Port De Soller Mallorca

Port De Soller Mallorca
Sunset

Thursday 5 May 2011

Is there a Housing Shortage or not????


Not being terribly well off, financially, I cannot, regretfully, help towards the purchase of homes for my beloved offspring, not a problem I here you say, there are plenty of us out here in the same boat.


Anyway, not too much of a problem for my kids as they make their own successful way in their chosen lives',  all ensconced in cosy little 'villas' or in the case of son, his own cosy little 'pub'.  But Jennifer, my youngest, a successful homemaker and mother to three gorgeous girls, had to start off in private rented accommodation for which she and Steve, her partner, were paying through the [proverbial] nose.  They had to do this, as the area they lived in, like most areas in the UK, does not appear to have sufficient affordable social housing.

I believe that this can be tracked back to the conservatives and Maggie Thatcher and the 'Right to Buy' policy that they/ she introduced in the 80's.  When you think about it, it really was a great idea, let the peasants invest in their own future and see the world from a different perspective, be a property owner, invest in bricks and mortar, who wouldn't want to do this, I know I  did.  

And therein lies the problem, so many of us took advantage of this great offer, with the added bonus that massive discounts were applied to the selling price, that social housing stocks across the length and breadth of the country started to dissapear at an incredible rate. And yet no one took any notice!  

But what was the main problem with this scheme, well as usual the devil was in the detail. And what was the detail, well the most important detail, at the time was,  Councils were not allowed to reinvest the money into building more homes, so, as more and more people took advantage of the, 'Right to Buy' the social housing stock began to dwindle.

When you think about it, [and I know the three degrees of separation are fairly loose on this one, but it is my rant so give me a break] is this not a similar situation to the banking debacle of the last couple of years, where the banks were deregulated by  people in power/government and who are supposedly responsible and intelligent, [as they are clearly not],  and who, under normal circumstances you wouldn't put in charge of a piss-up-in-a-brewery because, while on the surface they have had a good idea, they have absolutely no concept of how to put it into practice as a long term and effective plan without the in-built safety features needed in such grand designs!  [The argument that permanent civil servants are in place for actioning policy can be left for another blog on another day]

It seems that all politicians have these grand ideas, but let’s face it today, knowing what we do about most of them, we wouldn't allow them to be in charge of that mythical Piss up in a Brewery let alone in charge of running the country.  And why not, well, because the majority of them, regardless of the fact that they may have attended fancy schools and universities, they just do not have the intellect to manage the bus fare on the No 22 let alone the finances and economy of the country.  

That is not an outlandish statement to make; you only need to look at it:

HOUSES SOLD OFF - NO BALANCE MAINTAINED IN SOCIAL HOUSING

BANKS DEREGULATED AND REGULATORS AND HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMITTEES UNABLE TO SEE THE LOOMING DISASTER 

UTILITY COMPANIES SOLD OFF ON THE CHEAP ALLOWING SPECULATORS TO MAKE VAST FORTUNES WHILE THE MUGS WHO BOUGHT THEIR HOMES SEE COSTS SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL FOR BASIC EVERYDAY REQUIREMENTS LIKE GAS, ELECTRICITY AND WATER

GOLD RESERVES SOLD OFF ON THE CHEAP ONLY FOR GOLD PRICES TO BE  RISING HIGHER AND HIGHER, TO BE BOUGHT BACK BY THE GOVERNMENT AFTER WE SOLD IT CHEAPLY IN THE FIRST PLACE (It doesn't matter that it was G Brown who sold it and it is G Osborne who is buying it back) 

BRAND NEW RAF PLANES, NOT QUITE PAID FOR, BUT ALREADY BROKEN UP BY THE SCRAPPIES

MILLIONS SPENT ON TRAINING PILOTS, WHO THEN ARE MADE REDUNDANT BEFORE SEEING PROPER SERVICE 

The lists go on and on, and yet it is we through higher and higher taxation that must keep baling them out.........

The one and only constant in all of this is that consecutive governments of all parties prove over and over again that they are incapable of managing the country in an effective manner.

I read of two adjoining council houses this week that have been empty for over three months and boarded up with those awful steel shutters that you see over doors and windows.  And my question then is this. If we do not have sufficient social housing stocks, then why are two properties in Langdon Hills  and allegedly owned by Basildon Council and managed by St George's Community Housing, left unattended for three months and then allowed to be broken into and vandalised?

Why weren't these properties (if) taken back into the housing stock, and surely they were if St. George's Community Housing boarded them up, and immediately put back onto the rental lists?

Why were they left boarded up for three months without any maintenance or repairs taking place, if it was needed, while those in desperate need of social housing are forced to continue to live in overcrowded homes, or worse.  And then when limited stock is available they are forced into competing for one in that ridiculous and monstrous bidding system that most authorities seem to employ these days, and which I completely fail to understand. And while the properties are lying abandoned does this mean that the local authorities then are abandoning their responsibilities and indeed their voters/potential voters.....

It really is a ridiculous situation to witness what clearly is local authority housing lying empty when so many people are in need. My wife and I were out for a walk to the local garden centre a Saturday or two ago, and I saw the same thing in Ockendon, a property with the same type of steel shutters on the doors and windows and with obvious signs of neglect and un-occupancy for some considerable time as told by the weeds on the path, etc.

Don't people in power actually care, once they get into office, it seems not, and while I have been tweeting over the last few days to remind the UK to vote in local elections and in the referendum, taking place today,  when you see acts of gross neglect such as these, you do wonder if it is worth it, but you also begin to see and to realise why the turnout of voters can invariably be very disappointing.  The reason is of course that once in office the promises made at the hustings are soon forgotten by those making them, but,  and  for politicians whether local or national, the message must be, that you forget to keep the promises, but the voters don't forget that you made them when asking them to vote for you.

Do not continue to disappoint us, it is not equitable and sooner or later there will be a straw that falls and breaks the back of the voters.











Wednesday 4 May 2011

NHS ANGER AT TIME WASTERS


I read an article in a local paper headlined "ANGER AT COST OF PATIENTS FAILING TO KEEP GP DATE",  and while reading the article I began to get the right hump with this story.

The reporter, Stephen Hackwell went on to report that "Thousands of pounds are being wasted by patients who failed to keep doctors' appointments", and went on further to suggest that, "Surgeries across South Essex are forced to pay staff to do nothing because people cannot be bothered to cancel bookings."

Is it me, is it really just me? who finds this kind of story thoroughly obnoxious not just in the headline grabbing appeal it is aiming for, but in the actual message of the story, for goodness sake, give us all a break will you.....

"Surgeries waste thousands of pounds...", ".... forced to pay staff to do nothing...."  Lets look at these two statements first.  Why are surgeries wasting thousands of pounds in this matter.  Are you telling me that surgeries are making appointments and the majority of those people making appointments are not turning up. Lets face it, it is so bloody difficult to get an appointment these days that the time, effort and cost, and there is a cost to this for the patient, have you tried phoning your surgery recently to get an appointment.  Most of them either only have one line that is constantly engaged or when you do get through and the phone is answered you are normally greeted with the immediate phrase, with no time to respond to it, of, "Hello, would you mind hanging on for a few moments" before you are placed on hold while the receptionist either deals with another call or talks to the doctor or books and talks with a patient who is standing in front of them .  And so, while the costs to you the patient may not be as expensive as the NHS tells us that their costs are, there is still a cost;  in time, in calls and in frustration.

But where do they get, "the costs in thousands" from.  It is probably me being over simplistic again or naive or both, so lets look at it from a simplistic point of view.

Doctors surgeries today operate a fairly open system in that they are there, or they are not, simple.  When they are there, they have staffed surgeries, so they are paying for the surgery, the staff, the medicines and the usual paraphernalia that one has to pay for whether it is a house, shop or factory in terms of rates and utilities, etc.

Appointments, as far as I can tell are made by the patient phoning in and being lucky enough to be given an appointment.  Again as far as I can tell appointments are given out for times that are suitable for the doctor/surgery and not the patient and again as far as I can tell appointments are normally made to coincide with the NORMAL OPENING TIMES of the surgery.

Gone are the days when you would turn up at your GP and find the waiting room literally and metaphorically choking to bursting point with both patients and  germs, no today, there are none, or at the least, very few open surgeries, YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. whether it is for the Doctor or the practice nurse. so that brings me on to the next question, how and why are, "staff being paid to do nothing?"

Again you need to ask yourself, when was the last time you visited the surgery! As you stood there at the reception desk being ignored or not.  The receptionist IS ALWAYS BUSY, on the computer, on the phone, filling out forms, filing patients notes, retrieving patients notes, when have you ever seen a receptionist at a doctors surgery doing nothing.... never, their workload seems never ending, so how pray are they getting paid to do nothing.

Don't get me wrong here, I am not condoning patients making an appointment and then not keeping it, especially if they don't even bother to make contact and inform the surgery that they are unable to make the appointment.  But, lets face it, there could be a relevant reason as to why they were unable to keep the appointment.  Take me for example: I get the train to and from work each day, It doesn't happen very often but it does happen, there I am sitting on the train and out of no where the driver makes an announcement, telling me that instead of taking the branch line via Chafford Hundred and Ockendon, this train is now going to run directly into Fenchurch Street station via Rainham, etc. SO, all of us travelling to our chosen destination are dumped from the train and invariably left with no information on what's happening as the station staff we have been dumped at have no clue either.  

So, imagine the situation, you have just been dumped off a train, you are given no information, the station staff you have been dumped on are as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike, and while you should be thinking of phoning your surgery, you are getting more and more angry and frustrated at the situation you find yourself in and forget to make the call, it happens, but this then causes the NHS to lose thousands of pounds and have staff sitting around doing nothing.......

I don't bloody well think so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    

One doctor in the article, who wishes to remain anonymous, comments that, "It can cause a real problem. It's not just the money - it's the time it wastes."

I accept that missing an appoint can appear to be time wasted, but, lets look at it in simple terms again.  Lets just assume that five people have made an appointment to see the doctor and numbers 2 through 5 turn up ahead of or on time for their appointment.  No 1 hasn't turned up and hasn't called and their appointment was for 5 PM.  Well under those circumstances does No 2 not move into the slot immediately vacated and so on until all of the patients have been seen, leaving the last ten minutes of the missed appointment for finishing off the admin for the day and tidying up, locking up file cabinets etc. It's not as if they really HAVE NOTHING TO DO.  And if patient No 1 turned up late, they are slotted in or kept to the end, it doesn't matter.

Apparently, the Department of Health does not collect statistics on missed appointments so is all of this a storm in a teacup or are local NHS trusts starting the next round of patient disenfranchisement, by publicly labeling some patients as time wasters as another prelude to more cuts in the already deplorable service offered to the ailing patient.  And lets not forget, you can't compalin anymore because every surgery now displays that nice notice, Do Not Complain about the Service or Lack thereoff as We will just remove you from our books, or words to that effect.......

     
 For the article referred to go to:  
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/9004434.Anger_at_cost_of_patients_failing_to_keep_GP_date/