KT Dodge

Archive for June, 2008

I am pleased to report that today my brother is playing an aging ‘rocker’ in 2 episodes of a new six part comedy with Jimmy Nail.  Of course he has taken advice from his brother in law and even based his wig requirements on Mr Dodge’s hair!!  I’ll let you know when it’s on when i have more news.

I am really pleased to hear that there has now been a u-turn on the proposed co-payment rules for medical treatment.  As I said earlier why should people be penalised for trying to get the best medical care when in a crisis? The proposed policy which would exclude you from NHS care if you sought private medical diagnosis was inhumane and ludicrous.  If people are willing to pay for diagnosis privately it actually eases the burden on the NHS and speeds up the waiting time for those people who really can’t afford to do this.  If you choose to pay privately for your diagnosis but then wish to get further treatment via the NHS you should be entitled to do this as after all you cannot opt out of National Insurance payments which contribute to the NHS system.  Choice is important and should not be taken away from us, therefore, I am very pleased about this re-think.  

Last night I went to see a medium with a group of friends who I used to work with.  The tickets promised food and clairvoyance for £15.00 pp.  Now I must admit that i’ve always been a wee bit partial to a bit of ’spiritualism’ and have attended spiritualist churches and mediums before.  It was no surprise to me that when we got there the restaurant was packed full of women, a little too full for comfort.  They were serving alcohol - which i always thought was actually a negative thing for ’spirit readings’.  The medium Karen did not explain ‘mediumship’ for newcomers instead just kept reciting all these catchphrases.  Alas I did not get a reading but a few of my ex-work colleagues did and said afterwards that it was rubbish.  Even stranger she decided to give the owner of the restaurant and her daughters several long readings which she should have done in the interval as she said herself they had not paid!!  Her readings were general and although a couple of people did begin to cry at some things she told them, the alcohol may have played a part.  Now we were promised food at the interval which was just as disappointing - it was merely plates of sandwiches (mostly fish) a pasta dish, again fish and quiche once again fish!!  Oh and tucked away in the corner there was some cheese and biscuits … but the food was poor.  Did we get value for money?  No.  I would recommend that if you want to go and sit in an audience and listen to clairvoyance with maybe the chance of getting picked you should go to a spiritualist church.  It costs much less, you can eat before you go and for a small donation you get something that feels much more genuine!!!

Yet again I can only say that I am disappointed with the NHS.  Rita and her family are part of our extended family, my father and her husband have a business together and have socialised for the past 50 odd years together in a big crowd of friends.  Rita died two days ago from chemo treatment for pancreatic cancer.  Unfortunately, although Rita had been ill for several years the NHS did not manage to diagnose this cancer until very recently and therefore, by the time they did she was already too weak to withstand the punishing poison that is chemo.This is the second person in my dad’s ‘crowd’ of friends to die from cancer this year alone.  Yet again cancer was not discovered until it was far too late to successfully fight against it.  Why is it so hard for us to ‘test’ properly and discover cancer in the early stages so that we can cure it?  The system is fine once we discover it, but is really poor at diagnosing it quickly.  As a quick diagnosis for cancer is the key to successfully combatting it in most cases the fact that there are government calls for people who do not accept their GP’s advice when they suggest they only have something minor when in actual fact it may be something much more serious go private for the diagnosis to be penalised and not be able to then return to the NHS system for follow up treatment is ludicrous.  If we could rely on the NHS machine to diagnose properly and quickly nobody would need to go private but unfortunately, the evidence I have seen is this is currently just not the case.