I write this today as we have had an awful lot of flooding in my local area, tragically resulting in a loss of life. I have spent my day at home with my children as their school was closed but my mind has been permanently on the ambulance crews, fire service, police and other agencies that have been working so tirelessly and constantly to try to help in these challenging circumstances.
In recent weeks I was saddened that when the first results of the inquest following the Grenfell tower tragedy came out there was such a heavy media focus on the blame being on the fire service, in the small print the blame seemed to primarily lay with the management of it, but that certainly wasn’t portrayed in the headlines. I’m sure there is accountability to be had by them, however, my memories of the horrific days surrounding Grenfell when coincidentally I happened to be in London, were the images of fire men and women in tears of desperation as they battled against such awful conditions to try and save as many people as they could. The sad fact is that in our current climate of lack of funding in the public sector, there are dangerous and desperate shortages that cause lapses in care and intervention when it is needed most.
The ward I work on is a prime example of this, not necessarily glamorous nursing but essential, our usual patients are the elderly and vulnerable that either need complex discharge planning and rehab or quality end of life care and we provide it to the highest of standards and therefore take the pressure from the acute sector that simply don’t have the time to facilitate these patients needs. Last year our bed numbers were cut by half, the result of which a higher proportion of patients are having inadequate discharges home from the acute sector, due to their own increased pressures, leading to further ill health and repeat admissions at best. It is these, short sighted decisions made by people that are so far removed from the front line, that are causing such catastrophic problems in our health service.
As a nurse, a mother and a wife, when observing the latest tragedy unfolding on the media that involves intervention from our emergency services, I see mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters, who, despite the fact their unit has probably just had massive funding cuts, and that they’ve probably not had a break, they’re probably working overtime for which they won’t ever claim as their shift ended hours ago, they probably shouldn’t have even been in work that day but were covering staff shortages and their own children are probably being looked after by someone else that’s costing them the equivalent of what they’ll earn themselves, they are there giving 100% dedication because it’s in their blood and their training and they couldn’t walk away even if they tried, and when they finally do, it’ll weigh on their minds for days, weeks and months. These are the people who keep our country going and keep our country great as despite such increasingly difficult circumstances they are unfaltering in their duty of care and for this I am thankful and appreciative.
Interestingly I learnt tonight, that our esteemed prime minister has blessed our small humble town with his presence, I would love to believe his interest was vested in humanity rather than a platitude directed towards his greater aim of winning the election….
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It's a mums life. 