Today’s blog is Virus, Vic & Ambulances. We’ve had a super weekend here at the coast, how about you. The sun is beautiful, a sky blue without a cloud and my has it brought the crowds out, and then some more.
What Virus?
We keep wondering ‘what virus’ as so many people come here and act as though it doesn’t exist. The prom gets people chatting, they’re walking near each other with not an attempt to get out of the way. The beach has been inundated with dog walkers and the car park is full early in the morning. Presumably because they can park here for free the whole day – which they can’t in most car parks.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely to see people enjoying themselves. I just hope we don’t count the cost when they’ve all gone! I know we’re all getting fed up of this carry on, me included. But, to me, it’s better than being in a box! Having isolated for so long, hubby and I are reluctant to mix with them. We’re staying put until there is more clearance of the blooming virus.
Never mind Virus, Vic & Ambulances…
I read with a lot of disgust about the two yobs in St. Anne’s who attacked an 89 year old man in a car park supermarket. The poor pensioner was left with a broken hip. At 8.10am, I’d have thought they’d still be in their beds and not thinking of getting up before lunch. The rub is, two 14 years old boys have been arrested for the attack at Aldi on Clifton Drive on Thursday. The police had no problem taking them to the local police station, as they were obviously known to them.
What a thing to be proud of, being known to the local bobbies. What is wrong with some of the youth of today that they think it’s ok to attack a defenceless 89 year old man. It’s about time that something was done about the feckless kids that are roaming about causing trouble. Maybe it’s because they know that even if they get caught, nothing will happen, other than a slap on the wrist. It’s time the judicial system was overhauled in my opinion. Laws made donkeys years ago are not fit for today’s society. Along with a lot of other things in our life that are so outdated they’re a joke. I suppose that will never happen, but you can hope can’t you.
On to the Vic
Changing the subject completely, I see that a new 999 cancer centre has been opened for patients at Blackpool Vic. It means that the poor people who are fighting this awful disease will not have to call a helpline or go through casualty along with everyone else.
Blue Skies and the Rosemere Foundation have raised a wonderful sum of £100,000. Patients can now attend and be looked after by staff who know them and specialise in this area of treatment.
For me, as a former cancer patient who has battled through this disease, that’s wonderful. Even though it’s many years ago since I was a patient, it’s been stuck in our brains ever since. In the ‘good old days’ there weren’t any specialist nurses, no one to turn to when you came out of hospital, and the whole thing was horrendous.
There were no scans to see if there was a spread, absolutely nothing. We were just cast adrift, to get on with it the best we could. It was a horrible experience, believe me. I keep wondering if anyone would like to hear about my journey through this disease, if only to show the difference in treatments and hospitals. It’s like before and after now, and so much better. Maybe I will if people want to know, who knows. (If you do, bob me an email to chris@theRabbitPatch.co.uk)
Ambulances. A new station for the Fylde Coast
Anyway, away from that subject, but still on the NHS. Did you know that there are plans for a new ambulance station which will eventually see the closure of the four stations currently in use in the Fylde?
North West Ambulance service want to introduce a hub and spoke system (not sure what that means). It will mean the eventual closure of stations at Fleetwood, Thornton, Lytham and Wesham. But before anyone has a dickey fit, they say that these areas will have the same resources allocated to them as they do now.
Plans have gone in anyway to demolish the old station on Waterloo Road at South Shore. It will be replaced with a three storey building as the main hub. Crews will operate from spoke sites such as health centres, fire stations and police stations across the coast. ‘What police stations’ I ask myself, as they’ve mostly closed!
On the road
It seems 61% of ambulances aren’t at the station anyway. Crews go to the station to start their shift and leave the site for their first job. They rarely go back until the end of their shift, or when they have a break. The majority of cases don’t come from the local station but from the road or hospital where their last patient was taken.
As long as it doesn’t take a fortnight (slight exaggeration) to get an ambulance, which hopefully we’ll never have to do anyway, I’m not bothered where they come from. Another piece of progress in our town, along with many more.
So that’s today’s mixed bag! Virus, Vic & Ambulances!
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