Need for reform in the way medical personnel deal with patients

Sue - that's a wonderful idea. I don't know if you have ever watched the film "The Notebook" - we watched it the other night and both of us were crying buckets at the end!!

Terry's Mom was bright as a button right to the end which in some ways made it harder for her to cope with being treated like she was. We only lost her in February and I miss her so much so I must apologise if I seem like I've got a cross to bear about the staff involved. The West Heath hospital staff where she eventually passed away were wonderful. It's just such a shame that they are shutting some of our wonderful smaller hospitals. My father died nearly 20 years ago at Kidderminster Hospital and the staff their were outstanding but that has been downgraded now and if anything happens to any of my family in Bewdley now they have to be transported to Worcester. Then when we were in Cornwall there was only Truro hospital in the whole of Cornwall that had an A&E. That must me putting even more strain on the ambulance staff and paramedics.

I agree about paperwork Jason, Teaching also suffers for the paperwork. My job also is made more lengthly by rules, regulations and too much paperwork. Computers were supposed to save us time!

Stephanie you have good cause to be upset at how your mother in law was treated. Considering all the money that is thrown at the NHS, it is nothing short of a scandal that vulnerable patients are not shown love and compassion. It's very random too, as was shown by the care and comfort your mother in law recieved at the other hospital. I am sorry for your loss and send my best wishes to you.

Wolf, that is a touching poem. I have read the one about the elderly lady. Legend has it that the verse was found in her bedside locker after she had died.

Jason, I have never yet met an unkind or uncaring paramedic....and that's the truth.

There's also those elderly people who, when talking about the past, to them ,they're talking about the present they're now living in. Things that happened say 40-50 years ago, sound as though they happened but a few days ago.  I'm sure many can also recall it was during the 1980's, Maggie Thatcher started her policy of closing hospitals up and down the country and today, you can see the results of how successful she was in doing so.

Ralph McTell's song  Streets Of London  is as relevant today as it was in the '70s when it came out, if not more so. And when you become elderly, something magical seems to happen---you become invisible;  at least it appears that way to many.

And one elderly chap who was 105 recently, returned to Berkshire to celebrate his birthday; and is one of only 5 veterans of WW 1 still alive. A friend in the US told me WW 1 was so long ago, it's completely forgotten about----I'm sure this old soldier would really appreciate hearing that.

Thank you Sue.

Lovely poem Wolf. My sister has written a wonderful poem about alzeimers but I can't post it as she is entering it into a competition. Haven to wait until she is famous.

Paul - don't want to get into a political discussion as that's not my thing but Labour has been in for hundreds of years now - or so it seems - and all of our hospitals closed under their "reign" so I think blaming Maggie now when she is going senile herself is a bit much!!!! And that's all I'm going to say about politics!

I haven't forgotten, even though I was not alive at that time, my parents were, and I had uncles who died on the Somme.

We talk about those uncles, especially on November 11th, and remember those who fought and returned, and those who fought and never returned.

Stephanie---i have nothing personal against Baroness Thatcher and was quite upset to learn how she had been doing in recent times, as you pointed out. I also thought it a bit much when you and your family had to go for that long trip to hospital in Truro during your holidays; the only hosptal in Cornwall.  The origins of that was during her term of office ( 1979-1990) when part of her policies was to start closing hospitals and nursing homes. Indeed Mr Kilroy-Silk had asked her thus---

Mr. Kilroy-Silk:

When the Right Hon. Lady visits Lancashire will she attempt to explain how her policy of closing hospitals and old people's homes will increase output per man?

The Prime Minister:

I hope that those who can increase output per person will do so now that they have been given the incentives.

So, it wasn't a question of politics as so much to simply state when the seeds of this were sown and carried on with in later years. Near where I used to live, Paul & Linda McCartney started a fund drive to keep Hill House Hospital, near Rye open, as it was on the list of closures, and thanks to them, this hospital is still open today serving local people. That was simply the point I was making and why I thought it was disgraceful you and your family had to make such a long journey for medical treatment. I assume then, others will have a differing point of view to what I saw going on during those years and onwards, and thus presumably not a single hospital closed until 1997 onwards.  I'll stand corrected if I saw things differently.