Up The Farway Tree

Where did the sun go?

I was just starting to enjoy all the nice sunshine when it disappeared again!  Saturday was a lovely day and we were at my friends fundraising BBQ.  Lee and Ali are taking part in the Caledonian challenge this year which involves walking 54 miles in 24 hours with hills amounting to having climbed Ben Nevis twice.  I am tired even thinking about it.   The group is called Gin'll Fix It  - although I am not sure gin will be enough after that kind of challenge.  The money raised is for the Scottish Community Foundation which funds community groups and initiatives throughout Scotland - a lesser known but very important charity.   The BBQ was a big success and the sunny weather certainly added to the day :-)

I have been steadily working away on the CF booklet and have finished three chapters now and Emily is also working on a couple at the moment.  There is still a lot to cover although I have tackled some of the larger topics first and I certainly am much quicker than last time as I more used to the publishing programme and have learnt from the many mistakes I made!  I have spent a lot of time researching topics but my CF team have also been very helpful in proof reading and contributing to the booklet - making sure I am not away on some tangent ;-)

Work has been busy and I really do need to look at my ever expanding case load and see if I can discharge anyone.  I see two new people a week and often some crisis patients - but I don't discharge 2 people per week so it keeps growing and growing!!  It can be difficult because most of my patients have chronic illness but it can be argued that they don't all need followed up and instead could be referred if further problems develop.  It's difficult to strike the balance.  I have also been doing an audit at work on rates of non-attendance for first appointments which are somewhere between 30-50% each month!  That is a lot of wasted hours on our behalf and only serves to lengthen the waiting list due to rebooking people who miss appointments.   There are many reasons people don't attend but most commonly it is non engagement with the idea of coming to clinic - eg. the GP has suggested it but the patient really wasn't that keen.   An opt in system where the patient is invited to phone and book an appointment can help with this problem and is something I think we could consider.  We have audit presentations next month so I will see what the other resource centres are doing and what experiences they have with this system.  Maybe I should just start running the whole show ;-)

The next two weeks are really busy because I have a conference this thurs/frid and then training the following thurs/frid so my days off have disappeared.  I am off today however and although I needed to visit the hospital for some routine bloods this morning, I am now heading off to meet my friend for lunch - it's a tough life indeed :-)  I will leave you with some pics when I have been out with Seb recently...

There is quite a drop down to the river from this bridge - Seb likes to jump onto the bridge and peer over...

Action shot:  Seb running back after having a wee drink in the river!

Lovely woodland - only 5 minutes from my house..

Seb being asked to sit and wait while a cyclist passes - he is rather intense!

At the country park at 9.30 am on a Saturday ..... I think I might be solar powered :-)