In the midst of the water shortage we have rain and plenty of it. Hubby is moaning, there are no opportunities for going out and digging the garden (when does he do that in dry weather?). For me though, it means time to sit and read the Sunday paper. I don’t know about anywhere else in the world, but on Sunday the newspapers are big. What I mean by that is that for your £1.60 (or whatever you are paying out) you get a newspaper, a couple of magazines, a sports paper, a review thing, a travel paper (today trips to Germany, something to do with the world cup) and much much more!

The thing that caught my eye today in an NHS / healthcare way, was an article about the whole hospital / community care debate, which is something we have been discussing at work. All the time we are being told of the need to keep people out of hospital (something I mentioned the other day). But who has told the great British Public of the plan that they will be treated for their illnesses either in a place that is not a hospital, or else if they start off in hospital that they will be kicked out double quick to be cared for at home?

I completely agree with the idea that hospitals are for thetrulyy sick. That where possible people should be cared for out of hospital and that includes dying at home. But how will we make sure that the money currently pumped into our large acute hospitals will ever be released into primary care and how will we tell people that it isn’t about giving them second rate cheap treatment and instead about giving them the best?

As a former district nurse, I have cared for many people at home during the terminal stages of their illness. But the lack of 24 hour care, the inability to offer the kind of support people (including the staff) can receive in hospital, makes it unsurprising that so many people end up dying in hospital. There is a feeling that peoples lives can be saved (no matter what they are suffering from), if your relative is sent home and is cared for by the GP and district nurses, then the message is loud and clear. Perhaps people want to think that they are only a new drug or miracle cure away from being well again. This is not to say that people with terminal illnesses don’t value going home to die, but the people who write in the media and those that read it are in the main not those who are ill at the moment. They are those who fear the big C word, or some other incurable illness. People call for a national debate on such things, but who will lead it? Where will it be held? Are we talking about a BBC, Question Time debate introduced by a Dimbleby?

We all know we have to die at some time, but generally this death is in our sleep at age 85 with our family close by. The trouble is, those of us who are not yet 85 want those that are to get the best possible chance of the best possible treatment and we don’t think that this will be found at home with a district nurse, even if she does have the title community matron.