Crook Infection Control

Much is currently being said about the risk of contracting an infection, sometimes deadly, in our hospitals. The latest statistic says some 200,00 people in 12 months caught an infection while being treated in the health system. What is alarming about this figure is that medical experts agree the toll could be easily halved if staff just washed their hands more often. This is tantamount to basic potty training hygiene drummed into young children. When it comes to health professionals , surely they are more alert, vigilant and meticulous in handling vulnerable patients. If not, why not? My casual observations and experiences in hospitals has resulted in a feeling of disquiet about cleanliness and vermin control . Recently I visited a family member in a private hospital attached to a public hospital , the latter with a bad reputation for infections. The inside of the window in the room had numerous greasy looking smears , the sun revealing spore- like patches which did not look like penicillin factories. The nearby small waiting room alcove had an offensive odour , dust was visible and there was a pile of tattered magazines which seemingly dated from Gutenberg press days , no doubt thumped by by countless people and a grand repository of potential infection.

In the same private hospital was a specialist's office where my wife went. As I waited for her , I glanced about the room and, having once done large office cleaning , glanced into corners and along ledges. During several visits , the same tell -tale scraps of paper and fluff were visible banked up in corners.

When my mother was rushed into a Brisbane public hospital , the family , from various states, kept vigil , often spending long hours in the wating room , the lights turned low at night, enabling people to snooze. But once the lights were dimmed, out came fleet - footed cockroaches from beneath the water cooler. A woman yelped on seeing a midnight marauder and her partner jumped to his feet and chased it about the room trying to stomp on it before it made the safety of the cooler. He failed . One night, my head against the wall, my eyes heavy, something fell on my hair and I was bitten on the scalp. This critter , not a cockie, moved faster than Phar lap when I brushed it from my hair and disappeared under the cooler.

When going to another Queensland hospital to have my plumbing looked at, along with a brigade of other leaky old sods, my name was called and I was ushered into a small room. Eventually, the urologist hurried in , covered from head to foot as if prepared for an operation. A few basic questions , the mobile phone rang , the specialist apologised and dashed off to the theatre. On returning , our truncated conversation resumed but was again curtailed by another call back to the theatre. All that tooing and froing must have raised the possibility of transporting infections . I was advised to make another appointment.

An old mate of mine who is in and out of hospitals has developed a monstrous infection in the shape of a large boil which refuses to respond. He dreads each visit to hospital because of the questionable hygiene standards he has witnessed.

I may sound liket that whacky Dr House , but I have this wild theory that the work stations where doctors and nurses spend an inordinate amount of time, filling our endless paperwork, gazing at monitors, pounding on keyboards and sucking nervously at pens is a happy hunting ground for infections. Running swabs through these flight decks , I believe, would reveal the source of much collatoral damage . Then there are carpets , an undoubted source of infections and mutations

Cyclops

Arresting Cardiac Arrest

It is highly desirable that the medical profession , perhaps with a nudge from the Federal Government , develops a more responsive policy in handling cardiac patients. Some time ago the heart attack victim , Richard Carleton, a 60 Minutes reporter who underwent a bypass , did a show about his Sydney hospital which believed in a more rapid response to cardiac cases . This approach has obviously not spread throughout the public hospitals. In recent times there was a disconcerting report that the Townsville Public Hospital, which serves a large part of north Queensland , had closed its cardiac department because of what was described as the "toxic atmosphere " between members of that unit. A vision of fear and loathing among staff in an operating theatre is scary . In my case, involving a bypass in a public hospital after a helicopter evacuation, I was sent home for two months , eventually given an angiogram , sent home , called back for another angiogram , told to stay in bed for two weeks and variously told I was going to have a triple by-pass and a quadruple bypass. When I was wheeled into a dark room with blinding bright light , an alien in a mask appeared out of the gloom , grabbed my leg and demanded, "Who shaved your body ?" Eh? What a strange question. Before I sank into oblivion, I got out the fact that I had been the tonsorial artist. Then , probably sounding like Minnie Mouse or a drunken chipmunk, I tried to explain that a new wardsman,who looked like Merv Hughes, too shy to do the job, had thrust a recycled razor into my hand and told me to follow the instructions on a cardboard figure dangling from a doorknob in the linen room. As my eyesight is not the best and the razor clogged frequently , it seems I did not emerge as Mr Smooth. Nobody checked to see that I had been properly depiled. As luck would have it ,I did not make it to the Pearly gates , even though I saw the shimmering white lights at the end of the flight tunnel. Therefore , it would seem that sinners with legs like a hairy Yeti are no allowed on Cloud Nine. Finally coming to, I became aware that there was a shortage of wheelchairs to take patients into the ward. I finally scored one with a flat tyre which gyrated like a battered Woolworth's supermarket trolley , and had a bumpy ride to Hell with a drip on a stand which tugging at my leg. I say Hell advisedly because three TV sets played nonstop,two with screaming advertisements. The third , perched above the bed of a comatose patient next to me, was on some channel specialising in Disney like shows, another of my pet hates. The operation cut on my leg ran from my ankle almost to the groin . It must have been the hairy leg and bushy groin that made the surgeons lose their way in the undergrowth. Tuther day, I contacted a cardiac clinic in another hospital in another part of Australia , for a follow up heart check due to rising blood pressure and a pain or two . The receptionist put me on hold ; canned music played over the phone: the thumping beat of the James Bond tune, Live and Let Die. Not quite the right tune for old blokes with dicky tickers. I have been waiting for six weeks for notice of an appointment. My private GP shook his head and muttered,"Public hospitals!"

CYCLOPS

Watts the Problem?

The Land of Oz has just had the Riot Act read by a most capable professor, Boss CarNo.

With the rest of the world, we are entangled in a climate change mess. This mess is the result of natural processes that have affected global climatic fluctuations over very broad periods of time, and of the interaction of human society with the global environment over a relatively narrow period of time. Deleterious effects of the human contribution to this mess mostly flow from the highly excessive production of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds. High quantities of these compounds interfere with the protective layer of ozone that surrounds our planet at high altitude. When intact, that layer protects us from bombardment by dangerous levels of ultra-violet radiation which can have profound direct effects on our individual health and well-being and on the temperature of the surface regions of the planet in which humans dwell and feed.

With the exception of plants, which can produce food by the process of photosynthesis, whereby carbon dioxide, in the presence of chlorophyll and sunshine, is converted to sugar and oxygen, all species undergo only respiration, whereby they burn substances in the presence of oxygen to produce heat and carbon dioxide. Even plants undergo respiration during the dark hours of the day, but overall, they can produce more oxygen during the day than they produce carbon dioxide during the night. The plants are undoubtedly our friends. We must protect them and nurture them.

More important to the enrichment of our air with oxygen, are the oceans of the world. They, too, are our friends, and must be protected and nurtured.

The fact that the animals of the world, including us humans, are giving off carbon dioxide just by being animals, is significant enough, but we humans compound this situation by an enormous factor by virtue of our industrialization. This phenomenon has grown to problem proportions mainly over the last two centuries. Industrialization allows us to produce an enormous quantity and variety of consumer goods. Hereby lies most of our problem. Industrialization uses enormous amounts of energy. No matter how that energy is derived, it has mostly involved the production of heat by the burning of carbon compound substances (that is, organic substances) such as coal, oil and trees. Thus, industrialization has required energy production or energy transformation, and has yielded carbon dioxide along with its consumer products. However, the problem does not end there. Most of the humans on this planet utilize these products, and such utilization, in turn, requires energy input and consequently an indirect consumption of energy that has given off carbon dioxide in its production. We thus produce carbon dioxide in manufacturing goods, and we produce carbon dioxide in using them.

Technologies are already available to produce energy by harnessing renewable sources such as wind power, solar power and tidal power, none of which produce carbon dioxide as a by-product. Unfortunately, we have been collectively loathe to embrace these technologies. Despite the fact that these technologies will take time and vast expense to replace the current prevailing technologies, we must grasp the nettle and do so with the utmost urgency. Professor Boss NoCar has stressed this urgency in his report, and we must listen to him and obey.

The Good Professor has focused on the question of the introduction of an Australian carbon trading scheme. Basically, such a scheme involves the selling of carbon licences to businesses to limit the amount of carbon dioxide that their pursuits can be responsible for producing, and to “tax” such licences on a quantum basis. Companies will be able to buy and sell these licences in a type of carbon trading exchange similar to a stock exchange. The “taxes” so derived would be directed to the development and introduction of non-carbon-producing technologies. He correctly points out that all levels of our society from governments to manufacturing industries to servicing industries to individual people, must be involved in this fundamental revision of our activity.

People are already complaining that we “battlers” will have these “taxes” passed on to us by industries and companies, and that we will thus be the bearers of the “burden” of this radical move. The ultimate consumer has always been the bearer of whatever costs are involved in the production of those goods and services that we choose to consume. Irrespective of the political economy involved, be it capitalism or socialism, the consumer has always borne the cost in one way or another.

However, there is a way out for us “battlers” or anyone else, for that matter. The answer is simple: CURTAIL CONSUMING !

Let us examine very carefully which electrical appliances we think that we need to purchase and run. Let us examine very carefully our modes of transport. Are our feet and bicycles cheaper to run (with a smaller carbon footprint) than sedans and four-wheel drives? Can we substitute healthier fruits and vegetables for meats, chickens and fish that we need to cook? Are the cigarettes, wines and beers really necessary? Can we follow the example of our grandparents and plant our back yards out with fruit trees and vegetables? Even if we live in apartments, can we plant some vegetables in window boxes or verandah boxes? Do we really need to go to Venezuela next year? Can we wear this year’s clothes and shoes until they wear out? The list of tactics goes on and on.

Let us show our Aussie nation and the rest of the world, that we Aussie Battlers, to no small degree, can control our own planetary destiny.

Battler