UPDATE

Rather suddenly and unexpectedly, The Witch Doctor and My Black Cat will have to take our leave from all things Blogosphere for a couple of weeks. Perhaps someone will have discovered The Interesting Intertwinglement by the time we return. We doubt it though.

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The Witch Doctor does not know any of the other medical bloggers personally, indeed she does not even know who they are with the exception of Dr Rita Pal, Dr Bloggs and more recently Julie. However, it is just about possible to deduce one or two things about the ages of most of them and an interesting phenomenon is developing.

Dr Grumble was pointing out yesterday that of those medics who blog regularly there are probably very few young doctors among them. I may be wrong about this, and apologies to the youthful ones if I am, but it seems to me that The Ferret Fancier and The Junior Doctor are the youngest. There is a great new medical blogger who might be younger still.  Rita is probably next in line. I’m not sure about Basics Doc - he might be next. There may be more younger doctors or medical students still blogging regularly and My Black Cat is going to look them out. The remainder seem to be “at their prime” or past it depending on whether it is a good day. The Witch Doctor, of course is of an evanescent  age depending on what particular spell she is under.

The Witch Doctor seemed to misunderstand what Sam was saying over the weekend. She thought Sam was of the opinion that the older bloggers were a load of old medical fogies who lived in the past and were resistant to change. However what I think she was really saying was that we were resistant to any degree of privatisation within the NHS.

I think Sam is really quite fond of us all in spite of our weird ways.

Over the weekend too there was some despair among the bloggers regarding which party to vote for in the next election.

In the past there was probably a general trend for those with a Socialist leaning to vote against privatisation and those with a Tory leaning to vote for it. Not sure what you did if you were a Liberal though. But now the waters have become very muddy and no-one seems to know what each party stands for.

This led The Witch Doctor to contemplate what would be her voting pattern in the next election. She also spent some time considering her views on privatisation.

Now, we witches are not hindered by any present or past allegiance to any political party. We are certainly not and never have been socialists, old labour, new labour, social democrats, communists, tories or liberals. We have absolutely no allegiance to any of the new or extremist parties either. We believe all political ideologies eventually become tainted and we look out for that happening to whoever is in power and do what it takes to vote that party out. We are truly floating voters. It makes us feel important. We love it when they woo us round about election time.

The wooing is good fun but a waste of the politician’s time. The Witch Doctor will wend her way to the polling booth and do whatever it takes to vote against hubris.

She will not take leaders into account at all because she has learned over the past few years that they do not run our country. It is the gurus in the Think Tanks and powerful businessmen that encircle our leaders who do that.

One of the problems is that there is a new political ideology that has been foisted upon us unawares. It is a problem because no-body understands what it is about. Many have never even heard of it. Not knowing it is happening and not knowing what it is really about means we don’t know whether it is good or bad.

It is called The Third Way.

Another name for it is Communitarianism.

Tony Blair’s name was closely linked to The Third Way. So are those who surrounded him and those coming after him.

However, it is likely that all three major political parties are now Communitarian to a greater or lesser extent. This is why the voters are confused.

If you do a Google search for articles published on The Third Way, you will find a little intertwinglement or two. But you have to know what you are looking for.

The Witch Doctor placed a little Third Way intertwinglement experiment in Saturday’s post. It was so deeply hidden, she doesn’t expect anyone to spot it. Especially those who refuse to click.

Communitarianism is the reason why Old Labour who used to be so in favour of nationalisation, is now wooing the private sector. We witches also believe it is the reason behind The Skills Escalator.

All political parties will be hand in glove with the private sector from now on, so you’ll need to get used to it.

It is an important part of Third Way politics.

My Black Cat and I will try to learn all we can about The Third Way before the next general election. We have already learned a little.

And we’ll look for more intertwinglements.

Just in case some of them turn out to be very important.

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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Wat Tyler had a fantastic time when he was lured into the pharmacist’s cupboard…….

EARNING YOUR PHARMACIST AN HONEST CRUST

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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And quite right too!

Nurse Anne, in the view of the witching community, is doing an essential service for patients, in bringing to the attention of the world, the way it really is in many wards in the UK during this wonderful age of “Change” and “Modernisation” and “Diversity” and “Talent” and “Leadership” and “Contestability” and “Plurality” and now “Polysystems” with “spokes” and all the other meaningless jargon that was ushered in by Tony Blair and his “Third Way” cronies that surrounded him and followed him and are still following him.

Nurse Anne is having a go at the doctors including The Witch Doctor.

In fact, The Witch Doctor agrees with most of what Nurse Anne says in her post apart from the implication that UK doctors are a cocaine snorting bunch, and The Witch Doctor’s views on apprenticeship. The Witch Doctor has a post on the topic of apprenticeship and the creep that will follow. This post is likely to appear sometime soon during The Witching Hour. The other thing is that, as a doctor, The Witch Doctor does not feel threatened by the “dumbing down” that the Skills Escalator is intended to produce. No. It is as a patient she feels threatened by this, not as a doctor.

So, why exactly do we witches feel that The Witch Doctor thinks Nurse Anne is quite right to do her nut about doctors?

Well, The Witch Doctor frequently does her nut about doctors too, albeit not in the same illustrative language of Nurse Anne.

If you are a hospital consultant, then we witches suggest that at some point over the weekend, you pour yourself a coffee, sit down by the fire and spend an hour or so reading through Nurse Anne’s blog.

MILITANT MEDICAL NURSE

We witches think every single hospital consultant in the land should read it.

We think every single hospital administrator should read it too.

We think every member of The Department of Health should read it.

No. Forget the last sentence. That would be counterproductive.

Consultants should read it because they should be supporting these nurses who are struggling against all odds in certain pockets of the NHS.

Consultants are not supporting them.

Ask yourself whether you have seen any of Nurse Anne’s accounts happening in your ward (if you have a ward that is – your patients are probably scattered all over the place nowadays, but that is a separate issue that you as consultants should have dealt with long ago).

And then ask yourself, does it bother you that patients lie in wet beds, are undernourished and don’t get their medications on time.

Well, Does it?

If it doesn’t worry you, then let me know who you are so that all the witches will avoid you like the plague when they are ill.

If it does worry you, have you asked yourself why it is happening?

Do you know the headcount of nurses in your unit?

Qualified nurses. Health Care Assistants. Cadets.

Have you watched them in a cluster talking about Big Brother instead of attending to patients? (Some do, Nurse Anne, I have watched closely. On the other hand, most don’t.) Most are excellent nurses who are run off their feet trying to nurse to the best of their ability but can’t. They are being asked to do an impossible task much of the time. The Witch Doctor has watched carefully and has done some simple arithmetic.

As a consultant do you trust your Trust Administration in not to squeeze the last ounce of flesh out of the nurses in your ward?

Come Monday morning, here is an exercise that all consultants could do for the benefit of their patients.

Get The Abacus out.

How many patients in your ward need help with toileting?

How long does it take to deal with each patient?

How long do patients in your ward (if your have one) wait for a bed-pan or commode?

How many patients in your ward need help with feeding?

How long does it take to feed a patient?

How long does it take to do the drug round?

How many times is the nurse in your ward interrupted when doing a drug round?

Do multiplication sums.

Lots of them.

Do the figures tie up with staff numbers that are appropriate to the level of expertise of each member of staff?

No?

Then what are you going to do about it?

Let me tell you.

You sit down with the nurse in charge of the ward. Not the one who is straddling the barbed wire fence between government administrator and nurse.

You say to him or her.

These are our patients. We have responsibility for them.

Together we will sort this out.

And do it.

That is what you are being paid a consultant salary to do. To ensure your patients are diagnosed, treated, and if possible cured. If that is not possible then you ensure your patients are cared for, comfortable and safe. You know that.

The medical and nursing professions need to work as one.

Together, both of you – the “hands on” senior medic and “hands on” senior nurse, with the help of The Abacus will carry great clout.

This government wants you divided.

They do not want you to have clout.

If you do not do this as consultants, you are letting nurses and patients down.

And for pities sake, if you are a hands-on consultant, don’t go bleating to your clinical director and medical director that “something will need to be done.” Ignore the hierarchy. As a consultant you can do this. You are an independent practitioner. These people are hindered because they have chosen to straddle the painful barbed wire fence.

See to it yourself.

Do you not know that you, the hands-on consultant, and the hands-on senior nurse, are The Leaders?

If you take on your rightful role together as The Leaders, this will never happen again.

a red apple ……………………

The Witch Doctor – Link to a random page

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LINK TO UK MISSING KIDS WEBSITE

LINK TO MISSING PERSONS WEBSITE

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