Long time no blog

I thought I'd better look in to celebrate this blog's second blogiversary. I haven't been updating since starting Bill the Klingon, which is taking up my creative energies. I got the top rated strip today - w00t! Will I be able to get alpha by the end of the month? Who knows?
If you want to see what I've been doing, drop in to www.stripgenerator.com and look for strips by DeaconBarry. If you go into the bribed section, you'll see several of my best strips.

Back to square one

Guess what? The edict has come down from on high. The MRSA screening time is back down to one month again. I would have claimed that it was this blog's influence, except that the descision was made on the day the previous post came out. Never mind, at least we won't have to cancel patients caught in the two to twelve month trap.
I suspect there's some sort of boardroom battle going on between the management and Infection Control, I wouldn't be surprised if there were further changes. But for now I'm rooting for the management.

Sad news

*sob* I didn't get the Poet job. But I was up against people who've done this sort of thing before, so I'm not too downheartened. At least I tried for it. I now await with interest the arrival of the successful candidate through the doors of the Eye Pavilion (with a fully loaded, semi automatic sonnet!)

Carry on screening

Up until the beginning of this year, it was standard operating procedure to screen patients, who had stayed overnight in hospital in the previous month, for MRSA, before they had an operation. Since the beginning of this year, it has been extended to a year. The result? We're getting a slew of unscreened patients who fell outside the one month cutoff when they were assessed, but are now within the one year cutoff. If a patient's MRSA status is in doubt, they have to go at the end of the list, so that the theatre can be deep cleaned afterwards. Which is all well and good, if there's only one such patient. What happens when you get two, or three? It hasn't happend to us yet, but it will. I expect somebody will just have to be cancelled.
So why don't they just screen everybody who's been in hospital overnight? Do you know how much that costs. I've just found out. One MRSA swab costs £32 to process. And you need five of them for an MRSA screen. That's £160 per person. £1000 buys you six. £1 million buys you six thousand, which is the output of about five or six wards in a year. One hospital's yearly total could be £5 million. Two hundred hospitals could spend a billion pounds on MRSA screens alone.
That's the sort of serious money the Government have to be willing to commit to fight MRSA.
What are the chances?

News flash

I've been telling people at work that I've started stripping on the internet. Before you start running around screaming "The Horror! The Horror!" and start burning your eyes out, it's not 'that' kind of stripping. I've discovered a site that lets you produce your own comic strips. If you want to see what I've been doing for the past week, click on this link: http://deaconbarry.stripgenerator.com/ and then you can start screaming...

I'm in ur oshuns, eating teh internets

The Indian internet has been severely hit by the as yet unexplained malfunctions of three submarine telecommunication cables off the coasts of Egypt and Dubai. Now on cabble being damaged is unfortunate, but, meh, stuff happens. Two cables getting damaged is a coincidence, but three? At the same time? That's a conspiracy surely? What are the odds of three cables going offline in the same month? I have heard it being blamed on ship's anchors, and certainly it makes more sense to put incompetence ahead of intrigue when looking for the answers to life's mysteries. I think, if another cable gets knackered, we're looking at vandalism on an oceanic scale. Either that, or Spongebob Squarepants has got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Pneumonia epidemic?

Jeremy Beadle has just died - of pneumonia. He was 59. My neighbour died of pneumonia recently. She was 40. Someone close to me has been in hospital recently with pneumonia. This blog documents some more cases. Now one swallow does not a summer make, and a few anecdotal cases do not make an epidemic, but I've never heard pneumonia being mentioned as many times as it has recently.
Please keep yourself safe. If you develop a persistant cough, go to your doctor and get it checked out, especially if your chest gets rattly. If there is an epidemic coming, and I stress the if, then you must take extra precautions. It can be treated with antibiotics if caught in time.
And see how long it takes for the mainstream media to pick up on this story.

Bebo boy

Oh how hip am I? I've just started up on Bebo. Here's the link: http://www.bebo.com/a/invite/5504886288a865337287b65
Here's a list of the things you can do
* Draw or write on my White Board (this is fun, I've just sent one to my sister-in-law who I've just discovered, is also on Bebo and is now my first friend)
* Upload, share and comment on unlimited photos (when I've got some uploaded that is)
* Read my bebo blog (And no deserting this blog!)
* And, er, other stuff.
My profile is still a work in process - I've uploaded my picture, and that's it. If you're on Bebo, I'd love to hear from you.

And now for a commercial break

If you're wanting a unique, handcrafted greetings card for a loved one, then you should look at this site: www.anjcraft.co.uk
Angela has just got the site up and running, but she's been making cards for ages. A lot of people at work have received some of her output on special occasions. She handed me the URL yesterday, so here it is.

Poet wanted

Gasp! The Eye Pavilion is looking for a poet, and they didn't ask me!
Midlothian Council regularly send me information about writing events. As I cast my eye over their latest missive, the words 'Eye Hospital' leapt out at me. Here's the letter.
Art in Healthcare - Poet for Eye Hospital Project
Area: Edinburgh
Deadline: Wednesday 6 February 2008
Art in Healthcare - a leading charity organisation that provides arts services to the healthcare community - requires a poet to create new poems for the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh. Poems will be presented in Braille/text and will explore or engage with the issues surrounding visual impairment.
As well as a good portfolio of work and creative talent, it is desirable that poet has one of the following:
Direct experience of working on creative projects in a community, public or healthcare environment:
Awareness of all the issues facing individuals who have gone through, or are experiencing visual impairment.
The project is due to be completed by May 2008. For more information e-mail: rstrang@artinhealthcare.org.uk or tel: 0131 555 7638
I reckon that I qualify for this. I think I'll check it out.

Get the picture

This is simply shocking news from Texas. Apparently, they've been having a wheen of UFO sightings there, craft apparently a mile long, flying low and silently, pursued by military jets. But that's not the shocking bit. What I find unbelievable is that nobody has taken a picture of it. This is the twenty-first century, many cellphones have built in digital cameras. Anything unusual in the sky, and you'd expect the place to sound like a geiger counter in Chernobyl with all the electronic clicking.
But no. All we get is the usual wobbly video footage of an ambiguous light, that could be anything really - a weather balloon, an airliner, Dumbo...

Squashed tomatoes and stew

It's my birthday today. The second one I've had since starting this blog. I got some art books, one on drawing and painting fantasy landscapes and cities, one on fantasy beasts and one on fantasy vehicles. I'm feeling inspired just reading them.

Not so jammy now

Please return to panic mode. The sun is back in play. The first sunspot of the new cycle has been spotted (urgh, I typed that before I realised the pun). Global warming will proceed as scheduled, and, oh yes, we're all doomed.
Mind you, it's very late, which might indicate a less active sunspot cycle, or a more gradual winding down of solar activity. But no rushing out for a SUV gas guzzler just yet, It's still Lexuses and solar panels for the roof on the agenda. Those carbon emissions have to be reduced, and we ain't got all century folks.

Put rubber gloves over your glasses before reading this.

Ah'm no weel. The doctor says I've got a viral chest infection. That's the kind you don't get antibiotics for. I just have to cough my way to recovery, armed only with a bottle of Co-op Bronchial Mixture. Karaoke is out, unless it's Old Man River or Wandrin' Star - the only songs known where a croaky throat is an advantage.

Resurrection

It seems reports of the NHS Blogdoctor's demise may be premature. A troll has admitted to hoaxing the news of his death in order to provoke Dr John Crippen into a denial. Thanks to Julie for letting me know.
You've got to be very careful what you read on the internet, obviously. Everything should be corroborated before you publish. In the rush to be first with the news, you're likely to be burned.
He still hasn't spoken though, so we're none the wiser as to what's happened to him.

Tea for two

My sister came to tea yesterday. She's up from deepest darkest Dudley, and she's staying, not with any member of our family, but with her boyfriend, who I only found out about last week. Apparently, she's been dropping subtle hints since starting the relationship, but she should've known better by now that anything less subtle than a bunkerbuster warhead, is going to go completely beneath my radar - as it did.
She finally revealed all to Mum on Thursday, two days after I went down for Christmas dinner, and didn't mention a dicky-bird. I think my goose is cooked. Thanks sis! And happy new year!

The Very Best Christmas of All

It's Christmas.
You must not miss this

Merry old Christmas.

So come one and all

We're having a ball

It's the very best Christmas of all.

Sleigh bells chime.

Our guests they are on time

To drink of this mulled wine.

So come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

The clock in

The hall is tick-tocking,

So hang up your stocking

And come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Children banter

As bedwards they canter.

They mustn't miss Santa.

So come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Best wishes

And mistletoe kisses

To master and missus

And come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Dead. But in a good way.
Parents, learner drivers, and now patients in nine English NHS trusts: all that information lost. And with it, the Government's plans to introduce ID cards. They're history. Gordon Brown isn't going to introduce them in this parliament. And after the next general election, the Conservatives will be in power, and that'll be the final nail in the coffin.
It was always a dumb idea put forward by a dumb government. Any purported benefits were massivly outweighed by the drawbacks. People hate the idea. It smacks of totalitarianism and fascism, the very philosophies we were brought up to despise. Besides, Scotland, Wales and Ulster would have voted aginst it anyway.

Dr Crippen - the last post

Sad news from Julie. The NHS Blog Doctor - Dr Crippen, we've just found out, was killed in a car accident in October. His practice partners only found out his secret online identity when they were going through his computer records. They've posted an announcement in the comments to his final post.
Any blogger interested in the field of healthcare will have encountered his blog. It was very critical of the current state of the NHS and the roles played by politicians - a necessary function that I hope other bloggers will take on now. My sympathies go to his family and friends who may now be finding out what a stature he had in the blogging community.

Jammy Dodgers

What a bunch of spawny gets! It's Humanity I'm talking about, the jammy bastards. We're pumping all this carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like there's no tomorrow, and now it turns out there is. A tomorrow I mean. Yesterday, we were running out of time. Global warming was proceeding at a greater rate than was predicted. Emissions aren't being cut back. Any technical solution is going to take ages to make any impact. It seemed there was nothing that could be done to reverse the heating up of the atmosphere. Nothing ... except the one thing we have absolutely no control over.
The sun.
It's gone into hibernation.
The sun spots have stopped.
Or rather they're late. And if they don't start soon, the Earth's temperature is going to drop by 1.5 degrees, which should balance out the rise due to global warming. If this a Maunder minimum that were about to go into, we could have about a century of no sun spots, and a little ice age. But unlike the 18th century, we've got 200 years of CO2 insulation, and some breathing space to try and solve the problems before the tropics fry.
Talk about luck.