today.'I suppose you could say, well, you should just come in and impose your view of change...I would just say to people, be careful what you wish for...The last time a new health secretary came in after a general election where their party won power, that was Andrew Lansley....The Conservatives after 2010, who came down with a massive top-down reorganisation that nobody voted for, nobody wanted, cost billions and set the NHS up to fail.' This is all relevant information but one can already say ahead of consultation what it is that most people would prefer. The single biggest complaint must be the difficulty in getting through and making a GP appointment and this is probably followed by the length of time that is taken for a treatment to start or a hospital procedure to be undertaken. So probably the biggest reforms that could be instituted would be to say a GP who one knew well and who could ensure a good continuity of care - one might almost say the reinvention of the principle of a family doctor. I seem to remember a research report that indicated, probably on the back of some international evidence, that patients who had a long term relationship with one GP tended, other things being equal, to suffer less illness taken in the round and to live longer. Perhaps a model could be tried where two GPs and a physician associate formed a little 'pod' who were solely responsible for a group of patients. Another government ambition is to do something about patient records so that they are more accessible and are more transferable to other interested parties such as hospitals. But there is a big problem in just assuming that you throw an app on a smart phone to many of the elderly and the elderly elderly who do not have the digital skills enjoyed by younger generations. There may be solution to this problem, at least in part. I noticed an advert in 'The Times' for a very simple phone (made by Samsung) designed with the older generation in mind (big buttons, a few large icons and the like) Is there a case for an NHS 'access phone' that is sufficiently simple for many of the older generation to be able to employ?
Harris currently leads in swing states worth 36 electoral college votes, vs 27 for Trump, with states worth 31 effectively tied. There are less than two weeks to go until election day but even then, we might have to wait for a result for weeks more. I heard an interview with a Professor of Politics from Birmingham University who was explaining that already the Trump camp has an army of lawyers ready to pounce upon the slightest morsel that would enable to challenge a tight result that does not go their way. The postal votes have to be counted and there are probably some overseas votes to be counted as well. A clear cut victory for either side looks incredibly unlikely and one wonders what chance event might occur in the next few days to nudge undecided voters in one direction or another. But all of the major opinion polls seem to point in the same direction i.e. that an already close race is getting closer and closer. I still have the feeling that Trump will claim (and perhaps even gain) victory even if he is very marginally behind and, of course, he has a veritable army of supporters who will come to claim victory of the result is very close. Bill Clinton used a remark to clarify what was uppermost in voters' minds with his famous phrase 'It's the economy, stupid' and that is even more true now. The absence of authoritative national media in the US (but a plurality of news outlets, not to mention pollsters) plays into the hands of the Trump camp because they seem to have successfully implanted the notion that the economy fared worse under Biden than Trump. The most basic measure of the economy is how much it grows. The official data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are clear: After inflation, real GDP has grown at a 3.4 average annual rate since Biden became president, while Trump trails badly at an average 1.8 percent growth. But perception is everything and in this case, the public perception is that Trump outperformed Biden (although that is not the case)
© Mike Hart [2024]