We are all getting older!

So you want to die?
Once again the 'awkward' subject of voluntary euthanasia has reared its' ugly head with Baroness Warlock suggesting we should have the right to have assisted suicide if we suffer from altzimhas disease.
Strangely, I get the impression from comments on the radio and in the press that approval for this 'right' increases as we get older and the possibility of the right becomes a reality. To the young, life is an adventure and the majority what to live it to the full. As old age creeps up, bits start to fall off, cease to work as well they might, responsibilities to others are reduced and the realisation that life cannot continue for ever sinks in.
Naturally, this happens at different rates and different times to all of us, but one thing I am sure of is that by the time you realise you have altzimhas disease, it's often too late to make a rational decision.
In some respects this thorny question already gets answered. I had an elderly relative who lived on her own and was 'lucky' enough to have stroke when a friend from Italy popped in (don't ask!) to see her. The friend called an ambulance and waited at the hospital until we arrived at gone 11pm.
She was assessed overnight in the A&E side ward before being transferred to the stroke unit.  A couple of weeks later, she was transferred to her local community hospital. Initially, on the ground floor, but then moved to the 1st floor. A patient told us that people rarely came down again!
She spent several weeks in a ward, but as she was unable to swallow and in great pain, it seemed her only wish to be allowed to die, wasn't too much to ask at 95. After a few weeks, we found she had been moved to a single ward at the end of a corridor and within the week she was dead.
I suspect this story could be repeated in a similar fashion by many people regarding an elderly relative and I suppose the real question is whether the person should be 'helped' to die with his/her relatives and friends nearby or, in the case of my aunt, be shuffled off to a side ward and just left to die on her own.
At the time, I was very cross that no effort had been made to make her final days/hours more comfortable and wrote a letter complaining of the treatment handed out. I got the usual invitation to make an appointment to discuss my concerns but in the end considered that nothing would would be gained apart from costing NHS staff time and money and did not follow up the invitation.
This is a difficult subject that does need addressing, but if we don't discuss the safeguards that must be put in place, doctors will continue to do what they feel is best rather than what the patient and relatives feel is a preferable way.
I hope this short article at least makes you think about the subject and realise that not matter what the law currently says, it happens by the back door and that can't be right.

On the 14th June the Area Health Authority will announce its decision on the location of a new District General Hospital for the North West Herts District.

There are indications that this will be built in St. Albans and that the services available in the Dacorum District will be of an even lower level than at present.

The implications of this decision are of immense importance to us all.  The problems of travelling to St. Albans by public transport can hardly be exaggerated.  To ensure that Berkhamsted is aware of the facts a meeting has been arranged by the Berkhamsted League of Hospital Friends at the Gable Hall, Berkhamsted, on Tuesday, 6th June at 8 p.m.  The meeting will be addressed by Dr. Ian Mortimer, District Community Physician and by Mrs. Bullmore, Chairman of Dacorum Hospital Action Group.

That got you all going, didn't it?

That was in the May 1974 issue of the Berkhamsted Citizens' Association newsletter, but 30 years later the same problems are being discussed by some of us as I pointed out in the September issue of the Review. That article was written as a result of my attending a 'stakeholders' meeting to discuss our new Hemel Hempstead General Hospital. The July one was to set the criteria for the location and a second one promised for 'late September or early October'. Here we are in November, and still waiting.
That, of course, was the Primary Care Trust. The West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust is going in exactly the opposite direction. They are moving services to Watford ('that decision has been made and we can't change that' – how many times have I head that?) ahead of their public statements, only to have to move them back again due to problems at Watford. The latest 'move' was A&E is now at Watford between 10pm and 8am due to 'safety' reasons (aka, not enough staff!) although we were promised it would not happen before March 2009.

On the 17th October, the DHAG held a public meeting (OK, where were you?) regarding the latest proposals to turn the Hospital Trust into a Foundation Trust. The Hospital Trust has been holding public meetings all over the area to explain the implications during yet another consultation period. The two meetings in Berkhamsted attracted less than 10 residents, the one I attended had 3 plus a couple of Town Councillors who popped in for a short time.

The idea is that the Trust will be able to do what it wants (so, what's new?), provide the services that it's 'customers' want, provide 'targets' in addition to the government set ones (they can't even reach them!) and naturally raise funding elsewhere. Oh, I forgot, the public will be allowed to become governors and have a say in the way things are done.

Using the usual 'management' style, they have divided the area into six constituencies and the proposed 14 public governors will be selected using the number of referrals from each constituency during 2007. I did point out that Dacorum will be having another 25000 'patients' thrust upon us during the next 10 years and our constituency (Berkhamsted and Tring) may have  just 1 governor out of the 4 proposed for Dacorum. I have also pointed out that Watford is far more difficult to get to that Hemel Hempstead and they could be part of the reason why referrals are low and maybe population would be a better measure.

The consultation period runs from 22nd September to 16th December 2008 and shortly afterwards they will make the decision to apply for Foundation Status – whoops – that should say, decision whether or not to apply.....

More information from http://www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk/ft or the office on 08444 776321