11 November (Part 2) - You live in Bexley? Oh, that’s not good
At
the beginning of this year a good friend of mine began to suffer back ache,
which gradually led to reduced mobility and sufficient pain to keep him awake
all night. His doctor wasn’t a lot of good, at first just prescribing pain
killers and eventually after a lot of pressure sent him to physiotherapists and
chiropractors and the like.
When that didn’t do any good the doctor needed his
arm twisted by a third party before he was sent for an MRI scan in September. It
didn’t show a lot but a follow up CT scan and blood tests at Queen Elizabeth
Hospital in Woolwich showed a rare form of bone cancer. By then he had had to install a very
elaborate orthopaedic bed and use a stair lift at home. Now he is in the process of
changing his car because it is too low on the ground to easily get into.
“You’ll need a Blue Badge” said the hospital nurse, “I'll fill in the forms,
where do you live? Oh, Bexley, that’s not good. If it was Greenwich it would be
simple, but Bexley? I’ll speak to your consultant”.
So the consultant wrote a special plea to Bexley, stamped it with the QEH official rubber stamp, and when
my friend got back to his doctor he wrote out all the necessary forms too. So my
friend gets his Blue Badge quickly? Not a bit of it, his doctor’s letter counts
for nothing, his consultant needn’t have bothered, Bexley is not impressed. He must
be assessed by Inspire to make sure his doctor and consultant are not making it all up;
and he will have to join a month long queue. Then they may condescend to issue a Badge
some while later.
Meanwhile he is stuck at home alone, reliant on friends to bring in his food.
Listening To You. Working For You. Not.
Guess who is on the
Inspire Community Trust Board? None other than councillor Melvin Seymour, the drippy brush man?