Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Over-used emergency centres; A resignation!; The state of the nation; and Memory Lane

I read yesterday that in some countries in East Europe, people don't have GPs so, instead of first going to the Medical Centre and then waiting for weeks to see a specialist, they go to their hospital's Emergency unit and take it from there. Oddly enough, I was discussing this recently with my knowledgable friend, who's had a great deal of experience recently of the Emergency (Urgencias) system here in Spain. Where things are much the same. My own experience of taking my (in agony) daughters confirms his judgement that the Urgencia units here overflow with people who really shouldn't be there. As a result, there are large waiting rooms, numerous cubicles, beds in the corridors and - unless it's the middle of the night - long waits. Forcing people to wait is, of course, the standard rationing weapon in the UK but folk have long become inured to this and expect it. Despite this, many Brits and Spaniards rate their national health services highly. Incidentally, the report which sparked this paragraph was on the problems being created for the Emergency units in the UK (A&E) being overwhelmed by Rumanians and Bulgarians arriving there with stomach upsets, or boils and other trivial complaints.

I was wrong about heads not rolling because of the ETA meeting cock-up. The Press Officer at the Ministry of the Interior has apologised for the premature announcement of success and has had his resignation accepted. If not compelled.

I watched a decent film last night - The Words. In Spain, this became The Thief of Words. Why? No one has the slightest idea. Job retention is the best guess.

If you want a trenchant (left-of-centre) view of the state of the state of Spain, click here. It's from Graeme of South of Watford and seems pretty accurate to me.

And now for something completely different . . . I'm not sure it still happens but when I was at primary school we had a weekly singing session, conducted by a teacher who could play the piano. Something or other reminded me of this and I dug out the tunes I can remember. Especially for my reader and schoolmate, KK, here they are. The rest of you can join in if you like:-

Cotton Fields. Johnny Cash version.

Poor Old (Black) Joe. Paul Robeson version

The Leaving of Liverpool. One of hundreds of versions.

Oh, Soldier, Soldier. Versions A, B and C.

D'ye Ken John Peel. Trifle unusual version.

The British Grenadier. Basic march.

As I write this, I can see the teacher writing the words of Cotton Fields and Poor Old Joe on the blackboard. Quite why she chose black spirituals I've no idea but we clearly loved the tunes. I wonder if primary schools today in the UK still have the time and inclination to teach kids to sing. Actually, we had a singing class in grammar school as well but I doubt these have survived today's obsession with rankings.

The Ayatollah is having a rest today.

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