Are you afraid of the news?

According to the news, we've not to expect to see a GP apparently because they need to prioritise their time for those who really need them. I would be interested to know how they know who really needs them if they are not seeing patients? We've also not to phone for an ambulance either or go to A&E or expect treatment for any long standing condition. And don't even think about getting an appointment with your Dentist. Add to that the constant messages from experts about the likelihood of "you know what" and Flu surging this winter. Can someone remind me why I'm paying NI? 

No need to worry about the empty supermarket shelves and food delivery problems either as it looks like there will be no food to deliver. The lack of Co2, it's reported, means farmers will have to kill their pigs because the Co2 is used to kill their pigs   Ok, not sure I quite get that one. It appears it will have  serious impact on poultry production too and Bernard Matthews (I assume they mean the company) said that Christmas was cancelled. Perhaps that's good news because toy stores have said that supplies will not meet demand this year.

Now we have a serious challenge to energy suppliers with several on the brink of administration because of the huge rise in gas prices, wonder who will end up paying for that 

Ok, I admit it, I'm shaking in my shoes 

You might be describing the situation in Scotland, but where I live:-

No noticeable shortages in the supermarkets.
Normal 6 months Dentist appointment tomorrow.
In last 4 weeks, 2 telephone Dr consults, 2 face to face Dr consults, 3 face to face Nurse consults (blood sampling- "what Phial shortage".

CO2 shortage due to 2 Fertilizer plant shut down due to spike in gas price, which provide 60% of UK CO2 used.

CO2 used to kill pigs rather than using a humane method, causes panic as pigs can't breathe, should be banned as a method.

Tat from China won't arrive for Xmas - whoopie.

Got a text from my dentist on Friday.. this is to remind you you need to make an appointment for a check up.  First contact from them in nearly two years, despite previously being told if we didn't attend regular check ups we would be thrown of NHSLiist. Phoned this morning and first check up appointment is February 2022


Most of the things Askit mention as news are really conjecture and scaremongering, once it happens it is news. Through a long career in the NHS as a clinician and senior manager Iearned the only way to cope was to "worry" about the things I could directly influence or change. Otherwise anxiety and stress would have been overwhelming. Apply same principle to retired life. 

Have a good day

No face to face with G.Ps or nurse,told to send a photo, what if I had Piles ??
no NHS dentists taking on new patients,our old practice closed. No A& E in town, nearest in York or Hull.
Oh happy days.
Boaby

Our surgery runs on Facebook!  God help you here if you don't do social media. I questioned it once on one of their FB posts and got told that they expect relatives and friends to keep others informed.

We will be off to Spain for the winter in a couple of months. They too are facing several types of crisis but my Spanish is not good enough to be able to understand the detail via the media.

Over the years in Spain I have had 2 excellent same-day emergency dental treatments and my ears syringed “ Can I make an appointment for ear syringing please” “ No need for an appointment, I can do it now.”
Currently in UK I am still waiting for a chipped tooth to be sorted and our surgery no longer does ear syringing. I have never even met my doctor  and this is not for want of trying.

We also have never seen our doctor in 5 years. A few months ago we were sent a letter telling us not to worry, but all four doctors had retired or moved on. The surgery was in the process of recruiting more..
If we phone the surgery the recorded message tells you on NO account to come to the surgery, and that this call will only result in a telephone consultation at their convenience. Then you're told you are now seventeenth in the queue and your call will be answered someday.. Usually we give up after half an hour when we've only crept up to tenth in the queue...
I have two friends who live locally, both are undergoing cancer treatment after months of being fobbed off with pills for indigestion...
Al.

The line for same day appointments at our surgery opens exactly at 08:00. If you use the land line and listen to all the messages before they tell you which number to press you can expect to be number 40-50 in the queue.

My mobile uses wi-fi to connect at home and if I dial on it exactly at the line opens almost instantly with no dialling delay. If you then select the line number before being told I have managed to be 1st in the queue

Going back to the OP I am afraid global warming is far more scary. This is hard to say but I think Bo-Jo has hit the nail on the head at the UN. It's all very well some castigating the developed world for not allowing the rest to catch up but GW doesn't care where greenhouse gasses come from. China needs to reduce its 28% contribution far more than we need to clean up the final 2%.

Allow GW to continue and getting a GP appointment could be the least of our worries.

Just to be a complete killjoy the pandemic could have been 10 times worse. A slight increase in transmissibility coupled with a higher morbidity and we are in global catastrophe territory.

HairyFool wrote:
Just to be a complete killjoy the pandemic could have been 10 times worse. A slight increase in transmissibility coupled with a higher morbidity and we are in global catastrophe territory.

But wouldn't the one have solved the other?
Let a pandemic rip that wipes out, say a third of the population of the world, and the climate change would soon solve itself...
Al.

bikeralw wrote:

HairyFool wrote:
Just to be a complete killjoy the pandemic could have been 10 times worse. A slight increase in transmissibility coupled with a higher morbidity and we are in global catastrophe territory.

But wouldn't the one have solved the other?
Let a pandemic rip that wipes out, say a third of the population of the world, and the climate change would soon solve itself...
Al.

The problem is a pandemic is not selective.

There are I am sure more than a few towrags that we could do without, unfortunately it would be just our luck that they are the ones that would survive.

So, well done the usual suspects @ the media outlets for their "relentless" reporting, last night and again this morning, of a few petrol stations being closed because of delivery issues. Don't panic they trumpeted, so what have we got this morning.............garages with huge queues and panic buying, so bad that access to supermarkets is being affected. What  shower of useless numpties (not what I really called them  )

Askit wrote:
.garages with huge queues and panic buying, so bad that access to supermarkets is being affected. What  shower of useless numpties (not what I really called them  )

Ah well, if you believe the frenzy the media is trying to whip up, there'll be nothing in the supermarkets to buy..
And have you noticed the Christmas ads on TV and the tinsel etc on sale in shops already? It must be the earliest they've ever started. I'm sure in other years we've not been bombarded till at least after the clocks go back...
The world has indeed gone mad.
Al.

Askit wrote:So, well done the usual suspects @ the media outlets for their "relentless" reporting, last night and again this morning, of a few petrol stations being closed because of delivery issues. Don't panic they trumpeted, so what have we got this morning.............garages with huge queues and panic buying, so bad that access to supermarkets is being affected. What  shower of useless numpties (not what I really called them  )

Queueing out of our Tesco station onto the road and same at Applegreen Station. 3 Tesco staff in hiviz directing cars to pumps.

Just plugged my car in as the sun is out, fuel shortage solved

HairyFool wrote:Just plugged my car in as the sun is out, fuel shortage solved

Solar powered eh! Now that would be good.

The needle on my jalopy's fuel gauge was hitting red so it was an early rise this morning to get to the petrol station before the queues start. Clearly others had the same idea but I was still in and out pretty quickly. What a b***dy shambles.

Don't worry, HMG say there is plenty of fuel, and there is plenty of gas. In both cases they fail to address the issue, shortage of drivers to deliver the plentiful supplies of  fuel, and a spike in international energy costs for gas ( and !ets not talk about the electricity link from France that is working at reduced capacity due to a fire last week)

When they do mention driver or labour shortage claim is this is happening in every country due to Covid, so why the u turn overnight about visas for drivers, surely by their own admission if there is a shortage in other countries this will not be a solution. Shapps is worried about letting cheap foreign labour in as HMG wants to promote high quality, high wage British jobs. Not sure how this will happen without investment and major hike in costs for consumers ie US!

It safe to assume that most of the EU drivers who returned home during Covid for understandable reasons, have settled or provisional settled status, to return to UK if they wish, so a visa scheme will not affect them. If they want to return they can.

DVLA need to get their staff back in the office to clear the obvious licencing/testing backlog. THe WFH system is clearly not working.

The oft stated 100k shortage of drivers is a total fictional number. "More or Less", R$ programme did a thing on it a few weeks ago, and showed it is made up from total guess work with no actual information.

Talking of getting staff back to offices, with the exception of two up our avenue, everyone of working age has been back at their jobs/desks for months. Guess who these two work for? The local council! One of the 'workers' even took delivery of a brand new white Toyota crew cab pick-up truck, complete with orange light bar on the roof and the council decals on the side, it's been on his drive for a month now and never turned a wheel.. I phoned the council for an explanation and just got a recorded message... no one in the office..
I'm contemplating cancelling my council tax direct debit.
Mad indeed.
Al.

Visiting Aldi today I thought I must have been in a deep sleep for a few months... An entire aisle devoted to Christmas, everything from chocolate figures to Christmas cake and puddings!
I've never before seen all this stuff on the shelves in September. They've not even started putting out all the Halloween tacky things yet!
Am I guessing this may be to fill up shelves where otherwise there would be obvious gaps?
Even so, almost everyone in front of me was stacking up on Chrimbo goodies...
Al.

Someone in my street has Christmas lights in their window already 

In other news, the nice spokesperson for Energy providers said this morning that the price cap (going up now) may have to go up again in 6 months time. But not to worry, it will come down again when prices drop.

Aye, right 

I do wonder...

"Dear UK population. Thank you for panic buying all our old stale fuel caused by lockdowns, and for making plenty of room for new fuel. Don't worry, you can have the good E10 stuff soon. Then when it kills your car you can rest assured the lack of a car will help the climate problem.

Sincerely, The Govt."

Yeah, I'm a cynic.