Final Thoughts on Savile & More Volunteering

The extent of the alleged abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile has been made public in a report published today. Though we've known for some months of the crimes claimed to have been committed by the late presenter and personality, one cannot fail to be shocked by the details that have emerged. Jimmy Savile is dead and cannot answer for his crimes and it should be remembered that these are allegations and though there is no reason to doubt any of the testimonies, they cannot be proved.
Good has to come out of something like this. There have clearly been major failings that allowed the alleged abuse to carry on unchecked and unchallenged. The warnings voiced by certain individuals were ignored. The question being asked by so many people is 'why?'. It is difficult to understand how nothing was done, with the most recent opportunity lost in 2009 when the Crown Prosecution Service dropped a case against him, clearly failing in their duty.
Hopefully there will be a greater emphasis from now on to investigate rumours and allegations and to take children seriously.

This afternoon I responded to a plea sent out from SHINE Lincolnshire for volunteer PEAT (Patient Environment Action Team) inspectors. Apparently they are very short of volunteers, who's role it is to go visit inpatient hospital departments and inspect levels of cleanliness and hygiene among other things. As with most things nowadays, there is no reward apart from having expenses paid, but there's always the possibility of it leading to something more concrete.

I had my pre-diabetic clinic blood test this morning. I always have to take a wee sample with me which they check there and then. Unsurprisingly they found sugar in it so it's been sent off to be analysed at King's Lynn QEII Hospital. They very kindly booked me a diabetic clinic appointment for the 25th, a Friday. I expect I will be advised to move onto an injectable form of medication rather than the (many) tablets I currently take each day.

Praise for the 111 Service

At 1am last night, I found myself dialling 111 for my wife who had taken ill with severe abdominal pains. Ironically, I had earlier watched Channel 4's '999 - What's Your Emergency'. I was immediately put in touch with a trained and professional operative who talked me through basic checks. They dispatched a Paramedic who arrived in a few minutes preceded by a First Response unit from our local town of Long Sutton. The response was nothing short of instant and the care we received was simply first class.
It was decided that my wife should attend hospital and an ambulance was requested by the Paramedic, but she was told there would have been a wait for one to become available. Instead of waiting, the Paramedic drove my wife to QE II Hospital, King's Lynn where she was treated.
Although the exact cause for the pain hasn't been established, my wife does have pain reducing medication and antibiotics. These are helping though we will need reassess her condition at the weekend.
We live in what I would consider to be a fairly remote location on the edge of the Wash. Despite this, we were attended to within minutes by well-equipped and highly professional personnel.
A huge thanks to the emergency response teams of Long Sutton and Moulton Chapel! I appreciate it.

Spalding, Lincolnshire's own Wild West

I've written before of my fear that Lincolnshire is becoming a lawless county. Indeed, my nearest town of Spalding has deteriorated so much that there is a petition by the local newspaper to rid the town of drugs and anti social behaviour. Many would consider my views about Spalding as rather harsh, but my criticism for the town and the people who police it is reinforced by the fact that my own mother was assaulted on Tuesday last. She had been waiting for a bus at Spalding Bus Station with my father after their regular shopping trip. A young woman was also at the stop yelling and swearing at someone on her mobile phone. Her language was foul and others in the queue had noticed and begun to keep their distance. My mother decided to speak to her and asked her to moderate her language as there were young children in the queue. The woman reacted violently and knocked my mother to the ground. Being nearly 70 years of age and quite frail, she stood no chance and fell to the ground breaking her pelvis. Thankfully there were many in the queue who had witnessed the assault and they held the woman until the police arrived. She has been arrested and she has been charged with assault. My mother is now in Boston's Pilgrim Hospital and it will be some time before she is back home and many months before she is able to walk unaided.

There is no doubt my mother had been in the right to confront the woman. No one should have to listen to someone's foul mouthed rants and the presence of children made it all the more appropriate to intervene. What is appalling is that someone would knock an elderly woman to the ground for what was in effect a minor request that frankly any of us would have made.
I'm thankful of all those who willingly provided witness statements and to the police who made my mother as comfortable as possible until the ambulance arrived.
The woman, for whom violence was her first reaction, now faces the prospect of a court appearance and a life labelled with a criminal record. I can only hope that the penalty, though likely to be light, will in some way change this woman's thinking and perhaps encourage her to better control her reactions in the future.

So, has my view of Spalding worsened as a result of my mother's assault? Yes I'm afraid it has. It is a natural reaction to being affected by what I see as a society out of control. Lincolnshire, is and always will be, a lawless county. It is difficult to police at the best of times, given its size and scattered population, but the reduction in government funding and reduced police numbers has allowed for areas such as Spalding to deteriorate to the point of being a 'Wild West' town that people now choose to avoid.
Besides the obvious physical harm caused, there will be more damaging mental harm which will be impossible to completely heal. I've no way of telling if and how my mother will be affected by this, but in some I know, such an experience can cause agoraphobia and paranoia.

It is so sad that Spalding has become the place it is. The warnings have been there for some time, but very little has been done to rid the town of alcohol fuelled violence, theft, drugs and gangs. Those charged with running the town need to wake up and realise the lasting damage that's being done.
Spalding was once the jewel in Lincolnshire's crown. Not any more.

The All-Clear

This morning I'm with my wife at the breast screening clinic. It's purely routine stuff but one can't help feeling a little worried. My view is that it's simply not possible for us to suffer any further bad luck and I try to reassure my wife that nothing out of the ordinary will be discovered. I don't know what effect my reassurance has, but probably very little. As I sit waiting while my wife is prodded and poked I am struck by how basic the waiting area is.

My wife appears soon after and tells me the doctor who examined her didn't find anything suspicious. That in itself was reassuring. He wanted a mammogram doing just to be sure and it wasn't long before we were ushered to another waiting room in the breast scanning dept. 

I am drawn to the radiation warning signs and find myself worrying more about the number of roentgens my wife will receive and what percentage of her normal yearly dose she will receive. We didn't wait long before my wife was taken into a room containing some space-age looking equipment. Sat in the waiting room I could just make out some sounds of motors and beeps. I'd watched a This Morning special on breast awareness the other day with my wife so we both knew what to expect. I do hope we get the results today. The chap who has to look at the scans hadn't arrived yet so we had to wait. I think it's the waiting that's the worst part. It would be so much better if they told you there and then. After another short wait while a report was prepared, we were sent back to the waiting room we had come from to wait for the results. The waiting room was quite busy, some of the people being those who were with us at the start. It's all about waiting. One doctor to fifty patients. The maths is easy.

A radio plays out the local station KLFM. It's strangely out of place here. The tunes are jolly and I find it quite irritating and in a way disrespectful. The only other sounds are from the staff discussing their shifts and lunch breaks. Old worn magazines are flicked from page to page. They are out of date and their news known and digested countless times. But they will still be there next year, and probably the year after if they remain intact.

The waiting room is now quite full. They are playing Queen on the radio. So out of place for a breast clinic waiting room.

There is an air conditioning unit in the corner of the room. It looks like a poor attempt at a Dalek or cheap space alien. It has pipe sticking out of it at all angles with a large pipe forced through a window to the outside. It looks as if it's been added by someone in haste who can no longer endure the oppressive hospital heat and has been forced through desperation to construct this monstrosity. I imagine it is as loud as it looks though I wouldn't want to be around when it is switched on.

It's finally my wife's turn and her name is called. She disappears into a side room and I begin to think how I will react if she is given bad news. How will we manage and can I give her the support she needs? In less than a minute, my wife reappears. It’s good news, all clear. Nothing suspicious was detected. What a relief… Instead of the anguish if we’d had bad news, we joked about how the mammogram required her breasts to be squashed almost flat for the machine to get a good enough image. It was good that we could relax and joke. We are lucky and I feel for anyone who cannot, for there are sadly too many…