As I am getting older my perception seems to be changing.
I am definitely becoming more selfish and doing things for me rather than trying to please others. I think I have a balance of friends who now appreciate that I will do things with them whole heartedly if it is something I am interested in, and if I don't have a desire to do it there is no chance of me changing my mind. Which is a change from being a "pleaser" and hoping not to offend people. Or possibly I have finally gotten my friends right and found the balance of friends who are very similar.
But the other part of my perception struck me today while I was walking the beach on the north coast. I now appreciate the beauty of nature. I seen a child sitting in a car in the front seat with a somewhat unhappy demeanor, and it definitely hit a remembrance with my childhood where my family would bring me to lovely places and all I would want to do is play my gameboy, or listen to the radio, or hoping to go home so I could watch tv. Now I am walking beaches and looking at the cliffs and the foliage, the sun shining, the waves crashing, how sand dunes have formed on the beach and the intricate shells scattered and splashed over the beach.
I've been a few different places over the last few weeks since I've been in back in Ireland, and I have honestly been struck with awe over the beauty of the countryside. The north east coast train from Castlerock to Belfast is easily one of the most naturally beautiful things I have seen. It made me imagine some of the stories of my childhood-probably most brining to life old celtic mythology of armies fighting over land, maidens in distress or the more magical side of the hobbit and dwarves and elves travelling through the countryside. I could see it all in the landscape, the rolling hills, the stone walls and man made stone bridges. It had my imagination running for at least an hour thinking of different adventures. Something I haven't done in a long time. Then a drive from Strabane to Cookstown I had to drive through very rural Tyrone and I actually had to pull over my car at one point as I was in the hills and had such amazing views for all around. It is more than likely a repercussion of me moving to Australia and I am noticing how beautiful my homeland is, or its that I'm now taking solace in nature and finding a new dimension to myself.
Even lately I have been looking more at photography online over some of the most amazing landscapes around the world and its usually the countryside/rural or coastal shoots that make me stare in awe, rather than the very architectural cities which I also find gorgeous. I may have to look into photography as a hobby, and I wish I had already taken up this art, as with my impending travels I think I may see some amazing sights all over australasia, and I am afraid I will not do them justice. But alas I will do my best and as long as I can keep the memory with me, then that will have to be good enough for me.
Perception has always had an interest for me. I like that two people can stand together at one time, staring, analysing, breathing and come out with a completely different thought process. It's one of my favourite things about people, and conversation. Usually there will not be a consensus, but only opinions, which are completely correct in each of our minds, and completely wrong according to someone else. This is the beauty of meeting people outside of our normal circles, their new perception can challenge our own, either into a modification or a strengthening. I would find it completely mundane and boring to have the same opinions as my friends, and I nearly find it more fun and engaging even to play devils advocate and debate something I don't believe in. 1) as it makes me look at my opinion and try to get in the head of someone else and argue their point, and 2) as the person I'm debating with may be passionate about their opinion, then it makes it more interesting to see their rebuttal and see if I can strengthen or modify their opinion.
There is no coherence to this post as its not really a blog, its really just my random brainitis and me looking to put something down on paper again, as its been a while and I may try and start writing up my adventures for the next few months, its an idea, but also possibly not feasible, but we shall see
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
An idea to save doctors the training
Doctors need more training to be able to recognise OTC addiction? This could be true, but isn’t it us who witness this issue on a daily basis?
Now I have an idea, it’s probably not an original idea, but it is still an idea.
I was never a fan of an identity card, but I am a fan of an NHS card. A card which records a patients name, address, date of birth, medical number, and their medication history.
When I say medication history I am talking about all the medication prescribed by their doctor, and any medication they buy, all the way down to GSL; from pharmacy or any store. This is the only logical way I can think of dealing with over the counter addiction.
It is too easy to use a number of pharmacies in one town, or numerous towns to get a serious amount of tablets. I refuse people on a daily basis thanks to my staff noticing they buy the same tablet every week. I offer alternatives and advice but they usually end up walking out disgruntled. Now I know they have not just went home defeated. Addiction dictates they will go and find it from a different source.
The card will have to be presented both to buy medication and when going to the doctor. This way the pharmacist knows the drug history of any patients presenting with an acute prescription from a different area, or someone coming into the shop looking to buy a medication. It also allows Doctors and Nurses to know what medication someone being admitted is taking, without having to take drug histories from patients, family and possibly numerous pharmacies or GP surgery.
It will flag up if the patient is overusing OTC medication through timescales and maximum doses allowed during a period. Concordance will be measured, and therefore we can be informed if the patient is under or over-dosing.
Now the current way for patients to overcome pharmacists or pharmacy staff who recognise them, is to use someone else to buy the medication for them. This will curb that slightly as well, as it will go on their card, which means they will only be allowed a certain amount as well, and may deter them as they won’t want to be seen buying a lot of medication. It also tackles those people who buy online from different online pharmacies as this card number will have to be entered to purchase, and from checking the records will also flag them up as overusing their medication.
I know in Scotland there is a registration process for their minor ailments service, where only one chemist is to be used, but this I hear from my colleagues north of the border, this usually doesn’t happen, and patients register in a different pharmacy all the time. This will negate this, and let patients have their choice of pharmacies, but will still lead to a continuous record being held.
It is a huge task and job, but surely a simple chip on a card could deal with this amount of information, a photograph will make it a good ID for all substance misuse patients, and for others collecting medication or requesting an emergency supply (an easier life for new pharmacists or locums). And most importantly of all we can keep patients safe, and identify those who may be addicted or becoming addicted to a medication. With knowledgeable patients now the norm thanks to the Internet, patients know which medications will give them a desired affect. We are not human lie detectors as much as we try to be and we need all the help we can get to identify patients who are addicted to certain medications.
Maybe this way Doctors won’t need extra training; we won’t continue to be exasperated at how easy it is to get addictive medication and our patients quality of life will increase.
Now I have an idea, it’s probably not an original idea, but it is still an idea.
I was never a fan of an identity card, but I am a fan of an NHS card. A card which records a patients name, address, date of birth, medical number, and their medication history.
When I say medication history I am talking about all the medication prescribed by their doctor, and any medication they buy, all the way down to GSL; from pharmacy or any store. This is the only logical way I can think of dealing with over the counter addiction.
It is too easy to use a number of pharmacies in one town, or numerous towns to get a serious amount of tablets. I refuse people on a daily basis thanks to my staff noticing they buy the same tablet every week. I offer alternatives and advice but they usually end up walking out disgruntled. Now I know they have not just went home defeated. Addiction dictates they will go and find it from a different source.
The card will have to be presented both to buy medication and when going to the doctor. This way the pharmacist knows the drug history of any patients presenting with an acute prescription from a different area, or someone coming into the shop looking to buy a medication. It also allows Doctors and Nurses to know what medication someone being admitted is taking, without having to take drug histories from patients, family and possibly numerous pharmacies or GP surgery.
It will flag up if the patient is overusing OTC medication through timescales and maximum doses allowed during a period. Concordance will be measured, and therefore we can be informed if the patient is under or over-dosing.
Now the current way for patients to overcome pharmacists or pharmacy staff who recognise them, is to use someone else to buy the medication for them. This will curb that slightly as well, as it will go on their card, which means they will only be allowed a certain amount as well, and may deter them as they won’t want to be seen buying a lot of medication. It also tackles those people who buy online from different online pharmacies as this card number will have to be entered to purchase, and from checking the records will also flag them up as overusing their medication.
I know in Scotland there is a registration process for their minor ailments service, where only one chemist is to be used, but this I hear from my colleagues north of the border, this usually doesn’t happen, and patients register in a different pharmacy all the time. This will negate this, and let patients have their choice of pharmacies, but will still lead to a continuous record being held.
It is a huge task and job, but surely a simple chip on a card could deal with this amount of information, a photograph will make it a good ID for all substance misuse patients, and for others collecting medication or requesting an emergency supply (an easier life for new pharmacists or locums). And most importantly of all we can keep patients safe, and identify those who may be addicted or becoming addicted to a medication. With knowledgeable patients now the norm thanks to the Internet, patients know which medications will give them a desired affect. We are not human lie detectors as much as we try to be and we need all the help we can get to identify patients who are addicted to certain medications.
Maybe this way Doctors won’t need extra training; we won’t continue to be exasperated at how easy it is to get addictive medication and our patients quality of life will increase.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
the independent canditate
It's not often that I get taken back. But for once I was. And strangely it was due to politics. As someone from Northern Ireland, politics is very important to me and at exactly the same time means very little to me. In this instance though it was a man from north wales who had the shocking effect on me. He is an independent candidate who was running for a counsellor position. He was running for the people, for their interests and for his community. He didn't give one damn about any of the major parties or what their agenda's were. He wouldn't fold to the majority in a far off constituency such as London. He would go along with any party and vote in whatever way he needed to so that his community was getting the best and the things that were most relevant to them.
It is just quite strange for me to see anything other than tribal politics, or majority politics. I don't think I've ever fully seen an independent candidate, well not one that was halfway sane and not standing for some ridiculous reason, or didn't have a multi-coloured goatee.
I thought it was quite refreshing to see someone wanting to fight for his own beliefs, being completely honest and doing what he thought was right for his community. If only everyone had some integrity like this, we wouldn't have corrupt governments, backhanders, expense rows, or communities suffering due to bad candidates, or people who will lie and say anything they can to get into power.
So i want to say thank you, to all of you who stand up for your community with truth and honour, to those of you who do what is right just for the fact it is right, I appreciate your effort, I applaud your morals, I envy your guile. So again thank you for restoring my belief in all things political.
It is just quite strange for me to see anything other than tribal politics, or majority politics. I don't think I've ever fully seen an independent candidate, well not one that was halfway sane and not standing for some ridiculous reason, or didn't have a multi-coloured goatee.
I thought it was quite refreshing to see someone wanting to fight for his own beliefs, being completely honest and doing what he thought was right for his community. If only everyone had some integrity like this, we wouldn't have corrupt governments, backhanders, expense rows, or communities suffering due to bad candidates, or people who will lie and say anything they can to get into power.
So i want to say thank you, to all of you who stand up for your community with truth and honour, to those of you who do what is right just for the fact it is right, I appreciate your effort, I applaud your morals, I envy your guile. So again thank you for restoring my belief in all things political.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
The figment writings continued..
I've decided to pop into you once again. I know I'm not invited, possibly not even wanted, but in all due respect, I come and go as I please, and you more than likely won't pay attention, or accept my presence, but that being said I am back to give my insights into another story.
Now I have said I have certain qualities, I have influence, but it is not a common feature for me to use this. I usually keep within myself, in the tiniest space possible, be it in the corner of your mind, in the end of a twig, or a rain drop. But sometimes I do get bored. Watching is amazing as I have said. I get to see the emotions fester from beginning to end, the outcome, the repercussions, the reverberations and so on. But every now and then I feel obliged to make a nudge, or a sign, or even if needs be a push.
It's not always for good, not always for bad, but for personal entertainment. I can play games with your emotions, I can give you ideas, and I can make you hear what is not really there. Now on this occasion it was a young girl who had caught my attention. She was happy, she had travelled, had a good education and a good job. But she had it too easy. Her father owned a massive company, had paid everything for her. Now looking at this young girl, and looking at a very similar one who lived on the other side of town, I noticed both to be very similar. Both the same height, age, both living nearly the same life, except one had worked for it. This other young female had worked two jobs, and paid for everything herself. Now as I've said before, no one ever really notices me, or acknowledges me, but when I want to be felt, certain things may happen. I felt this girl didn't appreciate what she had. She was slightly self obsessed, slightly arrogant. She seemed to have a certain air that she deserved to have everything.
Now for me this was disappointing, most of your planet has an excellent respect of that surrounding them, a work ethic, and an appreciation of what they can achieve. So this girl started to have a few nightmares. I won't claim credit, it's not in my nature. She had feelings of despair, hatred, poverty, desperation. She saw things that in her world didn't exist, things in her world she couldn't of imagined. Things that actually do exist on her planet, things people are dealing with day to day. Understandably this girl was worried by what she was seeing, she thought maybe it was a warning, that her life was going to get worse, she thought it could be a message that she needed to do more in the world. Now there was no meaning behind these dreams, other than that I wanted her to respect what she had, where she went from there was left open to her. She paid attention for a few weeks, made grand plans to go out and help, to reevaluate her life, but as usual this fell wayward eventually. So obviously being like I am, the dreams returned, and a few visions during the day as well. Now she began to feel that she was losing her mind a little, but the last vision I left her with was of the girl across town, who had worked so hard to have a similar life, without the easy money she had. This finally pushed her over the edge and she became better for it. She had more time for family, more time for friends, more money for charity, and more energy. Now I may have made her life hard, but in the end her life turned good, and she appreciated it a lot more. It's not that she wouldn't of achieved this eventually, but everyone needs that nudge or a push, and she just got hers early. I don't like to interfere, or have so much influence, but as I said, you can ignore me, you can walk around me, I am not physical and I am not domineering, but I am subtle and sharp. And with that, its just a hint, a tiny nudge to you, always follow whats right, and listen to yourself, even if its this little figment pushing you.
But as for always I cannot stay much longer, but I'm sure at some stage I shall return. But for now maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination....
Now I have said I have certain qualities, I have influence, but it is not a common feature for me to use this. I usually keep within myself, in the tiniest space possible, be it in the corner of your mind, in the end of a twig, or a rain drop. But sometimes I do get bored. Watching is amazing as I have said. I get to see the emotions fester from beginning to end, the outcome, the repercussions, the reverberations and so on. But every now and then I feel obliged to make a nudge, or a sign, or even if needs be a push.
It's not always for good, not always for bad, but for personal entertainment. I can play games with your emotions, I can give you ideas, and I can make you hear what is not really there. Now on this occasion it was a young girl who had caught my attention. She was happy, she had travelled, had a good education and a good job. But she had it too easy. Her father owned a massive company, had paid everything for her. Now looking at this young girl, and looking at a very similar one who lived on the other side of town, I noticed both to be very similar. Both the same height, age, both living nearly the same life, except one had worked for it. This other young female had worked two jobs, and paid for everything herself. Now as I've said before, no one ever really notices me, or acknowledges me, but when I want to be felt, certain things may happen. I felt this girl didn't appreciate what she had. She was slightly self obsessed, slightly arrogant. She seemed to have a certain air that she deserved to have everything.
Now for me this was disappointing, most of your planet has an excellent respect of that surrounding them, a work ethic, and an appreciation of what they can achieve. So this girl started to have a few nightmares. I won't claim credit, it's not in my nature. She had feelings of despair, hatred, poverty, desperation. She saw things that in her world didn't exist, things in her world she couldn't of imagined. Things that actually do exist on her planet, things people are dealing with day to day. Understandably this girl was worried by what she was seeing, she thought maybe it was a warning, that her life was going to get worse, she thought it could be a message that she needed to do more in the world. Now there was no meaning behind these dreams, other than that I wanted her to respect what she had, where she went from there was left open to her. She paid attention for a few weeks, made grand plans to go out and help, to reevaluate her life, but as usual this fell wayward eventually. So obviously being like I am, the dreams returned, and a few visions during the day as well. Now she began to feel that she was losing her mind a little, but the last vision I left her with was of the girl across town, who had worked so hard to have a similar life, without the easy money she had. This finally pushed her over the edge and she became better for it. She had more time for family, more time for friends, more money for charity, and more energy. Now I may have made her life hard, but in the end her life turned good, and she appreciated it a lot more. It's not that she wouldn't of achieved this eventually, but everyone needs that nudge or a push, and she just got hers early. I don't like to interfere, or have so much influence, but as I said, you can ignore me, you can walk around me, I am not physical and I am not domineering, but I am subtle and sharp. And with that, its just a hint, a tiny nudge to you, always follow whats right, and listen to yourself, even if its this little figment pushing you.
But as for always I cannot stay much longer, but I'm sure at some stage I shall return. But for now maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination....
The figment writings
I'd like to introduce myself. My name is whatever you wish, and my life is yours to dream. I am but a figment of any imagination. I am multicoloured and translucent all in one. My story is never ending and also always beginning. I come from the deepest ravine and the shallowest puddle.
Now that I've introduced myself, I believe it only mannerly to say hello, so "hello". I have wandered to many places on this earth, and many others for that fact also. I find it incredible to watch a species to evolve, to love, to live, to die, to grieve, to celebrate. A range of emotions I must confess that not everyone is privy too. But for the lucky few planets who do have this joyous range, it is nothing but inspirational. To grow within yourself and to grow physically and understanding what it all means in the one moment must be a complexity sure to baffle anyone, but you all seem to achieve it with different levels of success.
It is this watching that has inspired me to write to you and to explain what I have saw, what I have felt, what has moved me and what has shocked me.
The first experience I will retell was one that conveyed the story of hope:
The time to me does not matter, as I don't conceive your time frames, but I do notice daylight and moonlight. This was a particularly sunny day, and involved a young male of your species. He seemed to be a quite happy being, always smiling, always talking, always doing something. There was no time for sitting around and doing nothing, as this would be a waste of his many talents. He preferred this busy lifestyle in the outdoors or just generally with society. A noble quality I feel. Now i have watched this young male for many a moon fall, and always he was on the verge of achieving. His life was like a merry-go-round(a strange contraption really, always picking up pace but not actually going anywhere-actually quite a good way to describe his life). He was always getting some sort of acceptance, or just beginning to gain momentum when eventually some incident would happen to stop it all. Be it a death, an accident, an illness, every road he was taking, inevitably ended in a dead end. It was like a puppet master was playing a cruel show with his life, or a bad TV show was always ending so we could pick it up again on the next show. It was fate. Now I'm not one to take credit, I'm not that sort of creature, I neither exist in this world or another, but for how I do exist I do exert an influence. Not that he will ever know this of course, I am merely but a flutter, a figment, a fringe, but I do have a certain guiding quality. Now it so happened that this puppet master "fate" had her strings cut and that dear boy bulldozed his way through those walls and finally took a step through his dare to be great moment, his epiphany and he ran with it. Now not all stories will end this way, not everyone gets what they deserve, but hope is a great thing, and to those who deserve it, to those with that unwavering confidence and to those who take what life deals them without a pinch of annoyance, maybe that figment in the corner of your eye will glint that much brighter and get you where you need to go. But as for always I cannot stay much longer, but I'm sure at some stage I shall return. But for now maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination....
Now that I've introduced myself, I believe it only mannerly to say hello, so "hello". I have wandered to many places on this earth, and many others for that fact also. I find it incredible to watch a species to evolve, to love, to live, to die, to grieve, to celebrate. A range of emotions I must confess that not everyone is privy too. But for the lucky few planets who do have this joyous range, it is nothing but inspirational. To grow within yourself and to grow physically and understanding what it all means in the one moment must be a complexity sure to baffle anyone, but you all seem to achieve it with different levels of success.
It is this watching that has inspired me to write to you and to explain what I have saw, what I have felt, what has moved me and what has shocked me.
The first experience I will retell was one that conveyed the story of hope:
The time to me does not matter, as I don't conceive your time frames, but I do notice daylight and moonlight. This was a particularly sunny day, and involved a young male of your species. He seemed to be a quite happy being, always smiling, always talking, always doing something. There was no time for sitting around and doing nothing, as this would be a waste of his many talents. He preferred this busy lifestyle in the outdoors or just generally with society. A noble quality I feel. Now i have watched this young male for many a moon fall, and always he was on the verge of achieving. His life was like a merry-go-round(a strange contraption really, always picking up pace but not actually going anywhere-actually quite a good way to describe his life). He was always getting some sort of acceptance, or just beginning to gain momentum when eventually some incident would happen to stop it all. Be it a death, an accident, an illness, every road he was taking, inevitably ended in a dead end. It was like a puppet master was playing a cruel show with his life, or a bad TV show was always ending so we could pick it up again on the next show. It was fate. Now I'm not one to take credit, I'm not that sort of creature, I neither exist in this world or another, but for how I do exist I do exert an influence. Not that he will ever know this of course, I am merely but a flutter, a figment, a fringe, but I do have a certain guiding quality. Now it so happened that this puppet master "fate" had her strings cut and that dear boy bulldozed his way through those walls and finally took a step through his dare to be great moment, his epiphany and he ran with it. Now not all stories will end this way, not everyone gets what they deserve, but hope is a great thing, and to those who deserve it, to those with that unwavering confidence and to those who take what life deals them without a pinch of annoyance, maybe that figment in the corner of your eye will glint that much brighter and get you where you need to go. But as for always I cannot stay much longer, but I'm sure at some stage I shall return. But for now maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination....
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Do we have anything to say? Is our generation ready to step to the front and say what they think? What they feel? Is that possibly too much to ask? To show emotion, to show a part of ourselves, to let our guard down? People seem more obsessed with hiding behind masks, stereotypes, images, "reps".
If we were to come out from behind this, what would we talk about? What are our concerns? Who would this generation be moved to save, or to fight for?
The next battle to be fought in Ireland and the UK is foreign nationals. We have seen from the past that acceptance is always the way forward, otherwise it inspires hate, violence, crime and pushing a part of society down to the underbelly of society. We saw it with the Catholics in Ireland, we've saw it with any ethnic minority in any majority country, especially the black man in America.
But where is the voice? Where are our own leaders helping to lead this acceptance? Why not now? Why later? Is it ok to leave ignorance on the streets, in our children?
Does the future not look brighter for the more multi-cultural basis it will have in one or two generations?
As a white man, I have been reading about Malcolm X, his autobiography and other works surrounding his work. I cannot deny he speaks a lot of the truth. I disagree with his teachers view and also his on seperation from the country, even segregation I disagree with. I believe in a partial integration, a tolerance, a new basis for our country to move forward with. People from Poland, Romania, and other eastern european countries are coming her for a better life, some in my own encounters have been far better educated than myself and have merely come here to work so they can improve their english, by being surrounded by it all the time. Is this not highly honorable?
Surely the people from the British Isles can understand this thirst for travel, as we are a collection of countries who seem to produce mass amounts of travellers. You can go anywhere in the world and bump into an Irish, a Scot, An English or a Welsh man, we go to these countries to learn their languages, see what they have to offer, experience there ways of life. And more often than not I'm sure we are faced by friendly faces and welcoming hearts. People glad to see "tourists" or even culture seekers. But yet in here we are so ignorant and arrogant. We mis-trust anyone who can't speak english fluently, we expect everyone from another country to speak english. We go to their countries with the knowledge of "hello", "where is the bar?" and other tiny phrases without a half inch of understanding of the rest of the language. Its a sad and depressing day when you meet a man who can speak five language, and you can only claim to speak one, with tit-bits of others.
It is time we accept these peoples into our community, time to make more of an effort to get to know them and their culture. Don't we want these people to fall in love with our country? To stay for good, adding an extra dimension to our culture? Or are we still too young and naive to want this, still to afraid of change? Still believing that with more cultures our own will only become weaker? Our own culture will only become weaker if we allow it too. Loving our traditions and passing them on and celebrating them, and sharing them is the only way forward.
Lets hope its not too late..
If we were to come out from behind this, what would we talk about? What are our concerns? Who would this generation be moved to save, or to fight for?
The next battle to be fought in Ireland and the UK is foreign nationals. We have seen from the past that acceptance is always the way forward, otherwise it inspires hate, violence, crime and pushing a part of society down to the underbelly of society. We saw it with the Catholics in Ireland, we've saw it with any ethnic minority in any majority country, especially the black man in America.
But where is the voice? Where are our own leaders helping to lead this acceptance? Why not now? Why later? Is it ok to leave ignorance on the streets, in our children?
Does the future not look brighter for the more multi-cultural basis it will have in one or two generations?
As a white man, I have been reading about Malcolm X, his autobiography and other works surrounding his work. I cannot deny he speaks a lot of the truth. I disagree with his teachers view and also his on seperation from the country, even segregation I disagree with. I believe in a partial integration, a tolerance, a new basis for our country to move forward with. People from Poland, Romania, and other eastern european countries are coming her for a better life, some in my own encounters have been far better educated than myself and have merely come here to work so they can improve their english, by being surrounded by it all the time. Is this not highly honorable?
Surely the people from the British Isles can understand this thirst for travel, as we are a collection of countries who seem to produce mass amounts of travellers. You can go anywhere in the world and bump into an Irish, a Scot, An English or a Welsh man, we go to these countries to learn their languages, see what they have to offer, experience there ways of life. And more often than not I'm sure we are faced by friendly faces and welcoming hearts. People glad to see "tourists" or even culture seekers. But yet in here we are so ignorant and arrogant. We mis-trust anyone who can't speak english fluently, we expect everyone from another country to speak english. We go to their countries with the knowledge of "hello", "where is the bar?" and other tiny phrases without a half inch of understanding of the rest of the language. Its a sad and depressing day when you meet a man who can speak five language, and you can only claim to speak one, with tit-bits of others.
It is time we accept these peoples into our community, time to make more of an effort to get to know them and their culture. Don't we want these people to fall in love with our country? To stay for good, adding an extra dimension to our culture? Or are we still too young and naive to want this, still to afraid of change? Still believing that with more cultures our own will only become weaker? Our own culture will only become weaker if we allow it too. Loving our traditions and passing them on and celebrating them, and sharing them is the only way forward.
Lets hope its not too late..
Monday, 25 May 2009
Pharmacy in 2030?
So where do I think pharmacy in 2030 will be?
The year is 2030, the streets are busy, and one thing missing from every street is a pharmacy. Where have they gone you might ask? It all happened around 2009. Pharmacists were made to become Responsible with the option of not being present at the pharmacy. This led to a major change in the upcoming years. Pharmacists decided to use the loophole not to be present at the shop, with this evolving to them never being present. This caused a massive mistrust in the profession and a massive slip in patient care, and most importantly to the companies, profits. Pharmacists were starting to be forced to go to work but they decided they still didn’t want to deal with the stress of travelling to work, dealing with customers face to face and not getting their lunch breaks. They were enjoying the quiet life.
So how is the profession still around? Well a computer company and a pharmacist came together to decide how to get around all this. In 2012 there was the development of a Pharmacy dispensing machine or a PDM (a fancy cash machine pretty much). This resulted in most pharmacists converting their premises into health stores without any prescription medicines or pharmacy only medicines- they may as well still make money from the front of their shop. With the dispensing robots now common place, all you had to do was insert your prescription into the machine along with your id, and a camera would give a live feed to a pharmacist in a control room (usually in their house or at a head office facility) and would check the script clinically and legally, and then the robot would do the rest. The PDM had an interactive menu which meant the customer could ask advice on the medication, these were all stored on the computer, but if the computer wasn’t giving the patient what they wanted they could ask the pharmacist some questions via the live feed, but this would require a credit card to be entered into the PDM first for a counselling fee-why would we give up our free time for free?
With this effectively killing off the independents, the multiples took over all the shops. Converted them into their own type of health store and inserted the PDM’s at the back of the store. So what happened to pharmacists? Well most got a nice pay off from the multiples, and the rest joined up to be control room pharmacists. All they had to do was sit in a room and check prescriptions for possibly 20 stores. This cut down the amount of pharmacists needed and made the multiples a lot more money. It also meant that the two schools of pharmacy in northern Ireland were grinding to a stop, as over the years people realised with this new control room, only 1 pharmacist was needed for a range of stores rather than just one per store, this made jobs even more scarce than they already were and made the schools less appealing and students moved to other professions rather than the over saturated one of pharmacy.
What wasn’t realised was that the only keeping most of these pharmacists fit in the past was the fact they were on their feet for 9 hours a day without being allowed to sit down for lunch, and this new control room pharmacist began to become overweight and over the 20 years since it was introduced bred a new obese pharmacist. In the late 2020’s Alli signed a deal with all pharmacies to supply their tablet for free to control room pharmacists to help deal with the epidemic.
So where did the pharmacists who didn’t get the control room jobs go? A lot have moved into the museum business or moved into teaching the history of pharmacy at universities across the UK and Ireland. The museum business meant they kept their pharmacy intact and they would role-play with tourists how they used to act with customers. Some of these pharmacies still exist in rural locations as a tourist attraction. They are also good history trips for children at local schools as well, who have been raised on the PDM system of pharmacy. The rest either retired with their lump sums from multiples or joined the dole queue, hoping and dreaming of a job some day.
A possibility or just bad pharmacy fiction? Who knows?
The year is 2030, the streets are busy, and one thing missing from every street is a pharmacy. Where have they gone you might ask? It all happened around 2009. Pharmacists were made to become Responsible with the option of not being present at the pharmacy. This led to a major change in the upcoming years. Pharmacists decided to use the loophole not to be present at the shop, with this evolving to them never being present. This caused a massive mistrust in the profession and a massive slip in patient care, and most importantly to the companies, profits. Pharmacists were starting to be forced to go to work but they decided they still didn’t want to deal with the stress of travelling to work, dealing with customers face to face and not getting their lunch breaks. They were enjoying the quiet life.
So how is the profession still around? Well a computer company and a pharmacist came together to decide how to get around all this. In 2012 there was the development of a Pharmacy dispensing machine or a PDM (a fancy cash machine pretty much). This resulted in most pharmacists converting their premises into health stores without any prescription medicines or pharmacy only medicines- they may as well still make money from the front of their shop. With the dispensing robots now common place, all you had to do was insert your prescription into the machine along with your id, and a camera would give a live feed to a pharmacist in a control room (usually in their house or at a head office facility) and would check the script clinically and legally, and then the robot would do the rest. The PDM had an interactive menu which meant the customer could ask advice on the medication, these were all stored on the computer, but if the computer wasn’t giving the patient what they wanted they could ask the pharmacist some questions via the live feed, but this would require a credit card to be entered into the PDM first for a counselling fee-why would we give up our free time for free?
With this effectively killing off the independents, the multiples took over all the shops. Converted them into their own type of health store and inserted the PDM’s at the back of the store. So what happened to pharmacists? Well most got a nice pay off from the multiples, and the rest joined up to be control room pharmacists. All they had to do was sit in a room and check prescriptions for possibly 20 stores. This cut down the amount of pharmacists needed and made the multiples a lot more money. It also meant that the two schools of pharmacy in northern Ireland were grinding to a stop, as over the years people realised with this new control room, only 1 pharmacist was needed for a range of stores rather than just one per store, this made jobs even more scarce than they already were and made the schools less appealing and students moved to other professions rather than the over saturated one of pharmacy.
What wasn’t realised was that the only keeping most of these pharmacists fit in the past was the fact they were on their feet for 9 hours a day without being allowed to sit down for lunch, and this new control room pharmacist began to become overweight and over the 20 years since it was introduced bred a new obese pharmacist. In the late 2020’s Alli signed a deal with all pharmacies to supply their tablet for free to control room pharmacists to help deal with the epidemic.
So where did the pharmacists who didn’t get the control room jobs go? A lot have moved into the museum business or moved into teaching the history of pharmacy at universities across the UK and Ireland. The museum business meant they kept their pharmacy intact and they would role-play with tourists how they used to act with customers. Some of these pharmacies still exist in rural locations as a tourist attraction. They are also good history trips for children at local schools as well, who have been raised on the PDM system of pharmacy. The rest either retired with their lump sums from multiples or joined the dole queue, hoping and dreaming of a job some day.
A possibility or just bad pharmacy fiction? Who knows?
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