Journal: it still needs to be Monday

Friday is knocking at the door and yet, for a number of,reasons, I need it still to .be Monday!

Today was a day which started badly, got a lot better with our Communion service, and then disappeared into a strange miasma before returning to something like normality as th day began to draw to a close. So many of the visits I had planned fell away due to ill-health on the part of the person being visited and this provided me with the chance to step back and have some time for myself and some reading and research.

At the moment where I am it seems that the mental health needs are on the rise and yet the mental health support structure seems are crumbling. Last night I found myself at bedsides and in Accident and Emergency (A&E), where the focus was purely medical, and the wards were well and effectively ordered and the workload, thanks to staffing levels, high. Upon entering AE the scene before me was a bit like some of the training I've done where some wicked so and so cranks up the pressure as we deal with increasing high volumes of people coming through the doors for treatment.

From the quiet and steadily organised ward I opened a door and found a scene before me that would have been fitting for any major incident: Every cubicle was full and every available space was utilised as a makeshift trolley bay. Wherever you looked there were people on trolleys, in wheelchairs, sitting on haphazardly placed seats and the movement was never ending; and all the time more people were being added! My mind flipped back to a twenty-four hour training event where eventually every available person found themselves with a job and yet there was still ore need that we could cope with and wondered if someone ought to blow a whittle and call the reality before me to an end as the trainers had for us. But no, it was only 19:30 and so it would be a long time before those on duty go to stand down.

So tonight I'm reflecting on, and praying for, those who keep our hospitals running.

I'm praying for those who have medical needs, that they would find healing, understanding and care.

Lord, bring at our healing: Bring Your strength and comfort for those who care for loved ones in their need.

Help me to show your love and to stand in the gap where possible and to accept where it is not with grace and acceptance rather than dogged and misplaced endeavour.

But one bungler destroys much good.

Today as I read the passages set for the daily office's morning prayer I was challenged by some words from Ecclesiastes chapter nine:

'Wisdom is better than weapons of war,  but one bungler destroys much good.'

Ironically I turned on the radio to hear that the Secretary of State for Education was making an(other?) 'embarrassing turnaround' over his plans for a British baccalaureate. It seems that once again the man with his hands on the future of our children's education (and therefore it follows, their futures) has once again been a bit of a bungler.

No sooner had this news passed that we turned to a report on a Mid-Staffordshire NHS trust by Robert Francis QC. The report explained how nurses were being investigated and how some would find their careers ended - and having read the abstracts I sure this is right) and yet throughout the report not one person pointed the finger of guilt at those who managed the place and surely set the condition by which patients and their families were so sorely treated. It seems that at the root of the problem is a multitude of bunglers - and despite the NHS featuring large in the Olympic celebrations as a jewel in the crown of our nation - many bunglers are destroying that which is good!

When I worked in industry we used to refer to people being promoted to the level of their incompetence - the greater the bungler the higher they went until they were placed somewhere where their incompetence was minimised (and conversely their salaries maximised).

Reading complaints of the Staffs debacle it appears that many of those running our hospitals, rather than be censured, have been rewarded - how on earth can this be justified or defended?

The ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is to be found in many places and sectors - the politician and NHS executives whilst being the creme de la creme of bungling are not isolated places - so when you see bunglers - bin them!

And of course this goes for Church too - let's hope the new ABC is up for the task as we seek to bring an orthodox, effective and inclusive church to the fore - A church that will criticise those who abuse the system (Well done for the banking comments Boss!), who oppress the poor, who seek to legitimise injustice and to reward the bunglers.

Pax

Clearing the air (2) - they shoot horses don't they?

Another of the issues that has caused me great problems this year is the fact that those who now form part of the 'older' generation of our land appear to be regarded as merely spent and expendable. After all, they have little to offer in terms of revenue generation and are another burden that demands time, money and attention from both the state and their own families.

But of course this isn't true and if you start to think about it logically, many of those who are the older generation have many years of work (and paying of taxes and National Insurance) behind them. Not only that but there are many who have paid out for the nation in another way, that of having served it in some form of military (or other) service!

So let's look at what the older people have on their CVs and consider how we should be regarding it:

Eighty (and over) - b. 1933 - 1900
There's the second world war - growing up in a time of depression and many other hardships that were faced by this group. They know the value of family (and are often the glue of their families) and generally worked hard to pay their way. These are the people who paid financially and with their own lives and the lives of those they loved to make the sixties the libertarian and relaxed age that it was. They paid in and now it is surely their turn to reap the respect and care of the nation.

The Seventies - b. 1943 - 1934
Still wars, but not to the same scale as those before them. Still knew the value of stuff and still exist as the focus of the families and communities in which they live. Paid more in many ways as the NHS and other social care and concern provisions became available for everyone in a real and established manner. Accepted that paying NI and taxes meant a lifetime of care both medically, in social housing and in old age.

The Sixties - b. 1953 - 1944
'Sixty is the new forty' (or so I'm told) and this group are now looking at paying, and working, for longer before they get their go onto the provision roundabout, that is if we still have a social health service and anything that looks like 'old age care' by the time the youngest of this group actuallty reaches seventy. Many of these will have paid and worked all their lives (but not all as Thatcher's job cuts and the various trough, trough and recovery have played their part) for something others wish to deprive them of. Trendy and living on credit is a greater reality for this bunch but they've still (in the main) played their part.

What do they have in common?

Unlike horses and other beasts of burden (which used to be shot but now find themselves in 'sanctuaries') these people have worked and contributed to the well-being of our society. they have produced children, been in gainful employment and paid their taxes and National Insurance to provide for those before them.

The State told them that they were entitled to 'cradle to grave' care and support, but no one told them that the grave might just be enticed that little nearer to reduce costs; neither did they realise that services and places of care would mean that we would end up with a 'can't pay - can't live' society (such as that I saw many years ago in a certain Western nation where there was wealth and health and poverty and early demise on the menu).

The Bible tells us that 'we don't muzzle the ox that treads the grain' (Deuteronomy 25) - meaning that when you do the work you should also benefit from it. Well those in the three groups above have done (and in many cases are still doing) that and they have a right to expect the best in care, provision and support. In fact, I would argue that legally, having paid in to the system, if services are withdrawn there must be a case for reimbursement of the financial components for them as they have paid money for something that isn't on offer (it's called 'fraud' when it doesn't relate to the government!).

One of the things that defines a nation is the way that it cares for the poor and needy; well if some of my visits to places around the country are anything to go by, we are to be judged as wanting. If some of the stories I hear (and have seen for myself) are anything other than isolated exceptions then there is a cynical streak that seeks to save money on the lives that actions designate as 'worthless' because of the age of the person.

Be warned - 2013 is the year when I will shout loud and make a stand for the older folk around me and where services are not forthcoming then I will be making this known; where charities fail to uphold their end of the bargain (a bargain which the giving of others has made possible) I will waste no time in pointing to it.

1 Timothy (chapter five) talks about providing for our relatives (and members of our households too) and it says that those who fail to do this  have denied their faith and are 'worse than unbelievers' - sadly in a land where unbelief is applauded and financial probity is championed as a reason for poorer standards in old-age care, these words are appearing truer every day - another reason that we need to make this land a place where faith is applauded and reason, truth, love, justice and mercy are valued.

I close with the words of the apostle Paul as found in Galatians (six) - my words:

"Brothers and sisters, if you find someone acting wrongly, those of you with faith in God (and living by His Holy Spirit) should correct them gently. But take care  that you are not tempted to do that wrongly yourselves.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

We need to care for the older people of our nation - it is their right and our duty!

If it isn't being done then we need to start doing some 'correcting' (the right way) - don't we?