This is an extract from my friend Dave Tooleys Facebook it deserves a read.
As part of an ageing population, at some point in our lives we are all
going to become old and frail. Unless you are one of the lucky few who
have a huge pot of money stashed away, you are going to be at the mercy
of the state.
Naively I thought that the Social Services were there as a safety net
to catch those weaker souls in our society who cannot look after
themselves through either illness, frailty or mental health issues such
as senile dementia or Alzheimer’s.
In my recent experience I’ve discovered that nothing could be further
from the truth.
The only ‘Service’ provided by Social Services is to dole out a list of
telephone numbers to employment agencies which those poor souls then
have to pay for.
The idea of a ‘Wendy Craig’ like District Nurse individual cycling
around your village doling out help to anyone that needs it is pure
fantasy nowadays, although at some point in our recent history I’m sure
those characters existed.
My Father is now dying in a Hospice, caused indirectly by the lack of
care provided after he had an emergency operation for Renal Failure.
Within a very short period of time he was evicted from hospital wearing
Nephropathy tubes hanging out of both kidneys draining into bags tied
to his legs.
Over each kidney there was a loose dressing sticky taped to his back.
A breeding ground for infection. I begged the hospital not to send him
home in this condition because my Mother has Alzheimer’s disease and
cannot even cope with her self let alone an invalid, but they were
unmoved.
He had to go home because they needed the bed. So I then implored them
to provide a nurse to visit him at least daily to check and change his
dressings as necessary. No joy, once a week, take it or leave it. No
matter who I contacted within the system I could get nothing further.
Sure enough, less than a day after he had come home one dressing had
become dislodged. The district nurse eventually turned up and tried to
put on a fresh dressing but bodged it. Later on that evening an
emergency service was called out to take a look. By now my Dad was
getting into trouble. The tube was leaking, and the area around it’s
entrance had started to become infected. To cut a long story short,
after a series of several further call outs to a variety of doctors and
nurses on a late Sunday evening my Father was rushed back into hospital
in an ambulance almost delirious with pain.
>From that point on he was in a steady downhill spiral, resulting in
much further surgery removing part of his large bowel resulting in a
colostomy.
A further few weeks on and he has now had all treatment removed since
they have decided nothing further can be done for him. He has been
left to die.
Easy isn’t it when you can bury your mistakes?
This has now left me with another huge problem. My Father was my
Mothers primary carer. Since he is now out of the loop, I’ve been
desperately trying to get some support to look after her during this
trying time, and into the future.
Once again, NO CHANCE. They will provide someone to put on her
stockings, and maybe give her a wash, but that is the end of the
service they will provide. Anything more requires work which has to be
paid for, and I’ve been given a list of numbers to phone to provide
care at a price.
My Mum lives on her own now in a biggish house. She cannot even get
out because of her illness, so how the hell is she going to clean,
cook, go shopping, or carry out even the most basic functions required
in a home?
Appeals to the Social Services have fallen on deaf ears, they don’t
care, not their problem.
I don’t know where I’m going with this yet, but I feel at a time of
Local Elections when smarmy councillors stick their heads above the
parapet and are begging for your votes this would be an excellent
question to put to those fawning individuals. “What do you propose to
do to provide care to those individuals in our society that desperately
require help, but are to frail and weak to fight for it?” Anyone who
doesn’t come back to you with a strong package of policies to do
something about our failing system should have your front door clearly
slammed in their faces, and make sure that YOU and EVERYONE you know
does not vote for them.
Please make an effort to spread the word on this. The power of
communication now is a colossal tool. We have recently seen how
Politicians can be broken overnight. A huge slice of them have their
snouts firmly embedded in the trough of public money, and I’m damned
sure that local councillors are little different.
As Billy Connolly once famously stated “The very desire to become a
Politician should automatically preclude someone from becoming one”
Dave Tooley
Come on my readers start kicking some social service butt. lets start a movement.