TRAVEL CHAOS

The travel chaos at Heathrow Airport and St. Pancras Station in London this week has been unbelievably inhuman. Thousands of people stranded, sometimes for days, some waiting for hours outside in sub-zero temperatures, with no information, no comfort and no apparent concern. The British Airport Authority advised people not to turn up at an already overcrowded airport and travel companies told them that if they didn’t turn up they couldn’t claim an alternative flight or refund.
There must be a better way of dealing with this type of emergency. For a start TREAT it as an emergency, not a corporate “cover our ass” exercise with conflicting advice.

I must again apologise for being a little naive, but this should not have been left to serendipity. There was plenty of warning of impending massive snow falls. Airport, train and tour companies should have acted as one. Travellers could be “filtered” by text offering rescheduled bookings.

Anyone that HAD to travel could state their case, go on a realistic priority rating waiting list and given a time to arrive at the airport/station to take their chances with any planes/trains available. You would think that in these days of superfast communication a system like that shouldn’t be beyond the wit of corporate idiots. No – strike that out. It probably is. They prefer to hide their heads in the sand and hope that it will go away.

If olny they would tell the truth. I was impressed by one woman from a hospital who admitted that despite all the warnings they had been totally unprepared and were now going “back to the drawing board” to rethink the whole thing. One of the solutions was to have a list of people that lived near enough to be on call, transport to get others in instead of individuals having to struggle in on their own and provisions for staff to stay overnight. The patients must come first. Bravo.

MY FINAL WORD ON PATHETIC POLITICIANS

Five surgeons from big cities are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon, from New York, says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second, from Chicago , responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! everything inside them is colour coded."

The third surgeon, from Dallas , says, "No, I really think librarians are the best, everything inside them is in alphabetical order"

The fourth surgeon, from Los Angeles chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers... Those guys always under stand when you have a few parts left over."

But the fifth surgeon, from Washington, DC shut them all up when he observed: "You're all wrong.................. politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable.

....and while I'm in a pissy mood - on to the NHS and the EMERGECY follow up of OG's suspected TIA (aka migraine). He received an appointment for the promised doppler scan and as instructed presented himself at the designated clinic to be told that the doctor was running 2 hours late. As instructed OG re-presented himself again two hours later, saw the doctor, who looked at the brain scan, scratched his head and said he that the result was not conclusive he would need to have another one. I asked OG "What about the doppler then?" "Oh, I forgot to ask". Right!

This Monday he received an appointment letter to see the doctor again on 9th June and the next day an appointment for a HEART scan on the 15th June. OG already has an appointment to see his cancer surgeon on 15th June so he 'phoned, as instructed, to say he couldn't keep the appointment for the HEART scan and another appointment was re-arranged for 27th JULY. Are you with me so far? So......on 9th June he will see the doctor to discuss the brain scan than hasn't been arranged and on 27th July will go for a HEART scan that hasn't been requested. In the meantime, when do they propose to do the doppler?

I've got a good plan, lets pour more of our borrowed money into this black hole of a money pit!

And finally ... never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative.