That is shocking Dave, I hope your neighbour is recovering well.
He is back home now and very slowly recovering... The old training comes in handy sometimes... I guess much reduced Police/NHS is something to consider now when living out in the sticks.. The lack of police coverage is on a lot of farmers and country folk minds.. 10 years ago it was not too bad, but over the last 5 years its become somewhat desperate.. I meet up with a fair amount of farmers in my travels and lack of responce is a frequent comment.
The poor old NHS gets a lot of stick, but its not the staff as the major issue it seems to be the systems and available resources.. We live some 17 miles from the nearest major hospital with full A+E, it was upgraded way back at the start of the 80's when the hospital moved from centre of town to an out of town site, but the new A+E size was built to the same size as the old one, which dated from the early 60's.. The town and area population has almost doubled over the last 10 years, but A+E is still the same. I have had to attend A+E several times in the two years, both for myself and for my son.. Its not a pretty picture, the waiting room seems constantly crammed, last time in my son was in major pain, it took 5 hrs to be seen and during that time I had to find a nurse/doc to adminster morphine while he lay stretched out over 4 chairs in a hallway waiting.. It took a further 20 hrs to get him in a ward bed. He is ok now and back to normal..but it was not a great experience.. We have a private Nuffield hospital in town, but as most, it does not have A+E, its good for scheduled surgery etc, if you can afford it, but no good at all for an emergency.
Sorry, ranting again.. must go and service our old quad. and get my mind refreshed....
