The Random thought thread

[red750]

42 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

sit in the queue in the entry hallway for an unknown (long) time

with your amputated leg under your arm.

[willedoo]

The only recent time I've walked into emergency entailed a five hour wait before being triaged, but I wasn't a critical case. It was more a formality; the stroke clinic phoned me and wanted me to do it. As I know now, that's what I should have done in the first place instead of going through the GP and then getting a referral to the hospital. A couple of years ago when I was stretchered in after running low on the red stuff, it wasn't too long to wait. Maybe ten minutes ramped in the ambulance, then another ten in the hallway. The paramedics stayed with me and kept an eye on blood pressure so it was all good. Our local public hospitals are good in my opinion. Not the case everywhere from what you hear.

[nomadpete]

To balance my whinge about hospitals, I must add that in spite of frequent past experiences of looong wait times, our health system is generally good. I attribute this to the exceptional diligence of nursing staff, and doctors.

 

The admin, financing, etc..... well that needs work.

 

 

Edited Friday at 06:47 AM by nomadpete
Fat finger fixes. I can hit 3 letters in one press!

[old man emu]

Often when I was performing constabulary duties, I had to take mental patients to the local hospital which had a psych unit. Like the ambos, I had to stay with the patient in the corridors of the A&E until the patient could be asessed by a doctor for admission. You can imagine how fustrating that was when I knew that my partner and I were the only crew available to attend to calls in our patrol. And it usually happened during evening shift on weekends when there was lots going on out on the streets.

[willedoo]

I take my hat off to you ome for doing that job. I remember four years ago when I was in icu after an artery operation, the first night there was a lot of commotion in an adjoining room. I don't know what the story was, but it sounded like a druggie who had od'd on purpose to suicide and he was very angry that he'd been revived. He was off his head and the police had to be there to keep him under control.

[facthunter]

Are they trained to handle Mental people? I think they are there more for security reasons.    It's pretty common to see.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Are they trained to handle Mental people?

No, and that's a big problem. People with mental illness, especially those whose illness has made them homeless usuyally have had very traumatic interactions with police whose lack of training in dealing with the minds of the mentally ill exacerbates bad interactions. The feeling of helplessness in the police to be able to reach a satisfactory solution to the problem presented by a mental illness situation is demoralising.

 

Remember,too, that for the constables called out to a mental illness situation there are likely to be aware that at the same time calls are coming in for them to deal with all the other types of situations that normally occur durig a shift. There are never enough police on duty at a given time to deal with all the calls coming in. So while police are stuck in an A&E unit with a mentally ill person, some arsehole is beting his partner and some drunk has wrapped his car around a pole. Which job gets priority?

 

As dramatist W. S. Gilbert's lyric in The Pirates of Penzance song "When a felon's not engaged in his employment" sung by the Sergeant and Chorus of Police, "A policeman's lot is not a happy one ..."

 

 

[facthunter]

That's what makes a walloper's job less Mundane (and more stressful) Eh?. Dealing with humans is complex and requires skills training, time and self control. Be nice if there were less guns, drugs and  knives out there.?

[red750]

From 1969 to 1972, America put 12 men on the moon in nine missions. Eight of the surviving crew members (notably absent is the reclusive Neil Armstrong) talk about their experiences in a documentary called In The Shadow of The Moon, not to be confused with a movie of the same name released a few years later. The documentary was played on TV a few days ago. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on the documentary -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Moon_(2007_film).

 

Of all the astronauts who appeared in the film, only Buzz Aldrin demanded to be paid.

 

A quote I recall from the end of the documentary was one of the astronauts who said

"We sent nine trips to the moon but sceptics still say it was faked in a hangar. Why would we fake it nine times?"
 

[onetrack]

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The last few days have been bitterly cold, full overcast and gloomy, all day, every day. I'm looking forward to Spring and Summer returning.

 

To hasten it, we've booked a fortnights break in Broome, from the end of July to mid-August. That will give us a nice early burst of sunshine and warmth. I always look forward to a Winter break in Broome. The place is overpriced and always full of tourists, but the scenery and Cable Beach can't be beaten.

 

We stay at the Habitat Resort, it's set on 9 acres (3.6Ha), and has 32 individual bungalows and apartments all spread out in a lovely heavily vegetated setting. Each bungalow is self contained, we can cook for ourselves or go up town for a feed. The Broome Golf Course is right next door, and their clubhouse sits on top of a big dune overlooking Roebuck Bay, and they serve good food and drinks.

 

The Port of Broome has had a massive rebuild, the W.A. Govt has spent $200M building a new jetty, and a huge new floating dock, so ships can dock and depart any time, and not be dependent on the tide, as before, at the original dock, which was fixed. This was still being built when we were there last year, so it should all be finished now.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by onetrack

[pmccarthy]

We are off to Sydney today  for a week. Haven’t been there for fifteen years. Broome would be better.