Let Them Eat Serco

Now for the dark side of hospitals, creeping – no galloping - privatisation of our NHS and what it means in reality. As I have already reported Serco, 'serves many community services, including hospitals, the military and prisons.' Oh and controls the Flyingdales early warning system in Yorkshire. It also runs Yarls Wood women's immigration detenton centre. The company was referred to the Serious Fraud Office for overcharging the Ministry of Justice for the electronic tagging of prisoners there and in other 'holding' facilities. When the women went on hunger strike in March 2018 their supporters left decaying food on the steps of Serco's London HQ as an act of solidarity.
The company has since struggled to win new work while losing a series of contracts including a deal to manage the Docklands Light Railway in London and run a New Zealand prison amid allegations that staff were running “fight clubs”.
Meanwhile Serco food here at Barts is, well, a mess of mash. I have started chosing sandwiches as an option; today's tuna lunch, shrouded in white chemical bread. It would not cut much into Winston Churchill's grandson and Cerco CEO, Rupert Soames' £850,000 annual salary to use a half-way decent roll.
Serco employees at Barts are excluded from the limited protection of NHS pay agreements and receive less than £10 per hour. Serco should be thrown out of our hospitals and food should, once again, be treated as central to health and getting better. It must not be a means to enrichment for Soames and his wealthy cronies.
Qustion for Serco's CEO. What did you eat for lunch today Mr Soames?

song: Money 

Here Comes The Sun

I hope that my 'Barts blogs' are a small insight into life as a patient in hospital and into the state of our NHS today. I am trying to avoid writing about my own condition, but hope you will excuse this lapse. It is because I want to talk once again about the importance of music in our lives. My stroke has meant that I am unable to play Deicola Neves guitar that sits sadly by my bedside. Damage to my left hand means that I can't grip the strings to make the chords and individual notes. If I was a professional musician this would be a catastrophe, but for me it is just sad. I came to the guitar late in life, even after spending much of my working life with music and musicians. Firstly with War Child and then at the Pavarotti Music Centre. I was enjoying being the oldest student of Deicola Neves and Dil Sandhu. They and all those at Camden Guitars have become my London Pavarotti Centre. So I will return there, will take more classes, will treat my guitar as central to my recovery. Will, hopefully before long, once again start each day with Autumn Leaves and Here Comes the Sun. Enjoy.

The Willow Box

When Native Americans visit a friend, they symbolically place any troubles they have in a willow box at the door so they don't bring them into another's life. I mention this because hospitals are suprisingly cheerful places if you ignore the illness and suffering that accompany the lives of most patients.

The reason for this is that the people who make up the NHS—the consultants, doctors, nurses, cleaners and caterers—all have their own troubles, but they are experts at leaving them “in the willow box” as they enter the hospital.

There is so much good humor, good will and optimism. And they don't mind being sent up. (See cartoon!) One way I deal with my depression is humour. For example, when a nurse comes to take my blood, I greet her with, 'Good morning, Dracula.' If my temperature's too high, I pretend to bribe them, asking them to probe the other ear.

We all deal with our depression in different ways and we all have mechanisms to combat it. I am fortunate because I have my wife, Anne, who is my rock and my island. I also have other family and many friends who seem to want to visit me. Others are less fortunate and seem to be entirely alone in the middle of their illness and the worries that accompany it. They are entirely dependent on the willow box.

Music. Simon & Garfunkel

bad gadget

I have to be connected to the computer and carry around this console. Taking a shower with it is impossible and the toilet even more so. They have recently offered us these ‘carriers’ and, after a short self-training exercise, sorted out my own system. This involved cutting away 50% of the carrier straps to make it useable (They were pre-tested on someone the size of Frankenstein.) Gonna check who got the contract for this piece of 19th-century technology. Must be a US company because it's like a pistol-holder.

song has to be this from Bob Marley

www.davidwilson.org.uk

Halleluja

May the many sentient beings who are sick,
Quickly be freed from sickness.
And may all the sicknesses of beings
Never arise again. (Medicine Mantra)

During my stay in hospital this year I have been visited by family and friends as well as by some I never thought I'd see again, been sent cards and messages of support from across the world. Both lapsed and active Catholics have lit candles in churches, atheist 'Muslims' have attended mosques and offered 'dua' for me, distance healers have healed me from south west UK to south west USA, Jews have played Leonard Cohen's 'Halleluja', Buddhists have meditated on my behalf and musician friends have brought me guitars and played for me – the most holy act of all. Meanwhile, and with all this extra help, the NHS are healing me. Deepest thanks. Here is Leonard .....

Guitar doctor

This is Dr Asim Khan of Barts Hospital playing my guitar (OK: Deicola Neves' guitar of Camden Guitars). I'm unable to play for the moment so called in the medics. Decisive proof that music and healing go together. And he is a great musician so watch out for him at the shop.

Where are the spoons

Food services at Barts hospital have been privatised out to Serco. (company logo "We Care'). With an annual turnover of £3 billion, “Serco specialise in the delivery of essential public services, with over 50,000 people working in defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and other citizen services across our four regions:'

Love the idea that the military is listed alongside healthcare and 'other citizen services'.

Also nice to know that the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs receive the same food services as we get in this hospital. I wonder if they have the same problem – a shortage of small spoons. In the Scrubs they may be being put to use tunnelling their escapes and probably don't ask why there is a shortage. There was no answer to me when I asked this question.

For the third day my tea and small yoghurt had no small spoon, but the kind Serco employee eventually found one for me.

I haven't yet summoned up the courage to ask her what are her wages. Watch this space.  And here's some music which has nothing to do with the above - Rachid Taha