Empty because of the strikes?

 

It’s a funny old morning: looking at the ‘news’ presented by the dead tree press (see here) it seems as if our eager MSM news hounds were just going through the motions. There’s the truly tragic death of three of the boys in that icy lake in Solihull, there’s the NHS strike, and there is, of course, the Aitch ‘n Em saga. Footie is ‘out’, Christmas ain’t here yet and anyway, it’s still cold … and no gossip from ‘senior sources’. 

First then, the NHS strike: we learn that ‘talks have broken down’ because the bad Tory health minister didn’t give moar money to the angels in blue:

“Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said that the government would not reopen pay negotiations. Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, accused him of “belligerence” and having “too little to say” after their first face-to-face meeting for a month. “I needed to come out of this meeting with something serious to show nurses why they should not strike this week. Regrettably, they are not getting an extra penny,” she said. Her union will now press ahead with its first ever nationwide strike this Thursday.” (link, paywalled)

Tomorrow hospitals in England and Wales will ring patients to tell them their planned operations will be cancelled. It’s unclear at the moment what is going to happen in Scotland where two trade unions have accepted a ‘generous’ Scottish government offer: 11% according to Auntie B (link), or 7.5% according to The Times (link, paywalled).  Scottish nurses are still being balloted on this offer.

Scottish ambulance drivers therefore won’t go on strike. Perhaps there aren’t enough taxis in Scotland which the Scottish government could ‘block-book’? It’s  what NHS ‘bosses’ in England and Wales are thinking of doing:  ‘block-booking taxis’ to transport patients to hospital during the strike of ambulance drivers. Ambulances will still provide an emergency service for life-threatening cases, but those who only have a fall will have to make do (link). The idiocy of this proposal – it hurts!

We remember, do we not, that during the covid years, the NHS block-booked private clinics which were left standing empty and weren’t even used for NHS operations. We recall, do we not, that this cost a hefty amount of money. I wonder how much the block-booking of taxis will cost. I also ask myself if there will be any taxis available for families who are trying to get gramps to A & E, in a self-help initiative. After all, they have to do that already, without this ambulance strike (link).

What unholy mess this will turn into can be seen in the desperate flailing about by NHS hospitals to tell patients not to turn up. Admin staff are going to phone patients because a cancellation ought to be given two days ‘before’ the operation, but thanks to the posties’ strike, such letters won’t arrive in time. There’s more though. I was intrigued, to say the least, when I read (these and the following emphases are mine)::

“Nurses who treat minor injuries and triage patients are planning to walk out. Hospital bosses are preparing to call nurses off picket lines and back on to wards if patients are being harmed or dying as a result of the walkouts. Admin staff may be redeployed to replace nurses for tasks such as filling in patients’ notes.” (link, paywalled)

No triage then? Blimey! And look at that: admin staff can fill in patients’ notes! Who knew! Why can they not be deployed across wards to do this so that nurses can actually … nurse, instead of wasting time on paperwork? 

Labour meanwhile praises the Scottish offer and blames the ‘intransigence of the Westminster Government’ for the mess. Funny that: the Labour government of the Labour fiefdom Wales hasn’t followed the Sturgeon lead. Has Starmer no clout in Wales? 

Given the cold, there are two interesting articles in the DT and the Times, reporting that ‘cold kills’. The timing of these is intriguing. The Times indulges in a ‘wellbeing’ article, telling readers that yes, when it’s cold there are more deaths, not least because we’re all so unhealthy, eating the wrong things, not dressing properly, and because there’s air pollution (link, paywalled). One might file this in the usual ‘help our readers’ slot. After all, we’ve had a few days of cold already, so why come out with this now? It’s because the DT had earlier published a report on a new scientific study:

“Extreme cold weather is nearly five times as deadly for people with heart failure as extreme heat, a new study has suggested. US researchers carried out a huge global analysis of 32 million cardiovascular deaths over 40 years in 27 countries, recording the temperatures when people died. They found that on days of extreme heat, there would be an extra 2.6 additional deaths for every 1,000 who would normally die – but 12.8 extra deaths on extremely cold days. […] Extreme cold increased the risk of heart failure deaths by 37 per cent.” (paywalled link)

Well, we don’t really have ‘extreme cold’ here in the UK, and the researchers acknowledge that at the moment they don’t know why this should be the case. However, this phenomenon is not unknown but was already reported some years ago:

“A 2015 study in The Lancet – looking at 384 locations in 13 countries, including the UK, Australia, the US and Spain – found that cold weather causes 17 times as many deaths as warm weather. Cold weather can trigger respiratory and heart conditions, worsen dementia symptoms and depression, cause lethal injuries from slips, trips and falls, and increase car accidents. Recent research from the Office for National Statistics suggested that 500,000 fewer people had died over the past 20 years as a result of cold weather in England and Wales as the climate warmed.” (paywalled link)

So warm weather isn’t as deadly as cold weather? Is that a slight dig at the Net Zero Climate Extremists? Might it be that ‘global warming’ is actually not so bad? Shouldn’t the inveterate Greenies be told their policies are increasing the burden for our Sacred Cow – which is a bad thing? 

Moreover, might the ‘save energy – don’t heat your home’ perhaps be meant to cull surreptitiously the old and infirm, now that covid is no longer doing it? I wonder if excess deaths by heart attacks this winter will be blamed on the cold or on the NHS strike. After all, the covid vaccines were safe and any who died of vaccine-induced heart attacks had to be covid deniers, so the vaccines cannot be blamed ….

One thing is certain: this winter will be hard. The best we can do is look after ourselves and not rely on government or the Sacred Cow. Perhaps the Nation might learn that there are no knights in shining armour, that there are no angels in blue to come to our rescue. We’re on our own, so keep warm, keep safe and enjoy this and the coming days as best you can.



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