I will not be taken for a ride

I am not mean. Indeed, I like to think I have a generous spirit. But I do find it very annoying when traders try to take me for a ride. For more years than I care to remember, Yvonne bought my aftershave and it is only recently that I have discovered just how expensive some of these brands are. So I decided to go back to my youth and  buy Brut for everyday use. In one large store the aftershave is priced at £7.50, which seemed reasonable when compared with others - until I spotted the very same bottle in its box in another chain store priced at £3.50.

I have no objection to paying a little more for some goods at my local newsagent for it is convenient to be able to walk down the road if you run out of milk or bread or some such. But buy a tube of mints or fruit pastilles in London and the price will vary from 60p to a pound. Yet in the pound shops I buy a packet of four tubes for a pound!

I now buy my meat at the butcher in Leyswood Drive and go to Aldi for my weekly basic shopping. The meat is good quality, priced fairly. At Aldi the choice is  not as wide as at the major supermarkets - but bread  is bread, bananas are bananas - and I save at least 50% of my outlay. Which means that, from time to time, I can treat myself to something a bit special - and not feel too guilty about it.

Today I walked round Romford Market, buying some fresh vegetables and salted peanuts from Yvonne's favourite stall. All fresh and served with a smile as the wind whistled direct from the far north!

We have a "commitment" to bring a Surgery to Aldboroigh Hatch!

Now I trust that you have a few minutes to spare to read through the following saga - for saga it surely is!

Back on 23rd September 2013, I address Redbridge Council's Health Scrutiny Committee. In fact, more than that, I led a deputation of six brave souls who all spoke, including the Revd Kate Lovesey, Priest-in-Charge at St. Peter's Aldborough Hatch. And this is what I said - the exact words:

 

Chairman: I speak as Chairman of the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association – on behalf of the patients of the Surgery at 1 Spearpoint Gardens.

I call on your Committee, Chairman, to censure NHS England for their arrogance and incompetence in handling the closure of the Surgery – which first opened in1935.

The first patients knew of its closure was a letter stuck on the front door of the Surgery on Friday 21^st June giving a week’s notice of its relocation to King George Hospital.

Letters from NHS England arrived five days before closure – and in some cases 14 days afterwards. I am aware that a number of patients have yet to receive letters – some three months later.

One of those is a lady (who is here this evening). Not only has she not received a letter about the move, but she has been wiped off the system for bowel and breast cancer screening.

The letter from NHS England suggests that patients travel by car and pay parking fees – or use one of three buses, only one of which goes to the hospital.

Has anyone from NHS England tried to travel from Aldborough Hatch on a 396 between 8am and 10am on a weekday in college term time? Are elderly pensioners on fixed incomes expected to pay to park or to travel by taxi or mini-cab, and walk a considerable distance to the Surgery?

There is evidence that the NHS gave notice to quit the surgery a year ago. To state that Dr Mustpha, the owner, would not renew the lease as he wanted to sell the building is totally untrue. There were rumours of closure – all denied – but why were patients kept in the dark until a week before the closure? What did the NHS want to hide?

We urge your Committee to call on NHS England to investigate alternative premises in Aldborough Hatch to enable the elderly and disabled patients – and families with young children – to receive care within a reasonable distance of their homes. If NHS England would consult with local residents we could point out to them suitable sites.

On Tuesday last, 26th January, I paid a return visit to Redbridge Council Health Scrutiny Committee and here is what I had to say that evening:

Chairman: I speak as Chairman of the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association – on behalf of the patients of the Spearpoint Surgery.

Thirty months ago – on 23^rd September 2013 – I addressed this Committee.

Spearpoint Surgery dates back to 1935. With the closure patients could no longer walk to see their GP. They could take the 396 bus – but in the mornings – during term time – these buses are filled with students of Redbridge College.

Or they could go by car or – if they do not drive – they could ask someone to take them – and pay parking charges.  Or pay for a mini-cab.

I was one of many who said that a Surgery at King George would fail as patients would leave – and I have been proved right. One reason given for the closure is that 500 patients left since the move and the 2,500 remaining were not viable for a surgery. How is it that the NHS website reveals that there are 11 surgeries within three miles of here with less than 3,000 patients – one has 1,761 and another 1,324.*** Why are those surgeries not being closed?

30 months ago I asked NHS England to investigate alternative premises in Aldborough Hatch – to enable elderly and disabled patients – and families with young children – to receive care within a reasonable walking distance – for not everyone has a car – which may come as a surprise to some in the NHS.

I suggested that the Community Care Centre in Aldborough Road North would be an ideal place for a surgery. NHS England said it was inappropriate – but I subsequently discovered that no assessment of the Centre’s suitability had been carried out. Staff are about to vacate the Community Care Centre – so now is the right time to look at this afresh.

I appeal to your Committee to adjourn this item and to require NHS England to investigate locating a surgery at the Centre. You will be aware Mr Chairman that a business man in the area has offered his services free of charge to assist in a feasibility study. Please put patients first.

Thank you.

I am hoping to download scans of two extracts from today’s ILFORD RECORDER regarding Spearpoint Surgery (they are below!). The first is a report of the Health Scrutiny Committee Meeting at which I spoke on Tuesday evening. The second is a letter from Loraine Sladden who campaigned when she was a ward councillor for Aldborough – and an excellent letter it is too. 

I have today written to Councillor John Howard, who chaired the meeting and who is backing the campaign. The gist of my message to John and his fellow Ward Councillors and our MP, Wes Streeting, is as follow:

I am sure that you will agree that we cannot leave it to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to take this forward. The representative may well have given  a “clear and equivocal commitment” to investigate – but we cannot leave it there and hope they will do something.

May I implore you to please contact Wes, our MP and Ward Councillor, without delay and ask him to come on board with this? Then we need to bring in the local businessman who has contacted you and has offered to carry out a feasibility study with a local builder free of charge of the viability of the Community Care Centre site being used – either as it stands or with a rebuild with residential accommodation above and a surgery with possibly a chemists and post office on the ground floor.

You, Sir, and your fellow Ward Councillors and our MP need to take the lead on this having got so far – if this fails it cannot be because we did nothing. The community will never forgive us if we do not keep up the pressure on the CCG.  It is in their interests to pay lip service to any assessment and then to report back that nothing can be done. That is what they want. Let’s show them that the residents of Aldborough Hatch are not going to take this with our feet in the air!

The AHDA is prepared to help – but we need the top brass to take the lead – and quickly!

So let's see what happens next - and if

you did stay to the end well done!

Two telephone calls

Two calls this afternoon in quick succession. The first was from a gentleman who wanted to sell me a sauna. I live in a London Borough in the County of Essex (yes, work that one out!) where today the temperature hovers over freezing, in a three bed-roomed house with an adequate garden. What would I want with a sauna? I had a sauna once, when the Sauna was installed at Gilwell Park, the Scout Centre in Chingford. The then Director of Training was a public school fellow who thought the new Editor of SCOUTING magazine was a pleb with little between his ears. He rang to explain that all those taking a sauna would be without clothing and as I would not know that, he felt it only fair to tell me in advance. I retorted that being naked in public was against my religion, which fazed him somewhat for he spent some time trying to persuade me. I entered the Sauna wearing nothing but my Woodbadge Beads on a leather bootlace around my neck - and they have been bleached ever since!

The second caller was a charming lady from BakkerSpalding, who supplied the Amaryllis bulbs referred to in the last post. My letter and photograph had arrived and the lady wanted me to know what a very fine photograph it was too. But, having spoken to colleagues the lady was unable to offer any explanation as to why the bulb planted in water was twice as big as the one in compost. A mystery - even to the experts at BakkerSpalding. So there it is. Earlier I consulted Val-across-the-Road, who had kindly given me the bowl at Christmas 2014 complete with Amaryllis (a different one). Val is as mystified as the lady at BakkerSpalding. There are now four huge blooms. I must take another photograph but it is raining at present so I do not want to venture into the garden for fear I might slip and that would be a disaster.

The tale of the Tall and the Short

At Christmas 2014 kind friends gave me an Amaryllis in a glass bowl, the idea being that you add water and let it grow. It grew last year so this year I decided to have another go. I bought two Amaryllis Minerva bulbs from BakkerSpalding, a gang I have used for purchases online for some 18 years or so (they keep telling me this). One I planted in the very best quality compost; the other in water in the glass bowl. Planting took place on 26^th October 2015. The result is seen in the photographs. 

 

The Amaryllis in the bowl now measures 32inches from the base of the bowl to the tip of the flowers. The one in the compost is, as you will see, much shorter. This amazes me for both have been stood on the window sill in the dining room until recently when I moved them into the cooler porch at the front of the house. Why is the bulb that fed on water twice the height with far, far bigger flowers? I changed the water four times, but not the compost.

So amazing is this that I have printed out the first photograph (in full-colour, of course) and will shortly be writing a letter to BakkerSpalding, who are a friendly bunch and have  replied to my letters in the past. In fact, they tell me that I am a much valued customer (for I buy my Begonias and Arum Lilies from them each spring, drying them over winter) and they want to send me very large cheques of real money (and I do mean large!) but never do so. Perhaps they will now.

The last photograph shows my white wash today, just so that you are aware that standards have not fallen here in the Jeffries abode. The handkerchiefs did not dry fully so are now doing so indoors, preparatory to being ironed this evening after supper (Scottish Scampi, French Fries, Peas – frozen fresh from the fields – and Onions, followed by Fresh Fruit Salad – what else! – with a glass – or maybe two as it is Saturday – of Chardonnay). Non-iron shirts have dried on hangers, but I will also be ironing the tea towels, for they must look their best as they hang on the oven door, and there are two pillow cases in dark purple, too.