Scandle at NHS hospitals

Summary: (words 124)

A true scandal is happening at the NHS hospitals in Great Britain. There now is a list with 12 NHS hospitals on it that are judged to be significantly underperforming. Health care organisations are doing research on this now. It is a question of life or death. 5.000 patients died in their care more than they expected in the last year. The chair of the NHS has been fired. But the problems are not solved yet. Horrible mistakes happen like operating the wrong body part of a patient, things that have been left inside a patients body after surgery are rated on 209 cases, and 5024 people died after the NHS hospitals told them they were in low risk conditions and could go home.

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/29/nhs-hospitals-safety-report

Reaction: (words 121)

This does not sound to me like we are in Europe at all! I do not know if it is maybe a little exaggerated by the media. Of course it can always happen that a patient dies even when the doctors have told him that he was without life threatening health issues. The situation can change, sometimes a doctor can not directly see what the problem is that a patient has. It won’t be the first time to hear that a patient always has to ask for a second opinion if he truly thinks there is something wrong. But statistics of patients that died un-expected to make me worried! I would not go to a NHS hospital after reading this article!

Peckham Fire

150 people homeless after huge fire in Peckham south-east London.

Summary: (words: 119)

26 November 4:30am, a big fire started at Peckham, south-east London. The area of the fire was half as big as a football pitch. 150 fire fighters came to fight the fire. 150 people have been forced to leave their homes and became homeless. Fortunately nobody died, everybody could be evacuated in time, one person went to the hospital with breathing problems but the condition is not life-threatening. Several ambulances where at the location just in case that they would be necessary but luckily that was not the case. All people that live around the fire area had to be evacuated as well. Several roads in the area are closed and the evacuees are brought to an emergency accommodation.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6658809/Peckham-fire-150-people-abandon-homes-as-building-site-blaze-spreads.html

Reaction: (words: 109 )

Horrible! Losing all belongings during a fire is one of my worst nightmares! After reading this article I have seen this on the news as well. Only the foundation is left of a huge building where 100 people lived in. It’s impossible to renovate this so what I hope now is that the government decides to re-build a new flat at the same spot where the same families, that are homeless now, can life in when it is ready. I’m scared that will not happen ,when they rebuild a more expensive flat, that the people that lost their homes now can not afford. Let’s hope the best for them!

Royal Mail

Pre-Christmas Strike?

Summary: (words 107)

There might be another strike at the Royal Post which could cause a problem with the Christmas deliveries. The CWU tells employees to prepare for an other strike. CWU did negotiate with Royal Mail but the Royal Mail did not offer to do enough concessions. Last October many employees at the post walked out so there is already a problem with more than 60 million letters and parcels that came to late to their addresses. The strikes started because of a problem between the Royal Mail management and her postal workers. The Royal Mail had spoken about modernisation in delivery methods and cutting jobs to realise that.

Source:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6936023.ece

Reaction: (words 107)

A strike is a reaction of the employees, when they don’t agree with the company. Mostly it is because the salary. This time the strike is because of modernisation in delivery methods. I think it’s sad that because of the modernisation the Royal Mail will be cutting jobs, but I think a strike does not help to avoid that. A strike mostly causes problems for citizens; think about strikes in public transport, and strikes of teachers. Also in this case the citizens have to deal again with the problems that it brings with the delivery of the post if the employees of Royal Mail decide to strike.

Robbie Williams

"Is he, or is he not getting married?"




Summary: (words 122)

Robbie Williams and his girlfriend Ayda were in Australia last weekend. They appeared on the Australian radio station 2Day FM breakfast show, where Robbie had made his proposal to Ayda. Ayda accepted this by saying: “I would love to be your betrothed 'til the end of time." Robbie Williams’s mother said on BBC 5 that she is happy for the two of them and that it was about time after a 3-year relationship. She also said that she thought the wedding would take place not to far in the future. Robbie and his spokesman are now saying it was a joke. Robbie thought he was going to be a bachelor until he met Ayda Field but the proposal was not for real.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8384089.stm

Reaction: (words 100)
I do not understand so many news programs and papers are reporting this. Would really so many people care about his true or false proposal? Fact is that they are in a relation ship. I saw on the BBC news this week that Robbie is moving to America because of his Ayda. I can understand that has some impact on Great Britain, because he’s one of the most known pop stars from England. I can understand as well that his fans like to know if he’ll get married but let’s wait till we see the wedding pictures!

Scotland Yard officers offered 'fat club' membership to lose weight

Obese Scotland Yard officers are being offered "fat club" memberships and advised to go on a 12-month regime to help them get back in shape.

Summary: (words 151)

It is estimated that five per cent of all police officers are overweight. Scotland Yard chiefs have responded to jokes about the “fat blue line” and “blobbies on the beat” hindering the fight against crime with a new fitness drive. Up to 16,000 staff are being given the chance to take a health check-up to evaluate their body fat, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, as part of a new initiative. Officers undergoing the medical check-up will be given a personalised report with recommendations on how they can improve their fitness. Canteens will get salad bars and gyms will be revamped to provide fitness centres. The prospect of an overweight force has serious implications for crime rates across the country. It is initiatives like these that have helped officer average sick days reduce from over 10 per officer 10 years ago to 6.8 currently. This represents a saving of several million pounds.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6551471/Scotland-Yard-officers-offered-fat-club-membership-to-lose-weight.html

Reaction: (words 110)

First I thought how funny to read an article like this. Can we take it seriously? It looks like a story of Laurel and Hardy. Than I thought it is a quit serious subject. How can it be possible to have overweight police men that are not in shape to get in action when it is necessary for example to catch running away criminals. How can we feel safe on the streets when we have police men that are not able to run hard enough for our safety? I think it is a good initiative to have this health plan with personal fitness programs and healthy food in the canteens.

Teenage pregnancy rates rise in UK

Summary: (words 199)

The UK government promises 20m pounds to cut the teenage pregnancy problem in the UK. The number of teenage pregnancies has risen the first time in five years. The government should do something about the conception rates. The ministers are confident that the government will drive down those pregnancies. This problem of teenage pregnancy does show up in the group of teenagers between 12 and 17. An increase number of girls under sixteen get pregnant. The government want teenagers to have better access to contraception and information about the risks of unprotected sex. It said evidence showed that where its teenage pregnancy strategy had been implemented rigorously, significant reductions in teenage pregnancy were achieved. The children’s minister has cautious optimism about the drive to reduce teenage conceptions. Julliet Hiller finds the news disappointing not surprising because she finds sex and relation education has always been educated to little. The Young Woman’s Cherity said: “There has been an increase in the number of teenage conceptions in the last year but we feel that this is just a blip in the overall downward trend. We don't feel that there should be any concern that teen pregnancies are on the increase again”.

Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/26/teenage-pregnancy-rise

My Opinion about this topic: (words 152)

I find it a huge problem as well that the number of teenage mothers is rising. When I’m speaking of a “teenage pregnancy problem” is when the teenagers are getting pregnant unintentionally. I think there are ceveral reasons for the rising number of this issue like:

1. The age of sexual experiencing teenagers is going down.

2. The media is creating a wrong image of sex for example by music video’s with skimpy dressed female figures.

3. The open minded parents about ‘love life’ of their teenage children

4. The sexual education has never been taken seriously in high school. the children just don’t want to hear their biology teacher speaking about sexual behaviour. So in general they make a laugh of it instead of listening carefully.

Most of them (about 70% actually) become parent. which causes in most cases a problems with education of both parent and child, money and housing.

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