This Old Man
Said:
“I’d shoot the lot of them!”
It is not often I sit down to write a missive with no
clear plan of what is coming, nor ideas for a structure and perhaps a
conclusion. However, I do have a lot to say about matters that are totally
irrelevant to most normal peoples lives. These credentials should merit my
immediate promotion to positions such as “President” or “Prime Minister”
me’thinks?
Well I do have a lot to tell you, especially those
poor souls who enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of my small
life. In recent missives I have given short reviews of some matters, but today
I want to tell you about the new and improved disservices offered by what once
was a British stalwart company – namely BT.
Most people would presuppose that given the recent
international financial situation, company’s like BT would have been making the
most of their privileged situations, and opening markets closed to other
company’s that do not have their virtual monopoly. Therefore it is my sad duty to
relate to you that after 7-weeks of trying, BT remain incapable of reconnecting
an advanced pensioners telephone service, that they originally disconnected due
to a service technicians basic oversight.
Let us be clear: This is not rocket science, nor be it
nuclear particle physics; it concerns the physical ability of a BT employed
technician to connect two pairs of wires together in the correct order.
Something we have since discovered is way beyond the competency of any
currently employed BT staff.
I personally stopped all communications with BT, when
a few years ago I discovered that all their internet hosting packages were in
fact hosted by a company called Register.com, a most insular and unhelpful load
of cretins based just outside
Let us begin by wishing my Father a very happy 90th
birthday. The old dog is still going strong and is as unmovable as ever. When
asked his views on: the current political situation,
I do not blame the nurses, other than they have no
time for simple patient care - like administering water and pills. Feted wounds
went undressed until my Sister complained, and it should not be left for Family
to stand stewardship over a parent who is not being cared for in a hospital
ward. I know this despicable hospital management regime deliberately retired
their boss earlier this year, him walking away with a very large bonus cheque.
May their bosses enjoy their most highly undeserved rewards! I would prefer to prosecute
them for flagrantly failing to ensure the most basic standards of care. But it
seems they only get millions of Pounds of money from taxpayers instead –
because they managed to take nurses away from their front-line duties, and gave
them a shift full of paperwork to fill in, instead of caring for their patients
needs. If you don’t believe me, then search The Daily Telegraph for patients
who have died from dehydration = they were not even given a simple glass of
water. There are a lot of them!
One poor guy was in perfect health, yet after 3-days
of no water or fluid intake, suffered renal failure and later had both his legs
amputated and lost his eyes also. Simply because all the nurses were too busy
filling in forms to give him a cup of water to drink. Check this for
yourselves, it is on public record. So is the fact they failed to complete this
poor man’s chats fully, presumably to hide his neglect. Interestingly, before
she died in hospital, my Mothers charts were not properly filled in either,
with my sister having to remind nurses to perform this duty also. The hospital
director concerned was paid millions of £’s in bonus’ for this atrocity – and
guess what, he denies any culpability. I would rather preserve the right to
press criminal charges against these imbeciles – but then, all governments
appear to endorse his actions as their ‘targets’ are being met one way or
another, so maybe it is up to you also?
However, it has also become apparent that the Coroner
responsible for officially recording all these hospital deaths has consistently
altered causes of death given by the hospital registrar to more minor or
general conditions, and not enquired as to figures relating to abnormally high
death rates emanating from Stafford hospital. According to the Telegraph, he is
also impeding and obfuscating all legal attempts to pursue redress through the
courts. Why?
I’ll leave you with that thought, and to ponder just
how deeply this deception is ingrained into everyday hospital life in the
modern
A year later my Father ends up in hospital. He fell
whilst turning to see where the dog was, slipped on ice, and ended up on the
concrete step. He remembers thinking at the time – “This is going to hurt”. He
pressed his emergency call button, and response was as it should be. After
confirmation of a serious problem, an ambulance was dispatched and he was taken
to
So my Father now ends up in this den of hedonistic
denial, and is set upon by do-good social workers who interrogate him about why
he slipped. They concluded there was obviously something wrong with his brain
and recommended tests and incarceration. Of course there was nothing wrong with
him, he simply slipped. Next day the tests come back negative or clear, and he
can go as soon as somebody can collect him. My sister takes time off work to go
and get him, only to be informed upon arrival the ward now has a novo virus and
he has to be kept in. But it seems he is one of the few lucky ones, and escapes
after a few months when the superbug is finally clear of his ward for a few
days.
Unfortunately he is now so weak that he cannot simply
be discharged, so Social Services find a place for him to recuperate in a
Nursing Home that is not local to his home, nor any person who is likely to
want to visit him. My sister visits him one Sunday shortly after his admission,
and is surprised to find he has trouble using his good arm. He tried to call me
in
Well, the Doctor was wrong, and my Father had
developed sceptic arthritis. This was probably due to overusing his good arm,
but shouldn’t a simpleton have been able to prevent this, let alone diagnose it
correctly? It tells me that staff at this nursing home that are being paid £800
per week by Social Services to care for my Father, are not doing their jobs and
looking after him properly. Otherwise they would immediately know about his
condition. Surely is should not be beyond their gumption to enquire as to why
my Father cannot get a spoon to his mouth, or detect that he has not eaten
anything for 2-days straight. Why did my sister have to point out his condition
to them in the first place? It later comes to light that he had not been eating
for several days simply because he could not raise his elbow high enough to get
a spoon to his mouth. How come these highly rewarded nursing staff missed that
one also?
Obviously
Upon his return to the Nursing Home he makes good and
steady progress. My sister has finally got the message across to them that he
needs bullying into doing his exercises, and the physiotherapist is excellent.
He was due to return home after 4-months, but then unbeknownst to anyone and
due to the freeze that winter in Britain, a pipe at the top of the house had
burst, flooding the insides and rendering them uninhabitable. Repairs take a
couple of months, and all this time my Father is restricted to the nursing
home. The irony is that had he been at home, he would have spotted the leak
long before any permanent damage was done, and called for assistance.
He is insured by NFU, and for the very first time they
actually honour the claim and all things are put into motion to rectify the
problem. I cannot fault them, nor the back-up from community support services.
It is a shame that Barclay’s Bank then decide to start being completely stupid.
You see, between the time of the claim, and payment, his insurance premium is
due for the next year – he had chosen to pay this annually. (It used to be
slightly cheaper, and probably still is?) This debit had been in effect for …
50 years at a guess, or as long as recurring automatic debits have existed for
sure. However his Branch maintained that he had put a total stop on all regular
payments from his account – something he vehemently denies. Given that he is 89
and hospitalised, the bank refuse to acknowledge my sister as being in any way
concerned with his banking practices. However, they promise to call her back at
an appointed time, and do not. It transpires that only my Father can personally
resolve this situation by attending in person at the bank, without my sister in
the same room whilst discussions unfold. Therefore my sister takes time off
work and collects my Father from the nursing him, and delivers him to the bank
– simply so he can authorise payment to NFU. Unfortunately the bank manager is
not there at the appointed time, and it appears they cancelled the appointment,
but could not be bothered to inform anyone. A new appointment is later arranged
with my Father, which my sister instigates and is party to.
The meeting takes place at the second attempt. Our
Father is has an affable persona, has memory problems, and a little old-age
dementia. He really doesn’t have a clue what the bank are taking about, nor why
it should be a problem – because he has already signed a letter empowering my
sister to deal with all his banking details … except, this is not as yet a
Power of Attorney, and as such this makes my sister totally irrelevant to his
banking needs and desires.
Meanwhile, NFU have had my Fathers Direct Debit
bounced twice and are threatening to end his insurance policy forthwith because
of non-payment. This effectually means that they will not pay for the repairs
to his home either. The bankers are totally ambivalent, and really couldn’t
care less. In a flash of brilliance, my sister deduces that the new
arrangements actually took effect after the bank’s call centre rang my father
one day, and suggested he cancel all transactions. I am sure he had absolutely
no idea who they were or what they were talking about, and I doubt he could
even hear them properly. He has learnt to say no to anyone asking for something
over the telephone, as he is vulnerable to deception. Therefore if the bank
operative asked him if he wanted to continue existing arrangements, he would
have said “No”. If they had asked him if he wanted to change his existing
arrangements, he would also have said “No”. He would conclude they were modern
day telephone hustlers wanting to defraud him in some way.
Incongruously, it transpired that the bank manager
told my Father that in order to set his bank payments back to how they used to
be, he was required to ring their call centre and say so personally. This he
did, and nothing changed. My sister in desperation, personally paid in a cheque
directly to NFU so as to continue cover, and hence have repairs to his home
completed. When later questioned about this, the bank stated that it appeared
someone else (My sister) was in the room when the call was made, so they
suspected he was under duress to make the call, and deleted his request.
Barclays have since refused to make this account into
a joint account, and will only accept my sister’s authority under Power of
Attorney. However, it would appear the situation has been resolved, as now she
now pays all his regular bills by D/D or S/O from her personal account, and
then my Father gives her the money every month to cover. We could laugh about
this if it were not so mind-numbingly stupid! However, there is one silver
lining – it appears that Barclays have accepted the fact that when they want to
change things about my Fathers account in future, then this will be done at
Branch level in person, and not via an unexpected and uncheckable phone call.
With NFU paid at last, despite my Fathers bankers best
and most determined efforts to prevent this from happening; repairs continue
and are completed over the next couple of months. As a consequence, my father
and sister have now set up a new joint account with a different bank, which
also has a branch you can physically go into. I wonder what his own Mother
would have made of all these shenanigans? She was the first ever female bank
manager in the whole of the
Eventually repairs to the homestead are completed, and
our father is settling into life at the home. Whilst he has concluded that it
isn’t too bad overall, he really does want to return home and to his
independent life. From the day of his fall to his release from nursing home
custody, almost 6-monthsd has passed…
Cummon! He only went in as an outpatient to have his
broken arm reset.
Knick-knack
paddy-whack, give a dog a bone – My old man came rolling home…
Having at last returned to where he has spent his
whole life since the end of the war – that’s WW2 to you (The same one where we
as a Nation last prevented
BT managed to disconnect his landline, something they
adamantly deny and say is a fault within his home. They have a call centre
which my sister and others ring several times each day, and the staff answering
are extremely polite, considerate and helpful. Unfortunately, they do not
appear to have any relationship whatsoever with their maintenance crews. I
suspect they are both subcontracted out to unrelated service providers,
probably located in different world countries.
After a couple of weeks – bearing in mind my Father’s
emergency call device is linked through BT – so doesn’t work anymore, they
schedule an appointment to come out and check. My sister took time off work,
leaving her mobile number … only for nothing to happen. The next day, after ringing
them again, she was informed that the ‘technicians’ tried to call her, and that
was when they discovered that their BT phones did not work because of a fault.
The good news was that they had already actioned this, and the BT technicians
phone would be repaired in two-weeks time. We must guess that in the meantime
they were still going to work, only to find they could not work because of the
extant fault? I presume they were not capable nor skilled enough to fix this
fault themselves then = Makes me wonder?
On 5th August the fault is repaired by another set of
BT technicians, and after my sister rings BT several times (Note: not the other
way around = BT do not ring either my Father nor my sister to follow-up); a new
appointment for disservice is arranged. As this is a high priority case, the
appointment is rushed through for Saturday 14th August. I consider this
disgusting service for anyone not in dire need, never mind those that are … but
so far have the standards of BT fallen, that we must be grateful to them for
even bothering to try and service their paying clientele – or the people that
actually pay their bosses fat-cat bonus’ + the workers that get any monetary
morsels left-over as compensation for their slothful travails.
Therefore, on Friday 13th August, my sister gets a
call on her mobile whilst she is driving. Being a good citizen, she does not
answer immediately, but calls back once she has pulled over safely. No reply.
The next day she rings BT, only to discover the call the previous evening was
from their ‘technicians’, who were able to come ‘now’. Having not received a
reply, they then decide to cancel the previously arranged appointment for the
next day! Apparently their telephone is one that only allows outgoing calls,
and rejects incoming calls. I guess that’s progress? Nobody bothered to inform
my sister about the cancelled appointment, which meant she waited for them not
to arrive, again!
Please be aware that each call to a BT call centre
takes upwards of 40 minutes to be answered, and usually just within one hour.
Calls usually have to be referred to second line support = a further 10
minutes. In the interim, my Father has been with his useless emergency call
button, and without his landline phone or any means to use the emergency call
button effectively for slightly over 1-month now.
He is guilty of being old, that is true. He is also
guilty of laying down his life to preserve an independent
But should this also mean he is denied the telephone
services (He is paying for) by our Nations’ foremost telephone network
supplier?
The world has changed very much since I was a child,
and even more so for my Father; in so much that he really doesn’t really
understand mobile telephones very well, and when he uses them, he tends to
press them too tightly to his ear – around the same place where the ‘off’
button is so inconveniently located. Even though he has a mobile ‘specifically
designed’ for use by oldsters, this is hopeless actually.
Whoever designed it has never witnessed an old person
trying to use a mobile phone; and has definitely never tried to talk to one who
is using one! Instead designers simply make the buttons bigger, simplify the
menu system, and forget about everyday usability.
My question is: Why does my Father feel the need to
press the phone so closely to his ear in the first place? Is it a dependency
factor – I really do doubt it hahaha! Is it because he likes to feel the
reminiscent earpiece to his ear – partly perhaps, but these modern phones do
not have earpieces, full stop. What he understands is an old style telephone
which has separate earpiece and speaking bit at other end of a handle. The
buttons are all on a separate unit, and when he puts the phone down, it stops
working. That works! Unfortunately, no mobile phone manufacturers or providers
have yet come up with any design remotely useful to those of a previous
generation.
However, the real reason why he feels the need to
press the earpiece so hard into his ear is simply because he cannot hear! Even
I, an experienced user of mobile telecommunications, have occasionally had to
check the position of the mobile’s speaker in relation to my ear. Some models
are better than others, but it happens sometimes to every unit all the same.
You know, the perfectly designed handset has long since been discarded in the
rush towards modernism, at the vast expense of user ability.
As for BT, well I think they should stop pretending to
provide telecommunication services and become international bankers instead. That
way their fat-cat bosses will get handsome and undeserved payments and bonus’s
for work ineffectually completed.
As my Father enters his
Needless to say, he did not receive any calls on his
90th birthday, because his line was still out of order. I would personally like
to congratulate BT on rendering a simple telephone network that has worked
perfectly for generations, as being totally unobtainable to their most needy of
customers. This is written into their company articles as a ‘Duty of Care’;
which is flouted as readily as Arabs dodge parking tickets in
Meanwhile 8-weeks on and counting, and my elderly
Father remains without a landline telephone – the only type of telephone he
understands. Neither does his emergency call button work, but he still wears it
and presses it occasionally when he is in dire need of immediate personal or
medical assistance…
Let me remind you all of what my Father thought of
them: “I’d shoot the lot of them!”
… and I have a big problem
disagreeing with him.
Postnote:
We are now entering the middle part of September 2010,
and my Father is still without a landline telephone, and consequently his
emergency call button. BT continue to obfuscate their deniability, but remember
to send him a bill for the services they are derelict in providing.
I dither and dally between informing either OFTEL or
The Daily Telegraph about his predicament, and must decide this week what to do
for his best interests, as we now enter month four of no telecommunications –
all courtesy of BT. I am happy to note they have now sent him a Final Reminder
to pay for the services they have not been able to supply, so maybe you will
see this old man in court someday soon, as this appears to be their only
interest in my Father.
I consider this to be disgusting conduct, but then, I
am his son … so what does it matter, unless it happens to you or your loved
ones?
But my point is this – both with hospitals that put
patient care last, and telecommunications companies = both have a duty to their
clients and a Duty of Care, or should have. Yet we witness time and again that
the only people being cared for are their corrupt bosses who bag millions of
pound’s worth in Bonus, whilst the integrity of the services they offer becomes
less and less.
How markedly these situations contrast with the
excellent service offered in
Hospitals are efficient, if a little odd to people
from
How this contrasts with my poor Mothers situation,
where several times we had to go searching through several wards in order to
find a nurse to ask for water, or to change a dressing they had forgotten to
renew. A Chinese ward has one way in (Plus emergency exit at the other end) and
has a general staff office near the entrance. The Doctor has a separate office
adjacent, with nearby rooms for storage and one for hot water, with flasks available
for use by patients. The maternity ward I am describing had 3 admin staff on
duty at all times of day and night, and their main job was to track a patient’s
expenditure and ensure enough funds have been deposited for treatment. They
also ensure that no overpayment occurs, and are responsible for auditing any
appropriate new charges or refunds.
The nursing staff on duty have their own room
adjoining which is open to view by the general public, as is the Admin room. The
ward does not have open public wards, but instead offers about 20 smaller rooms
which normally have two occupants. There is space for three beds in each, but
this is a very rare occurrence. Each room is complimented by its own bathroom,
albeit of typical Chinese standard. This ward is also continually staffed by 10
dedicated nurses of differing levels, or if you prefer – one nurse to every 4
patients. The emergency call button works and is answered within 20 seconds –
something we discovered by accident ‘ah-hem’ one night. Camp beds are available
for immediate family (Including ‘boyfriends’) and visiting hours are
unrestricted apart from times when a patient’s privacy needs to be respected.
My point is that whilst some Chinese hospitals may not
have state of the art medical equipment (Although many do), the emphasis is
entirely upon caring for those in their charge. When I compare this with
patient’s in British hospitals suffering dire renal failure caused directly by
dehydration, simply because nursing staff were too busy with paperwork to have
time to bother ensuring their patients had anything at all to drink for three
days straight – well words fail me. This poor man also had a tube put into his
throat, for life, as the lack of fluid also irreparably damaged his vocal
chords, rendering them useless. I am glad I am living in a country where a
patient’s wellbeing is put first. For British hospitals to then neglect to fill
in a patient’s charts, obviously to cover-up the fact fluids (and presumably
meals also) had not been administered for three days, then you have to look at
criminal negligence against the people who run such a disgusting disservice.
It is high time Britain looked to dismiss those in
charge of such fiasco’s, and instead of rewarding them with outrageous bonus
payments, pressing criminal charges and recouping monies paid from those who do
not perform. At a time when the new raft of austerity measures that are due to
take hold of personal finances over the coming months, I look forward to the
fallout from the annual Banking bonus announcements due this Christmas. Here we
have another group of avaricious bosses and interlopers seeking gratification
and huge bonus payments as a reward for wrecking the world economy, and causing
such deep remedial measures that will not affect the rich like themselves, but
rip coins from the pockets of the poor people that bailed them out for
generations to come. They got it so disastrously wrong and should be the ones
that pay.
Perhaps
I also believe that had some opinionated and
unidentifiable social worker not insisted that our father be kept in for
observation – because he slipped whilst turning on an icy path he personally
cleared, then he would have returned home the same afternoon. This is the
person ultimately responsible for all my fathers’ woes and 6-months
incarceration against his free will. I would think it just that she and her
department of busy-bodies get charged the full fiscal amount for her error, and
have their own minds re-adjusted so that in future they can deal with serious
and relevant problems, not inventing easy targets behind their cloaks of
anonymity and self-righteous deceit.
I am very inclined to side with my Father when he
states quite unequivocally: “I’d shoot the lot of them”.