It is two months since the General Election and already the past feels like another country. Two parties who didn’t seem to agree on anything are now in government together – and between them they have somehow agreed that the National Health Service should be consigned to the dustbin of history. I don’t recall either [...]
Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
The NHS: This is The End
Posted in Health, Politics, The Coalition, Welfare on July 19, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Do you organise your emails?
Posted in Budget, feminism, Health, tagged DH waste email on July 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Because the Department of Health thinks you should! Here is a photo of a poster from an unnamed source at the Department of Health. I don’t know where to start with what is wrong with this. Patronising, sexist, a waste of money. Searching and tagging is better than folders anyway. And what category are the [...]
Women and Children First…
Posted in Children, Health, Politics, tagged election, Health on March 6, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Latest rumours circulating suggest that as a result of ‘efficiency savings’ and cut-backs, local hospitals will have to shed 1000 members of staff, close 200 beds and see less patients in clinic. Naturally, the local populace will obliging be less ill. This of course is a nonsense. It is well known that during times of [...]
Working mums in the doghouse
Posted in Children, Employment, Health, Parents, tagged bbc, research, working mother on March 4, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Here we go again: Children of working mums are less healthy than those who work part time. To the BBCs credit, they do at least briefly ask ‘what about Fathers’ – but this is yet another judgemental article, castigating full time work, and making assumptions about the type of parenting that goes on. I found [...]
Confessions of a Has-Been
Posted in Health, tagged euthanasia on February 18, 2010 | 4 Comments »
We hear that Ray Gosling, veteran broadcaster and gay rights campaigner has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a rather bizarre and puzzling ‘confession’ on a BBC local news programme, broadcast on Monday night. I am sure I am not alone in feeling wholly uncomfortable about this whole story- the rather phony grief that [...]
Grandchildren make Grandparents Fat
Posted in 0-5s, Health, tagged grandparents, obesity on February 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Purely anecdotal, of course, but my experience is not this. Instead I find that in the process of trying to tempt my granddaughter with tasty morsels most of them end up in my mouth.
When Did Your Baby Crawl?
Posted in Children, Education, Health, Parents, tagged child development, under fives on February 17, 2010 | 7 Comments »
There is nothing that fascinates the mother of a young baby as much as their little darling’s development. We watch carefully for signs of progress, be it rolling, sitting up, crawling and the holy grail of baby development, walking! And we assume that other people are as equally fascinated and (particularly in the case of [...]
Meat Free? What on earth do you eat then?!
Posted in Children, Health, tagged food, vegetarian on February 15, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Ghent, Belgium attracted world wide publicity when they announced that from May 2009 every Thursday was to be a ‘meat free’ day in an attempt to encourage people to eat less meat. This idea has been taken up globally with the introduction of ‘meat free Mondays’. Sir Paul McCartney has led a campaign in the [...]
Does maternity really matter?
Posted in Health, pregnancy, tagged maternity, pregnancy on February 12, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Back in 2007, the Department of Health published a report entitled “Maternity Matters”. This document included the explicit guarantee that by the end of 2009, all pregnant women (medical needs permitting) would be able choose whether to give birth in either a consultant-led unit, a midwife-led unit or at home. This was welcomed enthusiastically by [...]
Should we ask our children to end our life?
Posted in Health, Parents, tagged cancer, euthanasia, terry pratchett on February 9, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Last week the Guardian featured an article covering Terry Pratchett’s call for legalised Euthanasia and the BBC published a poll where 73% believe friends or family should legally be allowed to assist in the death of a terminally ill loved one.When I was just 8yrs old my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer, I spent [...]
