When ?

[S-Kippy]

Very nicely put, Kev. Precisely my thoughts/experience too. I've been being treated for a nasty TB like infection for nearly 2 years now and I honestly caanot fault my treatment and I can ring my nurse/consultant at any time if I have a concern.

I'm afraid that the experience of GPs that those of us of a certain vintage grew up with and came to expect is over. There are fewer and fewer GP's with greater and greater demands placed upon them with less and less funding and more and more patients living longer and longer.....and that's without a pandemic to cope with. There is a lot of building going on but nobody seems to think about the pressure that puts on local GP practices and A&E which is increasingly full of people who are there simply because they cannot get a GP appt/consultation for weeks.

Without a serious increase in funding I cannot see things improving. People are leaving the NHS in droves after the nightmare of the last 18 months, nobody wants to be a GP anymore and frankly....I dont blame them.

 

[nottskev]

Very nicely put, Kev. Precisely my thoughts/experience too. I've been being treated for a nasty TB like infection for nearly 2 years now and I honestly caanot fault my treatment and I can ring my nurse/consultant at any time if I have a concern.

Thanks. Nobody wants to condone inadequate provision or shield poor performance from criticism. But focusing on individual cases ignores the context in which individual staff, at whatever level, are obliged to operate. Deteriorating performance is built in to some services by misguided and cynical policy decided way above the pay-grade of the person dealing with our problem and taking us into the unspeakable world of politics.. As it happens, I spent Thursday afternoon and most of Friday helping someone trying to have rectified an incorrectly filled prescription for meds needed urgently. This involved repeated phone calls and visits to a hospital clinic, a mental health clinic, a medical centre and a pharmacy, endless explanation and appeals for a solution, long waits for call-backs etc. The issue was not resolved by close of play and we'll resume on Monday.
Yes, I can call them all the names under the sun, but I can also see that successive top-down re-organisations and funding decisions have fragmented the service into incoherence and made timely, joined up treatment more and more unlikely. Specifically, the senior doctor who alone is authorised to issue the serious meds involved in this case is only available to the service one day per week, because that's how far the resources stretch, and the personnel are on different sites, phones ringing, emails incoming, distressed and frustrated people at reception desks, trying to untangle many such problems afflicting vulnerable people.

 

[108831]

I've mentioned previously on FM that the two named gps in the practice were shielding for over a year and saw NO patients,I know this to be true,because a long standing receptionist in the practice told me to my face and how much it annoyed her,the only appointments were with locums,now I said this back then too,but I don't know their own personal circumstances and there may be legitimate reasons for it,but it does not help any personal health problems that their patients might have...just like the clinics offering you a phone appointment when you need your ears hoovering out,something that I'm supposed to have every six months and was left more than two years,as for receptionists,some might be very efficient,but most are not,whether that is partly due to work pressure I don't know,but getting bombarded with constant phone calls with at least fifteen callers waiting in the queue can't be fun....

 

[peterjg]

There is also a new grade of NHS staff called a PA - Physician Associate. They do most of the work of GPs but are not qualified doctors and are not allowed to sign off prescriptions. This grade sits somewhere between a nurse and a GP. I had an appointment with a PA only yesterday, she was very good actually but did not volunteer her grade, I had to ask.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Back on the original theme I have a codicil to my will that I revise each year to cover the more expensive rods, reels etc.

The last thing I need Is for either of my ex wives selling them for what I told them I paid

 

[steve2]

We have wandered a bit from the original post.
Checking my shed yesterday it made me wonder just why I have bought so much gear in the first place. I certainly didn't need it all but suppose it is difference between need and want.

 

[S-Kippy]

I started with what I could afford (not very much) with 1 or 2 better rods. That carried on for many years. Then, when I could afford better gear, I bought it....and then I treated myself to a few bits. I didn't always get that right so I bought a few more....then my fishing started to change and I needed different rods to do different things. Add to that a few indulgent purposes and I end up where I am....loads of rods, some of which are very similar and quite a few of which rarely get used now.

Like I said originally I have far more than I need now and I really ought to cull a few but I am loathe to give the good stuff away or let it go for silly money. Reels are easier because they can be boxed and posted easily and I've never accumulated reels to quite the same extent that I have rods and several were bought second hand anyway so owe me nothing.Nearly all my pins were bought second hand and none of them were pups.

I think I'll start with a voyage of exploration round the shed and see just what I do have that can go. I might even put some on here in case anybodies interested.

 

[Philip]

A while back I got a job lot of tackle for next to nothing from an old lady whose angling husband had died. A lot of it was not great but there were a few good items in there. I told her that she could get a lot more than I was giving her for it if she sold it and even gave her back a couple of items I specifically pointed out she could get some good money for. However I could see by the look on her face she really didn’t want the hassle of trying to sell individual items and basically just wanted rid of it so I took the whole lot.

Looking through all the bits and pieces I could see that the guy was clearly very into his sport. Some items of tackle he had customized himself and had personal touches to it.

Thing is I don’t really need more tackle but I cant bring myself to just sell it to make a quick buck. I think the least I can do is try and put it to good use so that’s what I am trying to do.

At the end of the day I think that’s what I would want to happen to my tackle. I wouldn’t want it to just become basically a potential monetary sum for someone. I like the idea of someone “worthy” if you like getting it, making use of it and appreciating it for what it is.

 

[nottskev]

I like the idea of passing gear on to be used rather than cashed in. Re getting rid of gear: a couple of years ago I bought a rod via ebay from a local chap. When I went to get it - a mint Technium Specialist 12', £75 - the seller told me he'd suffered a stroke and was physically unable to go fishing. What a sad thing, to have to sell your tackle, I was thinking, and, though there was no reason to, I felt bad. So when he asked if I'd be interested in some floats, I said ok, what have you got, I knew at first glance the big tube was filled with the kind of floats I don't use, so I offered him a price he accepted, took the rod and the floats and went. The float tube is in a tackle drawer here. I've neither opened it nor thrown it out. It's somehow got infected with the sadness of the occasion.

 

[mikench]

Coming to angling late and not knowing if I would take to it I bought a cheap rod and reel which I've used twice. I very quickly became a tackle tart as I knew deep down I would and have bought several rods most on a perceived need, some on a whim and some to just see what I had missed over the last twenty years or so. I cannot use them all and with the passage of time I realise many will remain unused. All are in top condition some are brand new and some I should use more. I am a flawed human being. I would rather give some away to someone who would put them to good use than sell with all the hassle involved.

I have many rod tubes which if anyone wants they can have but collection only. Curiously on the few occasions I have bought tackle privately and gone to collect I have had an enjoyable chat with the owners about angling and found a generosity of spirit. I bought a Tricast John Allerton float rod from a guy in Bolton who mainly pole fished. He bought the rod but preferred his poles so sold it to me. He gave me a landing net handle, a set of floats and other bits because we'd got on. I have given some stuff away to the odd soul who expressed an interest in fishing.a young polish lad got a shock when I gave him a complete starter kit . I hope he has put it to good use.

 

[S-Kippy]

The trouble is I really dont know anybody who I could give any surplus gear to. Grumpy is nothing like the tackle tart I am and in any case he's a bit older than me so I could well end up with his stuff to sort out at some point. He does have a couple of Marksmans though !

 

[steve2]

When I recently cleared my in laws house I added another 6 rods to my collection plus reels and a lot more bits and pieces. 3 of the reels.
An Intrepid Surfcast in as new condition, a 1960's early Diawa and a Pinto reels are now on my bookself being used as bookends. Along with 2 of my old wooden centrepins and closed closed face American bait caster. His other rods and reels will just be collecting dust in the garage.