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932 FOCUS.qxp_Layout 1 03/12/2019 11:37 Page 2020 FocusMore Trees PleaseOver toyou...those who find it difficult to travel to the outskirts of the town (e.g.the elderly and those with mobility problems who haven’t got theirown transport) some time to work out the practicalities of getting tothe new health facility.On 16th Aug 2019 I wrote to one of the PPG Chairs:“I offered Greenwood Surgery a couple of times (once at a meetingattended by Kerry) to ‘the NHS’ for between 3 and 6 months afterthe move - principally as a backup in case something goes wrong.(They were and are planning to move ALL the practices into the newpremises in a single weekend - which sounds to me like a recipe fordisaster.) As they are putting a new computer system into the newbuilding I thought that, if they left the old one in Greenwood Surgeryfor a time, they would have a backup. The staff could work there ifthere are any unexpected problems. The NHS representativesshowed not the slightest interest.”We see in the press and on T.V. that we must plant millions of trees.There WAS, a beautiful 100 year old Horse chestnut in the groundsof The New Life Church.It was planted when the original Baptist church was opened in 1923.It has now been felled!This tree would breath out more oxygen in one night, than 500 whipwill in their first year,If they all grow successfully.Councillors of towns, all over, must do more to see that mature treesare noted, and savedin their areas, as these trees are benefiting the environment know!Sth. Woodham has very few mature trees, we must protect them.I hope the Town Council buys into the tree planting programme inthe near future.Bill ThomasHealth CentreLast week’s ‘Over to You’ column gave the impression that theopening of the new Health Centre was marred by unexpectedproblems. Maybe so - but the cardinal rule that applies when you’redealing with patients’ lives and health is to expect the unexpected -because something ‘unexpected’ invariably happens. It is thereforesimply a matter of common sense to have adequate contingencyplans in place.The letter from the Patient Participation Group (PPG) Chairs (whohave come out of this affair very well - not least because theycampaigned hard to keep the town centre Health Clinic open andbecause the PPG members were there in numbers at the opening ofthe new facility to help confused patients) makes it clear that theylong ago pointed out the inadequacy of the car parkingarrangements. That said, if the decision makers, the shadowy figureswho have kept their heads well below the parapet throughout, hadstaggered the move it would have lessened the adverse impact onpatients ... and, failing that, if they’d just kept just one town centrefacility open in the short term it would have taken some of thepressure off the car park and made getting over the inevitableteething problems much easier.They had ample opportunity to do so. I can’t speak for the otherpractices but there was certainly one facility on offer. When the newmedical facility was mooted I was (like others) slow to realise that thehidden agenda was to close ALL the town centre healthcare facilities- but as soon as it began to dawn on me I raised the subject of acontingency plan. In a letter to Kerry Harding, Head of Estates datedthe 14th of April 2014 I said:“I have already offered to extend the period during which theexisting Greenwood Surgery building remains open from two monthsto for example 4 months (at no charge to NHS England other than acontribution to the utility bills) as I suspect there will be a publicoutcry when the surgeries in the town centre close – and it will takeFOCUSOn 16th October 2019 I emailed one of the practice managers tosay:“I imagine there will be major problems in the first few days andweeks after the move and it will be helpful if there is an adequatecontingency plan. That said I imagine those in high places who givethe practices their orders would rather "die in a ditch" than admit toproblems ... even if it is to the detriment of all concerned. Even so, Ithink it's wise to have a bolt hole in case of emergencies.”After witnessing the shambolic manner in which the closure of theClements House Surgery was handled we were promised thatlessons would be learnt. It’s taking a long time!Dr JohnBOOK SALEAT SOUTH WOODHAM FERRERS LIBRARYA book sale will be running every Saturday at SouthWoodham Ferrers Library.Come along and pick up a bargain!Come and join us for ourChildren’s ChristmasParty(under 12s)onSunday 15 December ee20194:30pm till 6:30pmatChampions Manor Hall Community CentreHullbridge Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Essex CM3 5LJTickets £7(includes a present from Santa, Food and Drink)Santa will be visiting from the North PoleandAmazing EntertainmentUnder 12s onlyFor tickets, please contact 01245 321817 orkatkins@southwoodhamferrerstc.gov.uk
932 FOCUS.qxp_Layout 1 03/12/2019 11:37 Page 21FOCUS ON HEALTH0South Focus Woodham FocusSouth Woodham Focus 21A LITTLE KNOWN CAUSE OF HOMELESSNESS. As Christmasapproaches, prompted by the Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields ChristmasAppeal, our thoughts turn to the homeless ... especially on nights whenthere's a sharp frost.It's well known that drink and drugs are often contributory factors tohomelessness. The Lancet 'Public Health' journal, however, points outthat one in two people who are homeless may have experienced atraumatic brain injury (TBI) in their lifetime ... and around one in four ofthem may have experienced a traumatic brain injury that is moderateor severeLead author Jacob Stubbs says: “Traumatic brain injury may be animportant factor in the complex health challenges faced by thispopulation. Our work emphasizes that health care professionals andfrontline workers should be aware of the burden of TBI in thispopulation, and how it relates to health and functioning.”The findings also suggested that TBI is consistently associated withpoorer self-reported physical and mental health, suicidality and suiciderisk, memory concerns, increased health service use and higher criminaljustice system involvement.It's a chicken and egg situation - what the research shows is that TBIcan be both a cause and a consequence of homelessness.Whatever the cause we should do something about it during theseason of goodwill. I've often been told not to give money to thehomeless "as they'll only spend it on drink or drugs". (What the helldo they think I'm going to spend it on?!?) Better to give food ... ordonate money to one of the homeless charities such as this excellentlocal one: https://chesshomeless.orgTime may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician. DorothyParkerSTATINS FOR THE YOUNG? The Lancet reports that long-termestimates suggest a link between cholesterol levels and risk of heartdisease and stroke. We usually think of this in terms of risk over tenyears ... but here they were far more ambitious.We're told that this new study is the most comprehensive analysis oflong-term risk for cardiovascular disease related to non-high-densitylipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol ... it including almost 400,000 peoplefrom 19 countries who were followed for up to 43.5 years (median 13.5years follow-up) between 1970 to 2013. (Do I hear you say WOW?)What is non-HDL cholesterol? Well ... the people in the know haverealised that there are more bad things in the blood than 'bad' (LDL)cholesterol - so they lump them all together and call them 'non-HDLcholesterol' (on the basis that, anything that isn't good, is bad.)Because this looks so far ahead, this longer-term evidence may beparticularly important in people aged under 45 years.Are you ready for a few figures? What do you mean 'NO'! Listen up -this is important!!! Depending on cholesterol level and number ofcardiovascular risk factors, men and women aged under 45 years havea 12-43% or 6-24% risk (respectively) of having fatal or non-fatal heartdisease or stroke by the age of 75 years.HOWEVER ... If non-HDL cholesterol levels were halved, women andmen younger than 45 years with starting levels of non-HDL cholesterolbetween 3.7-4.8 mmol/litre and who had two additional cardiovascularrisk factors could reduce their risk from around 16% to 4%, and fromaround 29% to 6%, respectively.This sounds pretty amazing ... but, if you start young, you may have totake statins for a very long time to reap the benefit. Perhaps the twiceyearly injections which are on their way (all being well) might be atempting alternative to those at high risk.As ever, more research is needed before docs start dishing out statinsor similar willy nilly to those in the first flush of middle age. That said,the take home message is that the most comprehensive analysis of itskind suggests that there is a strong link between non-HDL cholesterollevels and long-term risk for cardiovascular disease in people agedunder 45 years ... and not just at older ages.I really don't like living there but I have to for health reasons; I'mvery paranoid, and New York's the only place where my fears arejustified. Anita WiseMORE MOBILE PHONE MISERY: Last week I timidly suggestedrationing mobile phone use because of their role in distractingadolescents from participating in enough exercise to keep themhealthy.Since then we have heard of another problem associated with theiruse. Sean Coughlan reports for the BBC: "Almost a quarter of youngpeople are so dependent on their smartphones that it becomes like anaddiction, suggests research by psychiatrists. The study, from King'sCollege London, says such addictive behaviour means that peoplebecome "panicky" or "upset" if they are denied constant access. Theyoungsters also cannot control the amount of time they spend on thephone.The study warns that such addictions have "serious consequences" formental health. The research, published in BMC Psychiatry, analysed 41studies involving 42,000 young people in an investigation into"problematic smartphone usage". The study found 23% had behaviourthat was consistent with an addiction - such as anxiety over not beingable to use their phone, not being able to moderate the time spentand using mobiles so much that it was detrimental to other activities."I have been saying for years that, when it comes to Smartphones, weare all part of an experiment - we won't know all the long termproblems associated with their use for years to come. One problem isall too apparent - to give one example, you'll remember that Ian Russellaccused Instagram of being implicated in the death of his daughterMolly, aged 14, who killed herself after viewing self harm images onInstagram.Smartphone use is a problem that will need to be addressed sooneror later ... probably later given that, for now, young and old alike areaddicted to our phones.CLIVE JAMES is dead ... in case you missed it. He did well to last untilhe was 80 ... at one time he admitted: "I smoked so much that I neededthe hubcap of a Bedford van as an ashtray.”I once got involved with him when he was putting together a show atThe Arts Theatre in Cambridge in order to raise money to save TheKite (an historic area not a million miles away from the theatre.) He gottogether the great and the good - people like Michael Palin, JulieCovington and Rob Buckman - remember him? He was a very brightdoc, a consultant oncologist, who was also a first rate comedian. I waspart of a revue group at the time - and quite how we got involved wasalways a mystery to me and remains so to this day. At our best wemight have got away with it - just - but, as it happens, when it came tothe big day we were shambolic. As we slowly died onstage, I realisedthat I should settle down and do something sensible (like being a GP).He was charming about it - but we were mightily relived that he wasn'tthere in his role as a critic!He was an exceptionally talented man - but for all his achievements itis his TV crits for the Observer that stick in the mind. At the dawn ofthe era in which new technology speeded up the game dramatically hewrote of a men's singles match at Wimbledon that the players soundedlike "woodcutters in a petrified forest". So loud were their gasps thatbefore long they forgot about the ball and attempted to hit the gruntsinstead. He once described William Shatner’s acting in Star Trek as: “athespian technique picked up from someone who once worked withsomebody who knew Lee Strasberg’s sister.”The world is a better place for having had him in it!Dr JohnFOCUS
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