The shocking truth about the health care for vulnerable people in the Borough of Barnet in 2022

 I have thought long and hard about writing this blog. As much of this is private information, I will refer to the person concerned as Reg. It's not his name. That is irrelevant. What is relevant is the disgusting way he's been treated by Barnet Council, local Healthcare service, mental health services and even the London Ambulance service. Worst of all, it is an indictment on the lack of regulation of dodgy private landlords. 

I am seperately dealing with his specific issues, but I am writing this in the (probably vain) hope that someone, somewhere in authority will read this and change the way people like Reg are dealt with. 

I've known Reg for a few years. He is a lovely chap, but suffers various challenges around his mental health and he also has physical challenges as well. He is mobile but has challenges walking distance. He has been depressed for several years following the loss of family members. 

Lets start with his accomodation. He is renting a converted garage from a private landlord. Recently, BBC Radio London were dicussing bad landlords on The Eddie Nestor show. I tweeted this

Hey @EddieNestorMBE @BBCRadioLondon you were talking about bad accommodation. A friends flat is like this, a private landlord, no gas safe checks, CO or smoke alarms, mould everywhere even in the electric supply box, wonder if @BarnetCouncil can help? pic.twitter.com/8HJfgCvv8R

— Roger Tichborne/Rog T (@Barneteye) November 16, 2022

As you can see from the pictures, the property is damp and unsafe. A friend is currently putting together a full dossier of the issues with a view to getting Reg rehoused or at the very least get the issues resolved. Reg yesterday informed me that the Landlord of his property includes his energy as part of the rent. This is on a pay as you go meter that the Landlord tops up. It appears that the Landlord has been regularly failing to top up the meter, leaving reg without heat and hot water. As temperatures are dropping to -6C this week, I was most concerned that if the meter runs out, Reg may actually freeze to death as the garage is not insulated. We have arranged for an electric heater to be dropped off as a backup. Reg is on benefits and has to get by on a pittance, so is in no position to move. His rent is payed by Barnet Council directly to the Landlord. The situation has been going on for years. It has severely affected Reg's mental health and he has recently been feeling suicidal. His GP is aware of this.

This brings us on to his health. He has been referred to mental health services and has had various assessments, however there has been no effort to address the route cause, his dangerous and substandard accomodation. As part of our efforts to get him rehoused, a GP appointment was made yesterday and Reg asked me to attend to help him. We wanted a GP letter of support to assist with his case. Reg is not an assertive person, in fact he is highly deferrential to authority. I went to act as his advocate. I was largely unaware of his medical history and only attended as my friend who is leading efforts on Reg's behalf was away. What I learned dismayed me. Despite Reg's multiple mental health challenges, little apart from medication has been done and the GP informed me it was not part of a doctors remit to assist Reg with getting better accomodation. When someone is in Reg's situation, it is not their job to liaise with social services to sort out issues that cause health challenges. 

To me that was bad enough, but the GP then started reading through Reg's file. It turns out he'd had a stool sample earlier in the year, which showed an irregularity and a colonoscopy was recommended. Reg had been unable to attend as there was no one to accompany him. I cannot believe that he is the only person who has been in this situation. Of course, now we are on the case with that, but how many people on their own are simply left to develop cancer. Reg also mentioned to the GP that he'd lost brothers to prostate cancer. A PSA test has been arranged. As Reg is in his early 50's and regularly visited the Doctor, I was surprised this has only just been suggested. I was offered one aged 49, without the family history of Reg. 

Reg also mentioned a recent incident to the Doctor. He was walking back from the shops and his legs had given way. He'd fallen over and a passing ambulance saw, as he lives by a main road. The ambulance crew stopped and checked him over. They then gave him a lift home. Apparently this was not logged. I simply could not believe that there was no follow up.

When I asked why Reg was walking such a distance, he informed me that several years ago, Barnet Council had revoked his Freedom Pass. Regular readers will know all about this. Sadly, it was not re-instated. A man with mental health and mobility issues has been put in a position where his social isolation is massively increased. We are now trying to get this reinstated, but this will take time. The GP letter we got yesterday will support this.

When we discussed the letter with the GP, he stated that 'normally we charge £25 for this". As he'd established Reg was on benefits and had no spare cash, this was waived. After the consult, Reg told me that was the first time he'd been let off the charge. It's clear to me that this is because I was their and Reg had someone to fight his corner.

There is more, but I am sure you get the picture. I have never felt so disgusted with the system, the Borough of Barnet and our local GP services. Because Reg is an adult, apparently he is not a priority for rehousing, even though his health is suffering.

The following points are clear to me.

1. Vulnerable people should have a proper advocate with them when dealing with authority. This should be provioded for those without friends as a legal requirement.

2. GP's should be legally required to work with social services where people's health is damaged by issues that are dealt with by multiple agencies. 

3. GP's should be legally required to contact authorities where sub standard rental accomodation is damaging people's health.

4. Barnet Council needs to urgently review its freedom pass allocation for vulnerable people

.

The NHS is not safe under Boris Johnson

Normally on Thursday, we do local news. Today I am writing a personal blog, because I believe that this is the most important issue facing every single person in the UK. The NHS is in the news. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is claiming that the NHS is safe under him. I cannot possibly stand by and not comment. There are three reasons why this is clearly not the case. Let me put my cards on the table. Since 2011, I've been under the care of the NHS for Prostate cancer. My treatment to date has cost approximately £50,000. Tomorrow this figure will go up again. The London Vaccination clinic, which I use to get vaccinations when I travel to India for business charges £200 for a PSA test.

I have several of these a year. I also have an MRI (approx £750) every year and have had four biopsies. The figure I found for a Prostate Biopsy was in the US and stated that the national average is around $2,600.  I also had Prostate Hifu treatment. The cost of this appears to be around $25,000 in the USA. Then there are countless GP visits etc. The cost of a private visit is around £60 a pop. Then there is the consultant visits at around £250 a pop.

As someone living with cancer, I am uninsurable. So the bulk of this would have come out of my pocket. Could your household budget take a £50,000 hit? I know mine would struggle and I am reasonably well off. I'd certainly have made different decisions, which may well have been life changing. Having a life threatening disease focuses the mind.

But how can I possibly state that all of this would change if Boris gets re-elected. There are three reasons.

1. The record of the Tories. My cancer journey started shortly after David Cameron got the keys to number 10. Since then, I've spent many hours in doctors surgeries, clinics and hospitals. Between the creation of the NHS in 1948 and 2010, the NHS budget was increased by approx 4% per annum every year, regardless of whether the Tories or Labour were in charge. This ground to a halt under Cameron. What has been the effect? There is now a crisis in nursing and when I went to get my blood test appointment earlier in the week, people were being told that there were no appointments for weeks at the Millway clinic. Then there is the PSA test. In 2011, when this detected my Prostate Cancer, it was a standard part of the NHS well man screening. That is what caught my cancer early and meant that in 2015, when it started to become aggressive, I was able to have treatment before it developed. That saved my life, but it was removed as it wasn't deemed value for money. Tell my kids that. I think it was the best £200 I ever spent. But the Tories have starved the NHS of money and people are dying as a result.

2. Boris's plans for Brexit. Boris and Donald Trump have talked about a trade deal. Jeremy Corbyn yesterday publicised the plans. The UK does not have a strong hand here. There is no secret at all that the US hates the NHS. My sister lives in the USA, she is a nurse and her husband is a doctor. They both understand how both systems work. There is no doubt at all that the US corporations want a piece of the NHS. I know this because the corporation of which my Brother in Law was an executive has had talks with Tories about making the NHS "more efficient". The US private medical corporations see the NHS as ripe for carving up and the US pharmaceutical companies see the NHS as a huge block to their income streams. There is absolutely no way that Donald Trump will sign a deal that protects the NHS and there is no way that Boris will be in a position to turn Donald Trump down, even if he wanted to. Donald Trump was elected on an "America First" platform. He will not be doing any foreign powers favours, especially when they are economically vulnerable.

3. The Conservatives are not telling the truth.  Watch this clip with health secretary Matt Hancock. I don't believe anyone who has seen this can possibly trust him.

How can you trust the @Conservatives on the #NHS watch this video 1.35mins is especially toe curling. Chemical Ali was never this bad 👇 pic.twitter.com/2YpbML4iZr

— davjam #GTTO #JC4PM2019 (@davjam8) November 28, 2019

Can you trust Boris? Many have tried and many have been disappointed. I have already spoken to senior people involved with the government who told me that there is a need for more efficiency in the NHS and that they see private companies as the best way to achieve that. I believe that this is a Trojan horse. Free market, right wing Conservatives believe the NHS to be an anathema. I don't doubt that they would enact some sort of safety net for the poorest, whatever their plans, but the truth is that when you remove the concept of Universal coverage, those like me, who have chronic illnesses will be exposed. Whilst some may say that I should be means tested and it is only fair that if I have to sell my house to pay for my medical bills, as it isn't their problem, I disagree. I think a civilised, welathy society can afford universal health care and that is a basic human right.

Make no mistake, Brexit will be a game changer for the NHS. In a years time, Boris will be perfectly comfortable taking us out of the EU with no deal and into a hastily cobbled together deal with Donald Trump. I've spent many months in the USA in my life. When you watch the coverage of politics on channels such as Fox News, they talk about the NHS as if it is a killing machine run by the gestapo. On many occasions I've been shocked at the sheer untruth of their claims.

Check out this article from @FOXNews. Scary lessons for Americans and ObamaCare from Britains National Health Service: ...

— Susan M. Harrison (@SchultzCreekGal) July 17, 2013

The @FoxNews anchors seem unbelievably provincial. Are they really as unaware as they seem of how the National Health Service works across Europe? Have they never travelled at all? https://t.co/Ee6uw2hK6S

— JOHN NICOLSON (@MrJohnNicolson) April 16, 2019

Sooner or later everyone needs the NHS. I was I guess lucky in that my Mum was born in 1925 and she took the trouble to tell us what healthcare was like before the NHS. One thing that always stuck in my mind was her story of how my Grandmothers 18th birthday present was to have all her teeth removed at the dentist. I was bemused. My mother explained that this spared her a lifetime of dental bills. Dentures were cheaper.  Sadly such knowledge is dying with her generation.

I implore everyone to vote for the candidate that has the best chance of stopping this. My own personal view is that in Finchley and Golders Green and Hendon, there is absolutely no chance of a Labour victory. They lost in 2010 and in 2015, when there were no issues with anti semitism. I sincerely believe that they will come second if the opposition unites around them. There are many sane, rational Conservative voters who do not want to see the NHS wrecked. I believe that if they believe that the Lib Dems can win, they may well cast their votes for them in this election. I know that for many readers, this is not something they want to hear. The only way to save the UK and the NHS is to prevent Boris having a majority. I believe that we all have a civic responsibility to work as hard as we can to ensure that Boris does not achieve this.

Why Frederick Forsyth is talking rubbish about NHS investment

One of my favourite columnists is Federick Forsyth in the Daily Express every Friday. Unlike the inane babble spouted by most tabloid celebrity columnists, who have dull lives and merely peddle tittle tattle, Fred has lead an interesting life and has plenty to say. I don't agree with most of his politics, but he makes interesting and well argued points and can bring a wealth of experience and anecdotes to support his views. This week however he demonstated that he really doesn't understand government or running a business. In his column, under the title "Doublespeak Politicians just love to 'invest' " he betrays a fundamental failure to appreciate what the govt is supposed to do with our money. He says

HAVE you noticed that politicians and most especially Left-wingers never mention the word “spending” when they unveil their economic plans? Thus Jeremy Corbyn, in a long, recent list of proposals, managed to blow several hundred billion pounds on the “investments” he would like to make if, heaven forbid, he ever actually got into power. 
Let’s be frank. If you really invest, the money remains yours and you can retrieve it when you want unless you have been daft enough to sign away your right to do that. And invested money provides a “yield” or “return on investment” – the ROI – which is the point of wise investment. But when it is spent, it’s gone. 
Thus, you cannot “invest” in the NHS. So billions are spent on it. OK, it’s a good expenditure to provide a nationwide healthcare service free at the point of delivery. But it is not an investment. We are never going to see it back or get an annual dividend dropping on to the doormat. 
Mind you, we live in a world of euphemisms, platitudes and smarmy untruths. 
Perhaps someone should create a parallel dictionary: what big business, advertisers, officialdom and politicians tell you and what it really means in plain English. It would be quite a big lexicon because what is said and what it really means is very rarely the same nowadays.

Mr Forsyth states "You cannot invest in the NHS" on the grounds "invested money provides a yield or return on investment". Sadly Fred really hasn't thought this through. There are three ways in which his statement is factually incorrect. First, there are many opportunities for investment in the NHS which will produce a yield for the taxpayer. Mr Forsyth should know better than anyone that technology is always offering investment opportunities, to increase efficiency in the way we do things. I will give one example. Fifty years ago the process of taking X-Rays was done by large departments. All of the results were stored on film and there was a huge requirement for a library system for the prints. These had to be kept for decades so comparisons etc could be performed. Modern technology means they are now digitised. This frees up land, reduces the number of staff required to run X Ray departments and means they cost far less to run. As the government funds this process, the investment in new equipment has produced a very real and tangible return for the taxpayer as the they have to levy less tax to pay for X rays. This process has been repeated in every part of the NHS. Had the governement not invested in this modernisation and we still used the 1950's way of doing things the NHS would cost many billions more to run.

The second way in which the NHS delivers a return for the government is when investment in new treatments mean that people who were previously unable to work are able to be treated and return to contributing to the economy. The NHS is just one strand of the UK economy, the government is responsible for the whole thing. It is true that the NHS is largely a cost centre, but it is a necessary one as it keeps the population fit and in good shape for work. This lowers the bill for disability benefits. I am a living example of how this works. Since 2011, I've been under the care of the NHS for cancer. In January I had a new treatment for prostate cancer, which has only been available for 4 years. The treatment is non invasive and thus far the results are good. By investing in screening and development of such treatments, people like me don't get ill with cancer and have to live on benefits at huge cost to the taxpayer. I have a friend who recently had stents for a chrnic heart condition. Twenty years ago he'd be living on cardiac drugs or even dead. If he was dead, the taxpayer would be picking up the bill for his family. Lowering the tax bill by having lower levels of chronic illness is a great example. Perhaps the greatest return on investment has been for immunisation programs that have eliminated diseases such as polio, measles and mumps. Improvements in osbstetrics have also massively reduced the number of problems with births. These have contributed massively to reducing the cost of running the nation. If this is not a wise investment, I've no idea what is.

The third way in which investment in the NHS produces a dividend is perhaps the most obvious, even for someone like Fred, who clearly doesn't get business. The NHS is continually developing and pioneering new treatments. Once these have been perfected, they are then licensed and sold around the world. The UK is a centre of excellence and doctors come from all over the world to learn about the innovations we provide. This generates huge amounts of money for the GDP.

Fred Forsyth says that because we won't get a dividend check through the door, it is wrong to define it as an investment. I couldn't disagree more. The dividend check is paid in the way the NHS is continually using technology to develop new treatments, to make more people well again and that citizens of the UK pay less money than any other developed nation for first class medical care. 

There are all manner of reasons someone will invest. Some people invest to recieve a big dividend check. Some people invest in companies, because they know that there won't be dividends for years (even decades) but the company is developing producst that will make the share value rocket (early google investors are an example of this). Then there are people who invest in shares to get a shareholder benefit. For years I held shares in The Restaurant Group. They gave every shareholder 12 vouchers a year that gave them 30% off the full price of a meal for up to 12 people. As the restarants like Frankie and Bennys, Chiquito and Blubeckers were favourites of my family and kids, my £1000 investment was recovered in 2 years of savings on family nights out. For me the best "shareholder benefit" of the NHS is that I am still alive and you really can't get a better benefit than that!

Tax - No one likes it until they need public services

Yesterday, out of frustration at comments on my Facebook timeline I posted the following comment

Next time someone says they pay too much tax, drive them out into the middle of the countryside, break both their legs with a baseball bat, then ask them if they would like an ambulance to take them to A&E. If they say yes, ask them if they still think paying tax for such services is bad.
Actually please dont do that, but maybe you could explain the scenario to them. Tax is always a rip off until we are in the shit and need public services.

I received the followin two responses.

 Here in USA: After I crashed into a wall, having been run off the road by someone who did not stop: Emergency ambulance from I95 to nearest trauma cente(5 miles) - $500, 5 hours in emergency room: &30,000.00. Paid days off work, using accrued paid time off- 2. Prescription meds each month, spouse and myself about $300. Next time you moan about the National Health, count your blessings.

 And

Well said. I have had a kidney transplant here which would have bankrupted me in the States and yet we are blindly following America down the road of an unadulterated market economy. I object to some of the things my taxes go towards but I want to live in a society where everyone can receive the help they need. We just have to accept that some people don't want to contribute.

What could I possibly add to that?

Rog T's Cancer Blog - Part II - Friday the 13th, The day of doom? The NHS crisis bites

This blog is part II of todays Cancer Blog series (read part one here). I urge all Barnet residents who are under treatment for Cancer to read this blog and complete the poll in the sidebar.

I am in a state of shock. Today I discovered something which I cannot quite comprehend. As I mentioned, I had my appointment changed from a face to face meeting to a "telephone consultation" at 11.40 (see scanned letter), so I arranged my day around this.

I planned all of my meetings & business commitments to fit in with this schedule. I had an important work related call at between 10am & 11am. The plan was have a cup of tea and chill until I got the call.

So at 10.40, I was in the middle of a call on my work mobile and the home phone rings. So I pick it up and sure enough it is the Urology department. I quickly had to end the other call. The one rule I have always had is that my health comes first.



As I mentioned, I had recently had an MRI scan and a PSA test that had seen a rise from 4.0 to 5.5. On previous visits to the consultant, he's shown me the scans and drawn diagrams etc to explain the diagnosis. I wasn't happy that this wasn't available as an option. So I started the conversation by asking why the appointment had been changed. The answer shcoked me. I was told that there was a huge backlog of appointments due to a lack of facilities and meeting rooms. To me this was shocking. Cancer patients are being denied the opportunity to have a proper consultation in Barnet. However great a telephone manner, how on earth can you be reassurred if you cannot see the MRI scan results? The person who called was not a member of the team I'd met previously (to my recollection) so how could I even be sure it was a qualified doctor? Now as it happens the person I spoke to seemed knowledgable enough, but as I mentioned earlier, I was seeking a degree of reassurrance.

So what was the news? Well they want me to come in for a full biopsy under general anaesthetic. Apparently this is a different kind of biopsy to the previous one. They take far more core samples and they do not access the Prostate via th anus. Apparently the side effects are pretty similar, but the risk of infection is far less. So not only am I having a telephone consultation, but we are discussing surgery for a potentially life threatening disease on the phone. For me this is disgusting.

This is the situation that the NHS finds itself in as a result of the current Tory lead government. Barnet Hospital trust effectively went bust and has been taken over by The Royal Free. The Royal Free have now put in place a huge cost cutting exercise, to remove face to face appointments and replace them with phonecalls, do discuss surgery with cancer patients. Now if we simply accept this, then what will be next? So I told the person I was speaking to that I wanted him to tell his management that I considered this highly inappropriate. I said that I wanted it recorded that I think that anyone getting results of tests, discussing surgery or anything else which is beyond the level of simply getting routine test results should get a proper face to face consultation.

So on to the results. Well he reassurred me that the biopsy was "just part of the protocol" and not related to the MRI reslt, I asked what the MRI result was. What I heard did not quite make sense. I was told that there was no change from the previous and that the rating was 3. Now previously I was told that the mass was undetectable. As the radiographer marks the scan, how can it be 3 if it's undetectable? As I wasn't there to see, how could I be reassurred.

As to the rising PSA? Well again "Nothing to worry about" as it is within normal limits. He stated that I should only be worried if it doubled. Well the thing is that it has. My first test in 2011 was 2.8. It is now 5.5 which is virtually double. I pointed this out. He said "That was 2011 and it has been stable since. He explained that the Prostate grows and this raises the PSA naturally.

So where am I? Well I have yet another procedure to be performed. I've been told that the MRI is OK and the PSA is OK. And I've also been told that my local hospital has not got enough meeting rooms to let me see my consultant.

When it comes down to it, my health comes first. If the government cannot run a health service where I can get to see my consultant, then we need a different government. I am angry, frustrated and worried about what the future holds for me and the hundreds of other people who are "on the waiting list" and are getting a phone call over the next few weeks. This is not trivial. Please complete the poll in the sidebar. It is anonymous. The more people who complete it, the stronger the message we can send.

We don't need a debate to hear how David Cameron has ruined the NHS

There is a lot of debate about whether the Party leaders should have a televised debate. I think this is a completely pointless exercise. We've had five years of the Coalition. David Cameron has a track record to be judged by. Mr Cameron and his colleagues have been making hay about how well the economy is doing and how many new jobs have been created. The sad truth is that it is onlly this month, nearly five years after Cameron took the helm, that the economy has recovered to a point where we are as wealthy as we were in 2008 when the global economic meltdown happened. It is also a fact that the man in charge of business is Vince Cable, not a Tory at all but a Lib Dem. So we have to conclude that in the area where Cameron is claiming his governments greatest success, he is not even in charge. Cable is an economist and is widely recognised as being one of the most capable members of the government. This is born out by the fact that neither the Tories or Labour attack Cable in the way they attack Clegg. Any attempts by these parties to bully Cable inevitably end in a very bloody nose for the bully boys. But Camerons proposition is that the most successful cabinet member should be turfed out on his ear and replaced by a Tory lackey of Cameron.

The sad truth is that the most important thing the govt do is to run the NHS and this doesn't have Mr Cable in charge. This has had a succession of useless Tory lackeys, who are not up to the job. The latest one Jeremy Hunt has been in charge since 2012. How is the NHS doing under his watch. Now regular readers of this blog know that we normally run a joke on Friday, but at 1.20 this morning I got this email from a regular reader of the blog

Thanks to the negligence of Barnet General Hospital I have an incurable cancerous disease the left overs of a carcinoid tumour.

Periodically I have massive debilitating carcinoid attacks and have to inject myself, or if the attack is particularly bad a member of my family has to inject me.

At 10am yesterday morning March 5th , I say yesterday morning because it is now 1-15 am on the 6th. I had a severe carcinoid attack and my wife called the specialist nurses of the Nets team at the Royal a Free Hampstead, who qualified the actions we had taken were correct, but also suggested I take at least one more injection. They asked that we call them later to let them know how things were going which my wife did, but as my symptoms appeared particularly severe and I had minor surgery three weeks ago. They were concerned I might have a bad infection related to my recent surgery, and advised us to ring our GP to get a home visit as a matter of urgency.

My wife called the surgery at 4 pm yesterday March 5th, it is now 1-20 am on March 6th, and I am still waiting for the so called out of hours emergency Dr to arrive, 9hours and 20 minutes since my wife called our GP surgery.

Yet Mathew Offord  the joke of an excuse for an MP of Hendon, insists there are no problems to deal with in our Local NHS, it is now 9 hours and 25 minutes and still no Dr, my wife has gone to bed exhausted, and although I am feeling really ill and have had no sleep for two days, I have to sign off and await the Dr.

How on earth can ignore this? How on earth can anyone with any humanity say that this is a right and proper sitution? There is no need for any debate on this issue. The NHS is falling apart if a man with cancer cannot get the treatment he needs. We read of the barbarity of ISIS, but what we are hearing of here is far more brutal. A man in excruciating pain for 9 hours with no treatment and no help.

That is the sad truth of David Camerons reign. Anyone who reads this blog (look at yesterdays entry) know that we are not friends of the local Labour party. We do however have to look at the bigger picture. In the London Borough of Barnet we have two marginal seats. These are Mike Freer in Finchley and Golders Green and Matthew Offord in Hendon. The sad truth is that the only way we will see the NHS sorted out is to send these two extremely poor MP's packing and replace them with someone who cares about the NHS.

The Conservatives do a grand job looking after their millionaire supporters, top bankers and businessmen. The sad truth though is that any one of us could be writing that letter above. I have cancer and I am ony too aware of the Sword of Damoclese over my head. That my friends is the truth. And tomorrow it could be you, your wife, your son, your mum, your granny, your mistress or your favourite auntie. Unless you vote to fix the problem in May, this will only get far far worse. You don't need a debate to figure that out.

Sorry there is no joke today. I am sure you understand though.

The Peoples March for the NHS is on it's way to London - Join the march in Barnet to save the NHS

JOIN US. DO A MILE, DO 10 MILES OR MORE. VOLUNTEER OR COME TO A RALLY.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

SATURDAY 6th Sept 3.30pm

LONDON RALLY STEWARDS

We need volunteer stewards to help run the London Rally. If you think you can work ith 250 dedicated helpers in a fun, friendly and calm manner and would like to help this event to be a safe, enjoyable and memorable please get in touch.

 
 

 

Thousands of people have marched with us and supported us. The People's March is growing every day. Click on the dates below to find out more about the People's March in your area and how you can join us.

The march started in Jarrow in protest at cuts and privatisation in the NHS. The march arrives in comes through Barnet on Friday 5th, on our St Albans to Edmonton leg. We are aiming to lunch in Ravenscroft Gardens between 1 and 2. 

Our website is here:

http://999callfornhs.org.uk

And Facebook event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/250607991792741/

If you can, please come along and give your support
 

Time for the Barnet Times to join the crusade for a better Health service in Barnet

What do you want from your local paper? I know what I want. I want a paper that stands up for local residents. I have a rather odd, possibly perverse view that the local press is massively important. I believe that a free press is a vital part of democracy. Local press is under siege at the moment. Papers up and down the country are shutting every week. In Barnet we have two, the Times Group and the Press Group. When I was a teenager, the Edgware and Mill Hill Times was an esteemed paper. You had to buy it and thousands of people did. The paper was a launch pad for the careers of some quite esteemed journalists.

Fast forward to 2014 and we have a rather unfortunate change. Wheras the then editor Dennis Signy answered to the papers readers and could take whatever editorial line he liked, now the paper is delivered to your home for free and it is the advertisers who are in charge.

If you click this link and forward to pages 34 & 35 you will see that Barnet Council take huge adverts every week - http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=G0e24cD1wE08&PBID=77E23626-E666-4444-A056-8A0B5982DC80&skip= - now the good thing about this is that the Council is actually doing something useful keeping the paper afloat. The bad thing is that it means that, should the council wish, they can ring up the editor and threaten him with withdrawal of advertising revenues, if the paper carries stories they don't like. Does this ever happen? Well sadly, if it hadn't this blog would not exist. You see I used to write a blog on the Hendon Times. That was stopped because I wrote a blog exposing how Barnet Council had placed a Youtube video with a Nazi supporter making anti semetic comments on their website. Members of the ruling administration took issue with the paper for allowing me to criticise the council and I was sacked as a Times community blogger.

For those unfamiliar with the story, this is the blog which caused the council to get me sacked

http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/barnet-councils-incompetance-puts-nazi.html

A certain notorious member of the Barnet Council Cabinet even boasted that he'd ended my blogging career (1.2 million hits later, I can safely say predictions of my demise as a blogger were slightly premature). Now for all I know, my little stint as a blogger at the Times was the only time that politicians in Barnet Council used threats to change the editorial policy. I have no idea whether Martin Buhagiar, the current editor ever gets calls. He tells me that the local Tories were rather cross when he printed a piece about some misfunctioning sprinklers in a council building. What I do know for a fact is that we have a constant stream of "good news" stories concerning local Conservative policies and politicians. Today we have two

There's this one about local Hendon MP Matthew Offord visiting a charity kitchen in India. Mr Buhagiar must love this story, because out of all of the stories in Barnet today, he's made it the "Editors Choice".
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11032944.MP_Matthew_Offord_spices_up_trip_to_India/?ref=var_0


The other story promoting local Conservatives is the one about Councillor Robert Rams spending a day in an "ambulance" promoting a grant of £28,000 from the "Big Society fund" to the London Ambulance Responder Service.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11029030.Councillor_in_ambulance_ride_along/

I find this story truly disgusting. You see the NHS is in crisis in Barnet. Recently we've had reports of Barnet General A&E being locked down as there were no beds available. One report stated that there were 19 ambulances unable to drop off their patients.

To be fair to the Times, they did print one story about misdiagnosis and poor treatment in Barnet.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11028452._She_was_the_light_of_our_lives____family_dog_dies_after_vets_said_she_was_not_sick/

This was the story of how a much loved family dog died after misdiagnosis. If you believed the Times this week, that is the state of the NHS in Barnet, grants to volunteer ambulence men and the biggest health story being a dead dog. Now don't get me wrong, I love dogs and I am most upset that such a tragedy should befall a family pet, but there is a CRISIS IN THE NHS IN BARNET !!!!!

Fortunately the Barnet Press seem to take the matter more seriously. Their top story is that of Edgware resident John Sullivan aged 71.

http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=6052

Mr Sullivan was misdiagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome for five years, whilst a carcinoid tumour went undetected. When Mr Sullivan was finally diagnosed and the surgeon became aware of the agony Mr Sullivan was suffering, he was admitted to the Royal Free as an emergency. That was the Wednesday before last. Mr Sullivan was given drugs for 24 hours to prepare him for major surgery. He was scheduled to have surgery at 11am on the Thursday. At 6pm, having waited all day on an IV drip, he was told to go home on the tube, as no intensive care beds were available. The tumour causes Mr Sullivans bowel to go into violent spasm, resulting in him spending hours in agony writhing around on the floor screaming. Mr Sullivan is the carer for his daughter Susan, aged 50, who suffers from Downs Syndrome. In short, the whole family is being ripped apart. One of the reasons for the lack of IC beds at the Royal Free was because the hospital takes overspill patients when Barnet General is overloaded. When people need an IC bed, ambulances are diverted to the nearest available hospital. As a result, the closure of Chase FArm not only affects Barnet General, but every hospital in the locality.

There are many aspects of Mr Sullivans case that would warrent a story. There is the fact that Doctors misdiagnosed Cancer as IBS for five years. Apparently this is not uncommon for this tumour. Wouldn't you want your local paper to inform you of this. There is the fact that not only Barnet General is unable to take emergency patients since the closure of Chase Farm. Then there is the biggest story of all. The fact that the Coalition government is underfunding the NHS to such an extent that an elderly man cannot be given an emergency operation on quiet Thursday in a warm February. Think about it. In the Borough we have 2 branches of the Northern Line, 2 major high speed rail lines, the M1 and a stack of other massive roads. If there were no IC beds in Barnet for Mr Sullivan, there would be none had any of those major transport hubs had an accident a sudden influx of emergency patients needed treatment. Look at it another way, if you had a heart attack two Thursdays ago, there would be no bed for you. You would be on an ambulance trolley, screaming in pain, as they drove around looking for a bed.

Now I am sure that the Barnet Times didn't maliciously ignore the story of John Sullivan. I am sure that when the editor picked his selection of dead dogs and dopey politicians, he was acting with the highest motives. It must be a hard job running a paper in such a busy metropolis as the London Borough of Barnet. I am sure that it can be difficult prioritising sick pensioners over dead dogs, but hey get real. Which is more likely to change you life, being stuck in an ambulance, desperately trying to find a bed, while the driver scours London for a bed, or your pooch being misdiagnosed?

I don't seek any favours from the local press. I simply ask that they do their job and tell us the local stories that REALLY MATTER. There are some vital questions that Mr Sullivans treatment has highlighted

1. If there are not a enough beds on a quiet Thursday afternoon in February, then surely there are not enough beds full stop.

2. LBB has two major railways, the M1, the A406/A1/A41 etc, what would happen if there was a major accident on any of these?

3. With Brent Cross redevelopment, Mill Hill East, Colindale, West Hendon and a net rise of 105,000 residents by the councils own research, if we can't cope now, we certainly won't cope going forward.

4. What would happen if there was a major flu pandemic?

5. In 1996, we had three major IC units available for Barnet Residents, at Edgware, Chase Farm and Barnet General, now we only have one, yet we have a third more people coming into the Borough. Where is the evidence that there is any planning for provision?

6. How often are patients turned away due to lack of IC beds?

7. How much money is wasted paying consultants, nurses and on medicines, due to operations being cancelled?

8. Where any private patients being treated in IC beds during these emergencies.

Cuts to the health service do not discriminate. We are all at risk. the cuts have gone too far and we need a proper review to ensure that all Barnet residents, their children and their elderly parents are not left on trolleys outside A&E or turned away from life saving operations.

I ask the Times Group of newspapers to back my call for a public enquiry into the NHS in Barnet. This is not a party political matter, heart attacks do not discriminate against Tory or Labour supporters. Any one of us could need the NHS at any time. What is the point in the "Big Society fund" funding paramedics if there is no bed for the patients when they get to hospital. It is all very well our local MP going on holiday to India and visiting a soup kitchen. Surely he should be visiting the A&E wards every day and making sure that his constituents get the best possible treatment.

So I grovellingly ask Mr Bugharia to think again and give Mr Sullivans story and the issues it raises the dignity and prominence it deserves. If we can stop the NHS being destroyed by ill tought out cuts, it will benefit us all. Who knows who amongst us will need an IC bed tonight. It could be you, me, Mr Bugharia, my daughter, your mum or Mrs Beans down the road. Whoever it is, I for one, will not rest until they can be assurred the level of care they deserve. As far as I am concerned, it is the job of our newspapers to join the crusade for a decent NHS in Barnet. If they don't they should spell out why. If they say nothing, sadly we will have to draw our own conclusions.

Three things which you might want to think about this morning

Three things,

The Daily Mirror this morning is claiming that to date ATOS have judged that 158,000 sick people fit for work and the DWP have reversed the decisions (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/atos-wrongly-assessed-thousands-sick-3159343 ).

This is on top of the. Estimated 100,000 that have had their ATOS assessment overturned on appeal.

Apparently Barnet General Hospital A&E has been closed to admissions twice more last week.

Every single one of the 258,000 people affected by an ATOS decision is a human being. They have feelings. They have to make ends meet. Every single one of them has been put through emotional stress by the process. What sort of a government inflicts such trauma on a quarter of a million disabled people?

As to the situation at Barnet General. As the old lottery advert said "It could be you" having a heart attack and being turned away from A&E. When that happens, will you still think that a 1p a week tax cut was really a sensible policy?

The NHS in Barnet is in total meltdown - cancer patients sent home on day of life saving operations

NHS bosses discuss Johns treatment with his Dr

Regular readers of this blog will have seen many guest blogs by disabled rights campaigner John Sullivan. John is a passionate advocate of a fair deal for people with learning difficulties. What most of the readers will not know is why John has such an urgent mission and such a great anger. John Sullivan has a large cancerous tumour in his bowel. This was misdiagnosed as IBS for five years allowing it to spread and grow, to such a stage where he is in constant pain. At times the pain is so excruciating that John lies on the floor screaming for hours on end. The tumour causes his bowel and intestines to twist and go into spasm. When this happens, all John can do is lie in agony until the spasm passes. This happens most days. Despite all of this, John is more concerned about the future of his daughter Susan, who is 50 and has Downs Syndrome. Johns only real fear for the future is not for his own suffering, but that if he dies, Susan will be thrown to the wolves. He has dedicated his married life to trying to shield Susan from the world. No conversation with John about his cancer happens without him mentioning the fact that he has no choice but to fight on for Susans sake.

After years of misdiagnosis, last year, doctors finally identified the cause of Johns illness. He had an extensive series of tests and given the worsening prognosis, he was given a treatment plan. This involved monthly injections to shrink the tumour and a date was set for an operation. The surgeon informed John that there were two possible outcomes. If the tumour was not attached to significant organs, it would be removed. If it was, it would be left in, but detatched so that it did not cause the bowel to twist and spasm. This would alleviate the pain. The tumour would then be addressed with chemotherapy. Both options involve major surgery, with risks, but both would offer John a decent quality of life, in the short term at least. There would be no more rolling around screaming on the floor of ASDA when an attack struck. When the medical team became aware of the frequency and acuteness of Johns attacks, he was designated a clinical emergency.

On Wednesday, John was admitted for his operation. He needed to be admitted 24 hours early, as he had to be put on an intravenous drip of medicines designed to subdue the tumour. The doctors were aware that the surgery may cause the tumour to flare up, therefore it needed to be "pacified" (excuse my lack of medical detail, I have not been party to Johns treatment or seen his notes). Once the tumour had been pacified, John was scheduled to be taken for surgery at 11am on Thursday. He was booked into the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead for the operation.

At 10am, I sent John a text wishing him well for the operation and telling him my thoughts and prayers were with him. I sat back and said a quiet prayer for John. I've never discussed religion with him, but if nothing else it made me feel better. At 18:14pm, over seven hours after the scheduled start time for his operation, I received a text from John. It was terse. "They have just cancelled the operation no intensive care beds available". I sent back a text. The next text I received was at 19.05. It simply said "on the tube now".

Eventually I spoke to John. The story he told was heartbreaking and totally disgusting. Basically he'd been kept waiting all day (with a drip in his arm) and at 6pm, the consultant had come down to personally apologise to him. He said "John, I don't know what to say, other than how deeply sorry I am. There are no intensive care beds available in the hospital today. Myself and three other consultants have had to cancel our operations. We can't do them if we don't have a bed".

Which leads me to the question "How can a large hospital in London, treating acute cancer cases, not have enough beds?" Well as far as I am concerned, the answer is obvious. The Government recently shut the A&E department at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield. On Tuesday, I wrote this blog http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/when-first-person-dies-due-to-queues-at.html detailing how ambulances were being turned away from Barnet General. These emergency cases were being sent to other hospitals. Where do emergency cases end up? In Intensive Care beds. So the only conclusion that can be drawn is that John Sullivans inhuman treatment by the NHS is the direct result of David Cameron and his government shutting Chase Farm A&E department.

Now I ask everyone to think this through logically. John Sullivan is not special. David Cameron did not ring up the bosses at The Royal Free and say "I don't like John Sullivan, send him home to die". David Cameron and his government have simply said "We won't fund the NHS properly". What this means is that it isn't just John Sullivan. It is everyone in Barnet, perhaps London, perhaps the whole UK, who could find themselves in John Sullivans situation. And if there are no intensive care beds at the Royal Free, if ambulances are being turned away from Barnet General, where will you be taken if you get run over, have a heart attack or any other form of emergency treatment. It is a statement of the bleeding obvious that when you are in need of critical care, the sooner you get to hospital and the sooner you are treated, the higher the chances that you will live. If the ambulance you are in is being turned away from all the hospitals in the locality, what are your chances of survival.

Budget cuts don't discriminate. It doesn't matter whether you are Tory, Labour or Monster Raving looney, if there are no beds, you will die. David Cameron and his government supported by local Tory MP's Theresa Villiers, Matthew Offord and Mike Freer, have allowed this situation to develop. John Sullivan has no date for his rescheduled operation. His consultant could offer no guarantee that when he is asked back, the same thing will not happen. The NHS in Barnet is in Meltdown. I was talking to John yesterday and he made a stark observation "The only successful thing the Tories have launched in the last 20 years was the national lottery. With that you have a 14 million to one chance of winning. It was so successful that they've decided to give you a 14 million to one chance of getting a hospital bed if you have cancer".

There is an even more chilling postscript to this tale. I asked John to write up his experience as a guest blog. He refused. He said "I am going to get pissed, because I have had enough. If it wasn't for Susan I'd have thrown myself under the tube last night when I was kicked out of the hospital". I got a phonecall from John at the pub last night. He'd clearly had a few and he said "listen to this" and passed the phone to one of his friends. The friend told me that he worked at Barnet General hospital and that apparently sixteen nurses had handed their resignation in, as a protest against the conditions under which they were working. Now I have no idea whether this was accurate or true, but I have no reason to doubt the honesty of the Johns friend. It strikes me that the NHS is falling apart.

Perhaps the saddest part of the tale was what John said happened when he arrived home Thursday Evening. His daughter Susan bounded up to him and said "Have they taken the cancer out of your tummy chief, I knew it would be alright"