The Discontinuous NHS
I am a control engineer by training, although I haven’t really practised since the early 1970s. But any control engineer will tell you that the most difficult system to control is one with discontinuities. I always liken it to riding a bicycle, which you may be able to do happily on the flat, but then you need to go up or down a kerb and you have a problem.
Some of the biggest problems we get in life are concerned with discontinuities; such as birth, marriages and deaths. We also get a whole series of problems when we do something like move house.
Organisations such as the banks, insurance, utility and telephone companies, major retailers, supermarkets and some government agenices like the DVLC, TV Licensing and a few others, have used modern methods, such as web sites, e-mail, text messaging and dare I say it well-designed call centres to liase with their customers in whatever way those important customers find easiest and most convenient. If say a gas company doesn’t do what the customers want, then those same customers will desert it.
Moving wasn’t particularly difficult for me, with respect to gas, electricity, banks, gas, water, credit cards, broadband, TV and phones, even if I have a couple of minor issues to sort out.
One problem I have had was getting used to the refuse system. But Hackney council were very helpful over the phone and the binmen sorted out the small details. But in an ideal world all councils would use the same collection system. In a few years time, they probably will, as one method will probably be cheapest for all councils to operate for a variety of reasons. The method will probably have a high level of recycling too.
But the NHS seems almost to be designed to be discontinuous.
My previous and current surgeries are run on different lines, probably use different computer systems and have made my transfer a lot more difficult than it should be, as I can’t understand, why the same system is not used in both places. Would, BP, Shell or Esso, use different computer systems in all the garages they supply with fuel? I don’t know, but I suspect they don’t!
Today, I miscalculated when I would run out of tablets. I thought I had another weeks supply, which I do, except for the statins I take. So I needed to get some more.
At my previous surgery, I just e-mailed them and they would be ready within 24 hours. But my new surgery doesn’t have a pharmacist and after visiting them this morning, they informed me, I wouldn’t get the prescription forms until tomorrow afternoon. I had assumed as it was a repeat prescriptiuon, I could just pick one up and get it dispensed. I thought that I might be able to get some in emergency at a pharmacist, but this would need a visit to a doctor at an NHS walk-in centre. Would we accept such a system for buying groceries at Tesco’s.
We need two things.
- Every surgery should use similar systems and methods. They should also make it clear to new patients, how you get repeat prescriptions.
- All repeat prescriptions, should be on a central NHS database, so that you can walk into any pharmacy and get the drugs you need. But would that be giving too much power to the patient and pharmacists? What would happen say if I was on holiday in Cromer and I lost my backpack with all my drugs in it? I suspect, it would probably take a whole day to sort it out!
The NHS might save billions by doing what any sensible organisation would do and many government agencies already do. Service would improve to the more modern standards that people expect and receive from many companies they deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Meeting Someone At King’s Cross
A friend is currently in transit from Edinburgh to London King’s Cross. As the weather is so foul, I felt that I should do the gentlemanly thing and turn up at the station to greet her and make sure, she is safely on her way to her daughter’s by taking a taxi to Marylebone for another train.
But the train tracker on East Coast’s site, although very comprehensive only lists those trains that will shortly arrive. It should list all that are actually on the track between Edinburgh and London. This way, if there is a delay, I can stay here in the dry and only leave at the last minute.
More Bad Design
I paid a lot of money for my Simple Human bin and although it ticks a few boxes, it doesn’t tick the one for good design.
A Bad Design of Bin
The biggest problem is that it doesn’t fit the standard size of bag you get from any British shop in a roll. You can buy special ones, but then that is a waste of money and I can’t buy them locally. So if you’re designing something to be sold in the UK, then design it for the British market. My previous kitchen was so much better, with a hole in the chopping board.
Perhaps a better design, would be to have a strong cylindrical metal bin, which was designed to take the standard UK swing bin liner. It would have a wooden top, with a stopper in the middle, so that the tea-bag juggle was easy. The top wouldn’t be a heavy chopping board, but it could be used for a certain amount of light work, when say you were cutting vegetables or peeling onions. You then lift the stopper and puh the rubbish through. The top would be small enough to be able to be properly washed in the sink.
I actually have a prototype in the house in that my linen basket is almost this design, with a metal cylinder and a wooden top.
A Miller of Sweden Linen Basket
But of course it doesn’t have a stopper, but the basic design is there. I even use the hole to put my underwear and socks into the basket.
You could even make it a double decker bin, with an unlined bottom bin for dry recyclables like paper and beer bottles. This would also get the chopping board top up to worktop height.
I want one! And I want it now! If I don’t get one, I’ll have a fit!
I Do Hate Bad Design
As they say, a widow’s work is never done, but in this house it would help if everything was properly designed. Monday is washing day and look what I have to put up with to do it.
How Not to Install a Washing Machine
There is nothing wrong with the washing machine, except that a washer/dryer would be much better, but it is installed in a cupboard in the hall, along with the boiler and the hot water cylinder.
This picture doesn’t quite do the installation justice, as the flash overcame one of the biggest problems and that is the lack of light, as there is no light in the cupboard and no light in the hall. So I now use a torch to check that I haven’t dropped an escaped sock on the floor.
It would also help if I was a few centimetres taller.
So if I ever find the so-called architect or designer, who thought this up, he’ll get more than a pece of my mind. It was obviously a man, as women tend to be shorter and wouldn’t have mounted the machine so high.
There is never any excuse for bad design. At least I had an architect at my housewarming and he was able to suggest a few things for the other faults in the house that annoy me.
The Anonymous Widower 