Not that WHO - although it would have been quite amusing if Roger Daltrey had told us that he hadn't been working on old material and was really one of the world's greatest scientists!
The World Health Organisation has declared a global Flu Pandemic. Needless to say, the newspapers will all be full of scaremongering!
So what does it mean for us? Well not a lot of difference at the moment. A Pandemic just means that it's been prominent is 2 or more Countries.
Should things worsen, well I can assure you that here we are well prepared for it. Procedures are in place should Anti-virals such as "Tamiflu" should need to be given to people. Should this be the case, various Doctor's Surgeries and Pharmacies across the UK will become points of contact for you to recieve whatever treatment is required.
So basically, don't panic and don't believe the hype that will probably be in the Newspapers tomorrow! Should you have reason to believe that you do have Swine Flu, telephone your GP's surgery. Don't go in otherwise (should you have swine flu) you would infect a lot of sick people and it's those people who are most likely to contract the illness!
You can of course phone NHS direct but you may only get Crackling!
And I wouldn't bother with looking for a facemask. They don't work very well anyway and, after about 20 minutes don't really work at all!
Unless the threat gets worse, just carry on as normal.
Mind you, I do believe that the Government has already started to change important things to remind us of the horror that is swine flu. They're even starting to change nursery Rhymes........
This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed at home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy had influenza A virus subtype hemagglutinin protein 1 neuraminidase protein 1.
A joke I know but with our political parties.... anything's possible!
Thursday 11 June 2009
Friday 17 April 2009
Rozzers about so who's met their "Waterloo"?
Just coming home tonight I see that there are 2 rozzers with a squad car and they have blocked off Plains of Waterloo where it joins Wellington Crescent.
Any ideas? There's obviously something going on! Or has the nanny state found out the true identity of East Cliff Richard???
Any ideas? There's obviously something going on! Or has the nanny state found out the true identity of East Cliff Richard???
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Prescription Charges - We're quite Lucky Really!
My my that was a Christmas party and a half!
Welcome back to the OGM's Rambles.............................................................
So Tony (BIGNEWS Margate) had a ramble about NHS Prescribing guidelines as reported in the Screws of The World Newspaper.
I can understand where Tony's coming from and on the surface, the whole thing looks pretty damn unfair.
Before I start to ramble about this topic, have a read of something I spoke about last year regarding prescription charges here
Ok, now you've read that, lets go on to the topic of prescribing guidelines. It's been going on for years!!!!!! That's the short answer. The long answer is that if a patient is not exempt of prescription charges the GP will quite often prescribe 2 months (in exceptional cases even 3!) however, guidelines for prescribing 28 days is aimed primarily at those patients who take many different medications (in most cases, the elderly)
There is a good reason for prescribing in 28 for this catagory of patients. It's often the case that their medications can change quite frequently. If the GP were to prescribe say 3 months worth and then after one month, the medication needs to be changed then that consitutes quite a waste of medication which results in more cost to the NHS and of course that means you and me!
Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the NHS here but I can personally say that on many an occasion, I have witnessed complete wastes of medicines costing hundreds of pounds and it's often due to over prescribing.
On saying that, I'm no lover of the Tax we pay via the prescription charge.
But here's the thing............... What if we had to pay for prescriptions? i.e. the cost of the medicine itself. The vast majority of medications prescribed actually cost a darn site more than £7.10 as a matter of fact, I had to get 2 prescriptions for Mrs Daktari today. I had to pay £14.20 but if I'd had to pay for the actual drugs, I'd be looking at about £50 to £60!!!!
It's not ideal, but until someone has the balls to get this lark sorted as to why Wales don't pay at all etc. I'd rather carry on the way things are at the moment.
Welcome back to the OGM's Rambles.............................................................
So Tony (BIGNEWS Margate) had a ramble about NHS Prescribing guidelines as reported in the Screws of The World Newspaper.
I can understand where Tony's coming from and on the surface, the whole thing looks pretty damn unfair.
Before I start to ramble about this topic, have a read of something I spoke about last year regarding prescription charges here
Ok, now you've read that, lets go on to the topic of prescribing guidelines. It's been going on for years!!!!!! That's the short answer. The long answer is that if a patient is not exempt of prescription charges the GP will quite often prescribe 2 months (in exceptional cases even 3!) however, guidelines for prescribing 28 days is aimed primarily at those patients who take many different medications (in most cases, the elderly)
There is a good reason for prescribing in 28 for this catagory of patients. It's often the case that their medications can change quite frequently. If the GP were to prescribe say 3 months worth and then after one month, the medication needs to be changed then that consitutes quite a waste of medication which results in more cost to the NHS and of course that means you and me!
Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the NHS here but I can personally say that on many an occasion, I have witnessed complete wastes of medicines costing hundreds of pounds and it's often due to over prescribing.
On saying that, I'm no lover of the Tax we pay via the prescription charge.
But here's the thing............... What if we had to pay for prescriptions? i.e. the cost of the medicine itself. The vast majority of medications prescribed actually cost a darn site more than £7.10 as a matter of fact, I had to get 2 prescriptions for Mrs Daktari today. I had to pay £14.20 but if I'd had to pay for the actual drugs, I'd be looking at about £50 to £60!!!!
It's not ideal, but until someone has the balls to get this lark sorted as to why Wales don't pay at all etc. I'd rather carry on the way things are at the moment.
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