Single Illnesses Only

THE LATEST NHS RULE SEEMS TO BE THAT YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE ILLNESS AT A TIME.

This means that if you have two illnesses, you have to make two appointments and wait in the waiting room for each ailment.

This could be a problem for people who work — especially those who work for themselves, and more particularly, men; statistics show that men are less likely to visit the GP surgery than women.

I know men who work for themselves, who don’t want to bother the GP with “trifling” complaints, and who stock up ailments until matters reach the tipping point. In short, they visit the GP when they have collected a sufficient number of problems.

This is time management.  It is cost-effective for both the NHS and the patient.

But all that has changed. For each thing, patients now have to make a unique appointment, which lasts a maximum of ten minutes.

It used to be that a mother could visit the GP, discuss her baby’s problems, and have a personal issue raised at the same visit – while she’s sat there. This is no longer the case.

Things are definitely getting worse.

Scary Waves

WE LIVE IN A SCARY WORLD IT SEEMS.

I recently found in a shop items called “Radiation Shields”. These are for shielding you from the supposedly harmful radiation caused by mobile phone signals and by computer wi-fi zones.

This was a surprise to find, and suddenly I am extremely worried. [Click on image to enlarge]

Is the free wi-fi in my favourite café actually harming me?  Can everyone’s mobile phones be causing me harm? Do I need shielded from this “radiation”? The packaging suggests that this ought to be a real concern, the products have been “tested and approved”. Ought we not to be provided such things free on the NHS?  Why is this not a massive scandal?

If wi-fi and phone signals are safe, then how can selling such items be justified?

Things are getting worse when a little bit of browsing round the shops creates fear.

Deep Fried Proles

THE GLASWEGIAN DIET IS FAMOUS FOR DEEP FRYING EVERYTHING.

Probably the most disgusting example is the Deep Fried Mars Bar.  No wonder we have such a bad health record. I noticed a cheap electric stainless steel counter-top deep fat fryer in a local shop the other day.

“Turn on for style” is the tag-line. Yeah, right.

Click on the image to obtain a larger view.

Can you see the brand name.  It is “Prolex”, but the way it is shown, it definitely looks like “Prole” is quite distinct from the St Andrew’s Cross. Yes, this is is aimed at the Proles who live in Scotland.

Things are getting worse when being common/ working class is actively marketed.  This is basically saying, “You are poor, eat chips and fry your Mars bars at home”.

Scottish Health

THE BROONS ARE VERY MUCH PART OF THE SCOTTISH IDENTITY, BUT SO IS HEART DISEASE.

I was amazed to see that someone has written a cookbook using the fictional cartoon character of Ma Broon.

The sign advertising the fact provided more amazement — just look at the heart-stopping contents of Ma’s frying pan!  [Click on the picture to enlarge].

If that is what we Scots are supposed to eat — if that is our traditional country cooking straight from the But’n’Ben — then no wonder we are so notoriously unhealthy!

Things are getting worse when we can celebrate such a poor diet.  Things are getting even worse when we need a cook book to tell us how to cook high fat high cholesterol heart-clogging dishes!

GP Scared of Swine Flu

I WAS SURPRISED TO COME ACROSS THIS NOTICE IN THE WINDOW OF THE MAIN GP SURGERY IN SHAWLANDS.

Double click on the picture to enlarge.

However, in case you cannot see the image properly, it states:

“SWINE FLU

IF YOU THINK YOU
MAY HAVE THE SWINE
FLU PLEASE DO NOT
COME INTO THE
SURGERY. GO HOME
AND CALL US AND WE
WILL ASK A GP OR
NURSE TO CALL YOU BACK.”

Boy is this GP scared of swine flu — he or she is not taking any chances — in case “the swine flu” (sic) can be transmitted by telephone, a nurse may call you.

Things are getting worse when a medical diagnosis is done over the telephone, and even worse when it may be done by a nurse!

• If you’re getting worse, you’re getting nurse. (apologies; I couldn’t resist that bad joke).

Now, the television and wireless have been keeping me bang up to date on the swine flu topic, and I have to say that I have been confident and reassured as a result.  That is until now.

When I saw this notice on the main road in Shawlands, I began to get scared for the first time. Things must be getting worse when the doctors are so frightened by it!

Big Pupils

MY EYES GREW LARGE IN DISBELIEF WHEN  I SPOTTED THIS CHILDREN’S LUNCH MENU IN A LOCAL SHOP.

No wonder kids are fat these days!

• 1/2 pizza (deep fried) and chips
• sausage and chips
• popcorn chicken and chips
• chips
• roll and chips
• chips and curry
• chips and gravy
• chips and cheese
• fritters
• roll and fritters

Deep fried fat hell is on the school menu! Not a green vegetable, not a meat (except from chicken and sausage), just deep fried fatty potatoes basically!

Things are getting worse when shops are able to target school children in this way.

Litter to the Council

THE LITTER EPIDEMIC IN SHAWLANDS IS GETTING WORSE!

I walk past a lane on Kilmarnock Road almost every day, and I cannot ever recall a time when it has been free from rubbish — but it is getting worse lately, and I know the area is suffering a serious rat problem. Click on the picture to enlarge, and bear in mind that this is on the busiest road/ shopping street south of the river – the lane is, in fact, between two rows of busy shops. Imagine the scene when it has been raining!

In recent years, the council (in a silly attempt to encourage “recycling”) refuse to uplift from back lanes and courts, insisting instead that everyone dump stuff on pavements out to the front of their homes for uplift on specific days.

The result is unhealthy, ugly and dangerous. In the past, when people were having minor works carried out on their flat, rubbish would be immediately removed and dumped out back in the lane or at the bins for uplift. It is reasonable and perfectly understandable to me that people would not want to store the rubbish inside their newly renovated homes until a special rubbish uplift day — but that is what the council seems to want us all to do nowadays!

The idea that you dump stuff out the front depends on the dumping only being done on specific days — and that is just unworkable! The result is that people dump their rubbish as and when they want, and it can lie there until it is uplifted on it’s special day.

I wish someone would realise the truth about human nature, and admit that the scheme has failed — then we can resort to putting the rubbish out in the back lane where it can lie until uplifted at a time that suits the council.

Related Articles and pictures:

• https://gettingworse.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/what-a-dump/
• https://gettingworse.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/sofa-so-good/
• https://gettingworse.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/litter-bugs/
• https://gettingworse.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/rubbish/
• https://gettingworse.wordpress.com/2007/04/24/streetlitter/